2008
I love to reminisce. When I get together with friends or family we tell the same stories again and again. Like the time we stared death in the face in Interlaken, Switzerland. We had decided to ride little mopeds (remember those?) on the narrow roads in the surrounding mountains. Huge trucks came within inches of […]
2008
“How do you propose we share positive psychology with strangers?”, a participant at one of my recent seminars asked. The question took me by surprise but in a flash, I answered intuitively “Be nice”. That succinctly covered all the ways I could think of in 2 seconds. Two weeks have passed and I think of the myriad of […]
2008
After I turned down the corner on the fifth page that I wanted to share with my positive psychology peers, I decided that a review of Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande made sense for Positive Psychology News Daily.
Dr. Gawande is a surgeon and a columnist for the New Yorker. In Better, […]
Topics: All, Book Review, Health, _3 Positive Organizations
11
2008
Last summer, the journal Insulin published What people with diabetes want their caregivers to know: Development of the TCOYD patient concensus statement” based on the results of a workshop I ran at the 2004 Raleigh Taking Control of Your Diabetes conference. I’m going to look at three items from the patient consensus statement and show […]
2008
I have always been drawn to the quote by Friedrich Nietzsche that “Freedom is to struggle with no hope for reward.” There a great deal of courage in that line. There is comfort in the notion that something can us keep us going, even when the circumstances seem insurmountable. As I have maneuvered the various […]
2008
“Raindrops on roses and
Whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and
Warm woolen mittens”
Julie Andrews sang about them. Oprah has them. And so I now want to do a fun column about “My Favorite Things,” too, to pay homage to some of the things that bring happiness and contentment to my life in the hopes […]
Topics: All, Awe, Coaching, Communication, Goals, Gratitude, Habits, Health, Love, Money, Optimism and Positive Thinking, Pathway 1 "Pleasure", Pathway 2 "Engagement / Flow", Pathway 3 "Meaning", Positive Emotions (Positive Affect), Resilience, Savoring / In-the-Moment, Sports, Strengths, Three Branches, Three Pathways, _1 Positive Experiences, _2 Positive Traits, _3 Positive Organizations
6
2008
My husband and I took my godmother’s new dog, a 10 month old schipperke, for a long walk across Duke East Campus, as far as the statue of Sower. What pleasure this wiggling, active, curious, explorative little creature is giving my godmother! It made me wonder what positive psychology can tell us about […]
2008
IN THE NEWS TODAY
1/3/08 - REUTERS - Happiness may be good for your health
“In a study of nearly 3,000 healthy British adults, … [researchers] found that those who reported upbeat moods had lower levels of cortisol — a “stress” hormone that, when chronically elevated, may contribute to high blood pressure, abdominal obesity and […]
2007
We’ve all heard the sayings: “A penny saved is a penny earned.” “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
But how accurate and helpful are these sayings, anyway? I started to wonder about this […]
2007
My mother has days when she sleeps more and more, moving in and out of a twilight state of consciousness, as she approaches the end of her physical life. She experiences, thankfully, not a great deal of pain, but intense discomfort and sometimes fear as her late-stage lung cancer progresses. Over the past […]