I am amongst other things the Secretary of the Howard League in Scotland. John Howard was the 18th century founder of the penal reform movement: between 1775 and 1790 he toured Europe seeking humane forms of penal provision and promoting these in Britain. In 1921, under the guidance of Margery Fry, the Howard Association […]

“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
A birthday is a special day for many of us. We all make wishes on our birthdays. Yet it seems that this is more of a ritual as most […]

“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 […]

Rabbits are ancient symbols of fertility and so symbolize the return of spring. In thinking of them, of Easter, and of Sherri Fisher’s excellent article, Positive Psychology is more than happiness, I spoke with a friend who had just returned from working near the equator. “What did you miss most?” I asked. Quickly came the […]

I believe that the yearning to travel to find oneself, to find meaning in life, to find happiness, is a ripe field of exploration in positive psychology. I first became interested in the idea that we can learn from places after reading “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Burnt out and desperate to change her […]

As I meet with individuals and couples, either in my role as a church leader or in my role as the Human Resources officer for my employer, I often find people who have lost hope.  They have lost hope in their careers, they have lost hope in their relationships, and they have lost hope in […]

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 […]

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 […]

It’s September 11, 2007, and for many it can feel just like that tragic day in 2001. Many of us will reflect through different lenses and filters the events that happened six years ago in New York City, Washington, DC and in Pennsylvania. Just ask a person where they were at the moment they heard or saw the news, and they will, most likely, evoke some level of emotion. The first images on the television screen were so graphic I was in a state of denial: “This is just another advertisement for a Tom Cruise or Kurt Russell “Save the World” from destruction movie.” Going through the stages of loss was quite a challenge for many of us. Fortunately, loss can eventually lead to a type of rebirth or reconnection with self and others – a type of shared identity. […]

Our lives are full of stress: we have 24 hours each day and more activities than we feel we have time for. In this age of multi-tasking and instantaneous communication through cell phones, e-mail, and BlackBerrys that do both and more, the demands on our time are relentless. These demands have increased our […]