Stop making excuses and go for it!
“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof,” says author Barbara Kingsolver. Have you ever stopped to wonder what you want…
The cost of isolation and fear caused by our response to the pandemic might be much higher and even more deadly than the illness
I feel old. For the second time in a month, I’ve pulled a muscle in my back. It’s left me sore, stiff and walking like an old man. Yet I’m truly blessed that my life has been filled with good health – with the exception of injuries and concussions derived from my life of activity,…
Sometimes we get stuck in our stories – our dramas – and our friends grow weary of how often we tell them
When we experience life, we talk about it. We share the stories that are amazing, funny and absurd. We talk about moments when we felt unfairly treated or when we obsessed over something quirky. It’s natural – this is how humans have learned to communicate, to share with others and tell the tale of who…
Being able to see the big picture and develop the resources to make dreams reality leads to important mental growth
As far back as 1937, Napoleon Hill was writing about the human mind. In his book Think and Grow Rich, he set out the idea that success truly starts internally. According to Hill, we can think ourselves rich by having the right mindset, and following certain guidelines on how we think about success, money and…
Landmark 35-year research project yields surprising findings about happiness, relationships, generational differences and more
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the differences between generations and the sociological forces defining their worldviews and behaviour. Stereotypes abound: the silent generation is inflexibly conventional, the baby boomers are narcissistic, generation X members are lazy. And millennials just take too long to grow up. But few of these assumptions…
Grateful people sleep better, exercise more frequently, are happier and more altruistic
Showing gratitude is good for us, and yet gratitude does not come naturally or easily to most of us. Our brains are “like Velcro for bad experiences, but Teflon for positive ones,” wrote neuropsychologist Rick Hanson and neurologist Richard Mendius. This tendency towards the negative makes it difficult for us to be grateful. Research has…
Imagining that someone else has all the luck and opportunity slowly eats away at our mental strength and resourcefulness
My daughter has a Facebook friend whose life seems perfect. She lives in a gorgeous house, has a really rewarding career, and she and her family go on all kinds of exciting adventures. No matter where they are or what activity they’re involved in, the whole family appears carefree and joyful! This friend is constantly…
Rather than asking if you are a happy, ask whether you are good
It was 2,400 years ago that Aristotle identified happiness as the goal all people seek – the end of all “why” questions. But is happiness really the point of human life? I ask this question because when we look at history (or even the news today), it is apparent that there are a lot of…
It's time to stop nurturing helplessness in our society and start encouraging respect, collaboration and personal accountability
You can hardly watch the news without seeing some report of radical, violent behaviour. Protests and uprisings are surging, fuelled by anger, ignorance, resentment and clashes of emotional need. How did we get here? Researchers say we are wired to thrive in small villages of about 150 people. The Hutterites know this and still practise…
Readers are starved of simple stories that make human happiness seem once again possible for regular folks
Last week I wrote about how happy making art makes me. It got 83 ‘likes’ in 24 hours. So what does that mean? Interesting to me is the total focus of the piece on happiness. Over the past several hours, I’ve been thinking about whether opinion pieces have simply become too negative, too querulous, too…