It is finally spring and you are charged up. This is the year you are going to lose the twenty pounds that have been slowly - creeping up. Good for you for making the commitment. So why does it often feel like failure before we can even get out of the gate? I imagine you know this game well. It's called self-sabotage and you very well have been on this hamster wheel for a long time. Let's look at...
Our two daughters (Fiona 13 & Sophia 14) appear to be a parenting experiment - gone right (so far). Here are a few observations and reflections in my article 15 Things to Teach Your Children Before They Are 15... We’ve all seen the results of the “easy-going” style of parenting and it seems to produce its share of dependent, unhappy, low-performance, disrespectful children. We’ve seen children of the...
If there's one thing that we all seek - it's happiness. I've never met a person who has told me they didn't want to be happy, have you? When I do individual therapy, I have the opportunity to sit down with people as they present their concerns to me - whatever they may be. They usually seek therapy because they're experiencing some level of emotional distress - and are fundamentally unhappy. I've noticed...
Lately I've been thinking and talking to others a lot about my new concept - happiness by elimination. You see I frequently receive positive feedback about the ideas I promote via The Happiness Institute but if there's one "negative" comment I/we get its that people think they don't have time to implement the principles of positive psychology we recommend. Its not that people don't think they'll work...
My daughter went to a party on the weekend that primarily involved ice skating. Now a few of the girls were, apparently, quite competent but most, including my daughter, had tried skating a few times and knew what they were doing but were by no means expert! Anyway, when talking to my daughter afterwards she explained that one of the first things they did was have a quick lesson in which among other...
Two separate incidents lead to the thoughts behind this happiness blog posting. One, involved a woman who lives nearby my house who gets around with the help of a guide-dog. The other, was yet another thought provoking tip from Lou Tice at the Pacific Institute. Anyway, all that's really relevant here in this happiness context is the following question...to whom do you look for guidance when it comes...
Hello there happy campers and here's hoping you're having a great week so far. As I've done on a few occasions before I bring to you this morning a stightly modified version of one of the weekly tips I regularly send out to those on the mailing list at makingchanges.com.au. I hope you enjoy it... This tip will be, as they say, short and sweet...and it derives from a very recent and very personal experience....
I'm often asked this simple but profound question or struck by the believe held by many that the answer to this question should be yes. In reality, the answer to this question is yes, if you're extremly lucky but no, if you're like most people. That is, for some people happiness does come naturally and easily in the same way that for some people, other skills or abilities (such as athletics and sports,...
Once again I bring you something based on a personal experience and as has happened so many times before, some lessons learned while playing with my children. Not that long ago I took my kids to a local playground that had recently been re-built. Not surprisingly, the "new" playground looked very nice and colourful and as a result, was quite attractive on the eye. My children happily sauntered in to...
In response to one of my recent postings, "ewilson" asked whether it was in our nature to be more giving or selfish. Well I think it's both! We are inherently social animals but we're also built for survival. The reality is, we need to both look after ourselves and be cognisant of the group. If we don't take care of ourselves we can't ever really be healthy and happy. But if we're selfishly individual...