Dancing my way to happiness It was nearly nine years ago when I first walked into a modern Jive class. “ I want to learn to dance,” I said, “You’ve come just to the right place” came the reply. Little did I know then just how much dancing would change my life and the...
Positive education interventions are very slowly making their way into some mainstream schools and colleges. However, there are very few that offer a whole-school approach. Notable ones are Wellington College, an independent school in England and Geelong Grammar in...
‘The only people who get upset about you setting boundaries are the ones who were benefitting from you having none’ I have seen the above quote a few times on Facebook. I usually write in line with empirical research regarding Positive Psychology, but...
In the pursuit of creating a healthy lifestyle for oneself, movement is a key component with benefits that go far beyond weight-loss. However, for the individual who is unsatisfied with their weight, weight-loss is an exciting outcome of consistently exercising!...
Ancient wisdom has suggested that books can be therapeutic from Plato’s time through the enlightenment to modern day Bibliotherapy courses. Literary fiction has been a source of fascination for me since the eighties when my teacher announced that the study of...
If it is true that positive emotions and positive thinking are beneficial to happiness, making them universal and indispensable requirements for flourishing is reducing the importance of human emotions repertoire. Too much focus on positive thinking and optimism, for...
While I do not profess to be an expert on Navy submarines, in my military travels I do recall several Navy friends talking about the silent running of the submarines. This is a term used when a submarine goes into a silent mode of operations. In the mode of silent...
The more I read about the importance of early childhood experiences, the more I wish I’d done things differently with my kids. And I’m not the only one – most of us with older children seem to carry a twinge of regret. A need to be in-tune with children Sometimes I...
While reading Adrianna Huffington’s book Thrive, she described a very simple, yet effective task that resonated with me. She wrote about the way we interpret the things that we have to do and suggested that instead of thinking about them as tasks that we have to...
Oh, I am so jealous Recently, at the start of one of my classes, I found myself wrapped up in a savoring sense of jealously. As the student expressed their intention of travel to Japan, I found myself jealous that it was not me making the trip. I had lived in Japan...