Blog

The Power of "And": Two Tricks for Clearer Thinking and Better Conversations. If you can accept that two opposing ideas can both be true, then you can put "and" to work for you. Used well, this tiny word does two things: it protects your mental well-being without...

Why Is Happiness So Hard to Define? Over the years I’ve spent working in happiness research, one challenge keeps surfacing: **happiness is often reduced to a fleeting feeling**—the kind you get when you find a $20 bill on the sidewalk. While that rush is real, it’s...

Most of us wait until something great happens to feel grateful. A promotion, a holiday, a big win. But lasting well-being doesn't come from waiting for the big moments; it comes from training your brain to notice the small ones that usually slip through the cracks. A...

How to find Happiness at Work. Stephen Quinlan Over 15 years ago, I once asked someone I supervised how his work was going? and he said “it’s alright” and I replied “is that as good as it gets?” to which he replied “work is work, if it was expected to be good they...

The Pursuit of Guilt-free Happiness By Simi Aujla Happiness at the simple cost of guilt. Is it a price you’re willing to pay? At first thought it might seem like an overexaggeration, but for many first generation children of immigrant households, this is an...

I was playing an online game, fighting a powerful boss alongside a stranger I’d never met. For people unfamiliar with video games, a “boss” is a difficult enemy you face more than once to defeat. When you finally succeed, there’s a chance—often very small—of receiving...

Over the years that I have been working on happiness, I have found that one of the main challenges I run into is the idea of happiness means feeling “good”. The kind of feeling you get when you find a $20 bill. However this goal is an unhelpful one, as it is normally...

From Routine to Ritual It is easy to imagine. The alarm is blaring, your body is heavy, it is Monday morning, and all you want to do is stay under the covers and sleep until Friday afternoon. You manage to stumble out of bed, into the bathroom, then into the kitchen...

This is part three of the three stages “To forgive or not to forgive”. Please read Steps 1 and 2 before step 3. Step 1 Before we can forgive; finding safety and security. Step 2 The art of forgiving yourself; Healing and self care. Step 3 To forgive or not - the third...

Long ago, the great poet Rumi noticed our tendency to fill up spaces. He remarked, as translated by Coleman Barks, "A builder looks for the rotten hole where the roof caved in. A water carrier picks the empty pot. A carpenter stops at the house with no door. Workers...