“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery–air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.'” -Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Author Archives: Something to Smile About
Window of Opportunity
“If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.”
-Tom Peters
Martin Seligman and Positive Psychology
Track Your Happiness
Have you heard about Track Your Happiness.org? This website is part of a new scientific research project that investigates “what makes life worth living”. Using the site people are able to track their happiness by identifying factors that, for them, are associated with greater happiness.
How it works:
1.Answer a few questions .
First they’ll ask you some questions for statistical purposes. This will take about 10 minutes.
2.Track your happiness
Using your iPhone, you’ll be notified by email or text message and asked to report how you are feeling and what you are doing. You decide when and how often you want to be notified.
3. Your Happiness Report
This report will show how your happiness varies depending on what you are doing, who you are with, where you are, what time of day it is, and a variety of other factors.
Get tracking!
Happiness Tip of the Day
According to Professor Willibald Ruch of the University of Zurich people who focus on utilizing their strengths in their everyday lives experience more happiness than people who focus their attention on what they think they need to change about themselves. To identify your strong suits Ruch suggests you take a free assessment developed by psychologists called: the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths Survey. This test helps to identify an individual’s strongest qualities, such as creativity or perseverance. So today, take the test and instead of focusing on what you think you can fix about yourself, focus on what is already great about yourself–trust me, there’s plenty!
I Love You To The Moon
These pictures were taken by my brother’s girlfriend who lives across the ocean from him in Germany. They hang over a window in his kitchen so that every morning he has a reminder that she “loves him to the moon” and back.
Happiness Is: Exploring New Places
There Is a Place Back Home On the Lake
The One Place That Never Fails To Make Me Happy
“The one place that never fails to make me happy is Bodo’s Bagels. It is my favorite restaurant in Charlottesville. I went there all the time as a kid as well as in high school with my friends to hang out after class. It is also the place where I meet my friends to catch up while we are in college. Wonderful food and even better memories.”