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happiness

Q&A with researcher Robb Rutledge on mental health, expectations, decision-making and, yes, holiday planning!

July 25, 2022 by Greater Good Science Center

Have you ever looked for­ward to a con­cert, beach vaca­tion, or par­ty only to find your­self not enjoy­ing it as much as you thought you would?

You may be suf­fer­ing from over­ly high expec­ta­tions, says psy­chol­o­gist Robb Rut­ledge of Yale Uni­ver­si­ty. Rut­ledge and his col­leagues have been using smart­phone-based data col­lec­tion (via a free app called Hap­pi­ness Quest, where any­one can play short games and con­tribute to research) to see how our expec­ta­tions affect our future hap­pi­ness. Some of their find­ings point to nov­el approach­es for increas­ing our enjoy­ment of every­day life. [Read more…] about Q&A with researcher Robb Rut­ledge on men­tal health, expec­ta­tions, deci­sion-mak­ing and, yes, hol­i­day planning!

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: brain, cognition, Decision-making, expectations, happiness, Happiness Quest, mental health, perception, Robb Rutledge

Ten insights on human well-being and potential from two giants we sadly lost in 2021: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Ed Diener

December 13, 2021 by Greater Good Science Center

Many of us suf­fered ter­ri­ble loss­es in 2021. In the field of pos­i­tive psy­chol­o­gy, we lost two of our most influ­en­tial schol­ars: Mihaly Csik­szent­mi­ha­lyi and Ed Diener. In their hon­or, I’d like to remem­ber and appre­ci­ate the con­tri­bu­tions they made to the under­stand­ing of human flour­ish­ing. [Read more…] about Ten insights on human well-being and poten­tial from two giants we sad­ly lost in 2021: Mihaly Csik­szent­mi­ha­lyi and Ed Diener

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: behavior, happiness, health, human behavior, human potential, Positive-Psychology, Psychological Science, well-being

Seven evidence-based reasons to start meditating yesterday

August 3, 2020 by Emma Seppala, PhD

Yes, start­ing today is OK too.

I start­ed med­i­tat­ing soon after 9/11. I was liv­ing in Man­hat­tan, an already chaot­ic place, at an extreme­ly chaot­ic time. I real­ized I had no con­trol over my exter­nal envi­ron­ment. But the one place I did have a say over was my mind, through med­i­ta­tion. When I start­ed med­i­tat­ing, I did not real­ize it would also make me health­i­er, hap­pi­er, and more resilient.

Hav­ing wit­nessed the ben­e­fits, I devot­ed my PhD research at Stan­ford to study­ing the impact of med­i­ta­tion. I saw peo­ple from diverse back­grounds from col­lege stu­dents to com­bat vet­er­ans ben­e­fit. In the last 10 years, hun­dreds of stud­ies have been released.

Here are sev­en evi­dence-based rea­sons you might want to get on the band­wag­on as soon as you can: [Read more…] about Sev­en evi­dence-based rea­sons to start med­i­tat­ing yesterday

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: brain, emotion regulation, happiness, health, meditation, mental hygiene, mind, productivity, self-control

To boost your mental well-being, simply recall, right now, an act of kindness

February 19, 2020 by Greater Good Science Center

Just a few weeks ago, a group of mid­dle school stu­dents in Alaba­ma made the news for post­ing pos­i­tive notes on the lock­ers of fel­low stu­dents. For Christ­mas, a few Attle­boro, MA, stu­dents chipped in to buy their beloved school jan­i­tor new boots as a present. And in Decem­ber, a Michi­gan wait­ress received a $2,020 tip for a $23 din­ner bill, spark­ing the “2020 Tip Challenge.”

Peo­ple per­form acts of kind­ness both to do good and to feel good. Research finds that being kind makes us hap­py, can help to low­er our blood pres­sure, and encour­ages stronger social con­nec­tions. Now [Read more…] about To boost your men­tal well-being, sim­ply recall, right now, an act of kindness

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: 2020 Tip Challenge, gift, happiness, happy, kindness, mental well being, negative affect, positive affect, Prosocial behavior, well-being

Four guidelines for smart use of smartphones

November 14, 2019 by Greater Good Science Center

These days, you can’t go any­where with­out hear­ing about how tech­nol­o­gy is ruin­ing every­thing, includ­ing our hap­pi­ness. There is some truth to this, but it’s not the whole story.

Tech­nol­o­gy can be bad for us—for exam­ple, when social media gives us FOMO (fear of miss­ing out) or traps us in fil­ter bub­bles that pre­vent us from see­ing mul­ti­ple points of view on impor­tant issues. As a soci­ety, we are increas­ing­ly con­cerned that tech­nolo­gies like smart­phones and social media result in more social com­par­i­son, bul­ly­ing, and loneliness—all stum­bling blocks to hap­pi­ness. Tech­nol­o­gy seems to be bad for our hap­pi­ness when it inter­feres with the men­tal, social, emo­tion­al, and behav­ioral process­es that con­tribute to well-being.

But we often fail to real­ize (and dis­cuss) the ways that tech­nol­o­gy can also sup­port hap­pi­ness and well-being—for exam­ple [Read more…] about Four guide­lines for smart use of smartphones

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: boost your health, CBT, cognitive-behavioral-therapy, depression, digital detox, emotion regulation, Facebook, Gratitude, happiness, mental health challenges, mindfulness, resilience, smartphones, social-media, technology, well-being, wellness apps

New book suggest ways to understand behavior and boost happiness in light of human evolution

March 15, 2019 by Greater Good Science Center

We humans evolved to be social crea­tures. By gain­ing the skills to coop­er­ate with oth­ers, we were able to stave off preda­tors, eat more con­sis­tent­ly, and care for each other’s young, allow­ing our genes to car­ry forward.

So, why do we still strug­gle at times to get along—even to the extent that we war on one anoth­er? And how can under­stand­ing our evo­lu­tion­ary her­itage help us have bet­ter rela­tion­ships and more hap­pi­ness today? [Read more…] about New book sug­gest ways to under­stand behav­ior and boost hap­pi­ness in light of human evolution

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Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: development, evolution, happiness, neurological, prosocial, social leap, well-being

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