Last week, I wrote about the many things I threw out when helping my parents move from a house to an apartment. I wrote about throwing things out or donating them along the way, rather than accumulating things you don't need. There is another way. Don't buy things you don't…
This week, my parents moved from the house I grew up in to an apartment. They don't need as much space and the move has many pluses for them. Most importantly, they will no longer be responsible for maintaining their property and the apartment is one level, which will make…
After I republished my post Kindness & the Common Good in my monthly newsletter, a reader sent me this note I want to share with you: Thank you for this email (newsletter)! I have a constant, inner conversation with myself where I try to be mindful of the point of…
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about Investing in Time Rather than Things, for Happiness after I read about a study showing that using money to buy yourself more time results in greater happiness than using money to buy things. It’s especially beneficial to invest in freeing…
I have frequently written about the power of smiling. When we smile, there is a chemical reaction which causes us to think we are happy, even if we were not feeling happy before that moment. In addition, smiling at others usually causes them to smile back at you. (In fact,…
This is a guest post by Dr. John Izzo. Today we’re constantly bombarded with messaging about how we should live. We’re told to work harder, dress better, be fitter, have better relationships, and show more gratitude. So how are we supposed to decide what really matters in life? The answer…
A friend of mine was studying for a licensing exam. She had completed all of her schooling, and when she passed the exam she would be able to begin her career. During the couple of months when she was studying and dealing with its attendant stress, someone shared with her…
This is a guest post by Ryan Snow. Screens are everywhere. You can’t make a call or even make your coffee without looking at a screen. After reading Kevin Kelly’s book, The Inevitable, where he writes about the future of screening, I decided to examine my own use of screens.…
In the past, I wrote about Being Present in a Smartphone World. On a related note, I read a piece in the New York Times where they reported on these survey results, which might not be very shocking: We check our phone an average of 47 times a day. Eighty-two…
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, David Brooks wrote about Pope Francis’ New Year’s Eve commentary that the people who have the most influence on society are “normal folks,” and their everyday gestures of kindness make them “artisans of the common good”. The pope used driving, of…
Because gratitude, happiness, and positive leadership are favorite subjects of my blog posts, I was given the opportunity to read a pre-publication edition of The Kindness Cure, by Tara Cousineau, PhD, which will be published on February 2. "Be Nice" is the second of my Six Simple Rules and when I…
This is a guest post by Dr. Diahanne Rhiney. I want to discuss a topic that is not often spoken about because it is often so subtle and occurs in a deep and complex part of the mind, our subconscious. We’ve probably all done it at some point: you say…