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11 Dec

Posted at 12:18h in Goal Setting, Hope, Life Coach, Life Coaching, Mindfulness, Positive person, Positive Psychology, Uncategorized, Vision by

First on Barbara Walter’s special of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009 is Lady Gaga. What makes her so positive? “I had a dream and was fearless with my ambition,” Gaga (who’s right around my age) says. “Every bit of me is devoted to love and art.” It’s all about clarifying dreams and building intrinsic motivation around those dreams. Hope = pathways + agency. Positive psychologists study this. She says she felt like a “freak” when she was younger, especially in high school (don’t I know it too…). “I want to free them [struggling young people} from their fears and...

09 Dec

Posted at 23:04h in Coaching, Cognitive, Cognitive-behavioral, Life Coach, Life Coaching, Mindfulness, Positive Psychology, resilience, Uncategorized by

I do! And I'm working at silencing him. Maybe you are too?  Let me tell you - the tools from my field, Positive Psychology, are scientifically proven to help combat that.  To make us more resilient! More happy! Don't you want that? I love how this guy (ill doctrine) talks about it in terms of CREATIVITY. Take a look, by clicking here....

13 Sep

Posted at 14:43h in Uncategorized by

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a really cool experience: An Appreciative Inquiry (AI) summit hosted by Mayor Jackson of Cleveland, Ohio called Sustainable Cleveland 2019: Building an Economic Engine to Empower a Green City on a Blue Lake. The event brought together business, political, educational, and religious leaders from across the Cleveland community to create a new collective economic vision: a sustainable, green economy for the region by the year 2019. "How," you ask? This is the task of the Appreciative Inquiry summits: to have the system figure out the "how." It's about figuring out...

02 Jul

Posted at 11:02h in Hope, Life Coach, Life Coaching, Love, Mindfulness, Movie Review, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Social-Emotional Leadership, Uncategorized, Vision by

Last week I saw (from the first row, and in 3-D) Disney Pixar’s Up, an animated film about life, adventure, and friendship. The film certainly pulled on my heart string in a very “other-people- matter”-positive-psychology-kind-of-way. The film also speaks to this month’s PPND theme of fun. In it, a young hopeful and optimistic Carl Fredricksen becomes fascinated with a hero of his time, a world-famous aviator and explorer, Charles Muntz, who encourages imagination, creative play, and adventure.Up opens with young Carl playing “explorer make-believe” by himself. He stumbles upon a tomboy named Ellie playing a similar game. A few frames later,...

15 May

Posted at 19:14h in Coaching, Efficacy, Love, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Social-Emotional Leadership, Uncategorized by

“Love is in the air, everywhere I look around Love is in the air, every sight and every sound” (lyrics by Paul Young) Love is such a strange phenomenon. We all want it. We all need it. But do we all have it?

I recently learned of a very cool definition of love: “Love is the flowing, the outpouring the rendering from the heart and soul of emotional goodness to yourself first, - - and then to others in your life.” (from the Hoffman Institute) With yourself first! Herein lies A KEY. * Do you love yourself? * * Do you really love yourself? * Love changes the brain. It’s all about...

29 Apr

Posted at 17:35h in Uncategorized by

Round & Round & Round It Goes The voices in our heads can be real buzz-kills. "I’m not whatever enough." I should be (doing) X, I should be (doing) Y, I should be (doing) Z. WinterSome call this voice “the gremlin” or saboteur. Others look at it is as a radio station that plays recurring tunes of self-limiting beliefs embedded into our subconscious minds.  Whatever you call it, these voices have harmful effects.  Positive psychologists sometimes suggest that it is our own, self-deprecating mind chatter which holds us in the bonds of ordinance. Our thoughts and belief systems can become our realities. Limiting...

31 Mar

Posted at 19:58h in customs, positive emotion, Positive Psychology, Social-Emotional Leadership, Traditions, Uncategorized by

Communitas is a ritual-building process that inspires and revitalizes while reaffirming relationships within a community, state University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues. According to Anthropologist Victor Turner, building communitas is an essential step to activating a community to healthy family functioning, healthy child development, and other dimensions of well-being.  It also creates positive emotion, which according to psychologist Barbara Fredrickson and mathematician Marcial Losada, builds upward spirals for individuals and groups. Here is an example of some of the work I’ve done with my own family as an action researcher to build communitas and expand positive emotion.  As...

19 Mar

Posted at 13:58h in Uncategorized by

Positive Psychology 101: Ready to Own Up? This stuff works people. Description There are scientifically proven ways to be happier & more fulfilled with life. This is not an April Fools joke and yes, it is more than just "being positive". Come hear what all the hype is about concerning a relatively knew field of study which answers age-old questions about “the good life” using applied science. Whereas traditional (not negative) psychology looks at pathology—the weakness—and how to fix it, Positive Psychology looks at what’s right—the strength—and how to build it. Hope, Optimism, Resilience, High Quality Connections, Gratitude, & More. You’ll leave feeling armed with nuggets...

08 Mar

Posted at 20:58h in Uncategorized by

"When your mind is narrow, small things agitate you very easily. Make your mind an ocean." - Lama Thubten Yeshe * Do you have an easy time wallowing in what’s wrong: the negative? * If so, then you’re like most of us. We all filter our experiences – but  most of us pay too much attention to what goes wrong and too little attention to the good things in our lives—to what goes right. The psychological phenomenon is called the NEGATIVITY BIAS: humans pay more attention to and give more weight to negative than positive experiences. Humans are prone to this negativity bias, which shows...

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