Note: The following is a guest post by Ryan Rivera. Positive thinking is at the heart of happiness. Positive thinking is how you get joy from your accomplishments, look forward to the future, enjoy the present, and relish your past. Happiness is itself a type of positive thinking, because it comes from being content with […]
Letting Your Mind Wander: The Effects Of Fantasizing And Visualizing
August 29, 2013 by 12 Comments
Since returning from Israel almost two months ago, I’ve found myself slipping into daydream an awful lot. My mind will wander from whatever it is I’m doing to a scene of beaches along the Mediterranean, a crater in the Negev, or a bar in Tel Aviv. I have a love/hate relationship with daydreaming. On the […]
How Kindness Can Improve Your Health And Happiness
July 18, 2013 by 6 Comments
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Ahhh, the golden rule. We have been taught from a young age to be kind to others because that is how we would like others to treat us. That’s a great rule of thumb. Unfortunately, your kindness may not always be reciprocated. Uh oh. […]
Maintaining A Habit: How To Get Back On The Horse After Slipping Up
June 18, 2013 by 6 Comments
You have goals that you want to achieve, and habits that you want to implement in order to reach those goals. That’s great! Unfortunately, a motivation to succeed is simply not enough. People don’t talk about it enough, but you will fall off the horse, stray from your goal, and slip back into your old […]
Nutrition For Natural Sun Protection Without Sunscreen
June 3, 2013 by 2 Comments
With the summer just about here, it’s time for the return of one of my oldest friends: sunburn. For pasty white guys such as myself, sunburn is pretty much a fixture of the summer months. Besides being painful, sunburn is also a huge risk factor for skin cancer…not good. Luckily, people like you and me […]
How To Appreciate Beauty – Even When It Doesn’t Smack You In The Face
May 17, 2013 by 7 Comments
It was a brisk morning in January 2009. At a Metro station in Washington D.C., a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for approximately 45 minutes. About 2000 people walked past him during that time, most of them on their way to work. Ten minutes after he started playing, a three year old […]
Alternative Habit Change Mindset – Follow Up
May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In my last post, I wrote about an alternative mindset for habit change, and I’ve been experimenting with it in my own life for the past two weeks. Most people think of habit change as this long process. I have suggested that instead of thinking about it this way, you just focus on the single […]
A Counter-Intuitive Mindset For Habit Change
April 21, 2013 by 6 Comments
When you want to change your life for the better, what are you most likely to do first? If you are like most people, you think about changing your habits. For example, if you want to get in shape, you think about building a habit of going to the gym regularly. This makes a lot […]
Coping With Tragedy: A Cultural Comparison
April 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It’s amazing how different cultures handle certain things in different ways. This past week through tomorrow is the most important week of the year in Israel. There are three holidays: Yom HaShoah (Holocaust memorial day) was last week, today has been Yom HaZikaron (the Israeli version of Memorial Day), and tomorrow is Yom Ha’atzmaut […]
107 Healthy Habits And Behaviors For A Healthier Lifestyle
April 6, 2013 by 64 Comments
Most people think that living a healthy lifestyle is a challenge. When you look at the super fit and healthy people out there, it can seem almost impossible to get what they have. Six pack abs and a 100-year lifespan appear out of reach to “normal" individuals. But achieving those levels of health and fitness […]
