We all want to be happy. It’s one of the most important life goals, if not the most, and the science of happiness has a simple and effective practice to increase happiness. Gratitude is probably familiar to you as ‘counting your blessings’. In positive psychology practising gratitude is a way of acknowledging and appreciating the good things in life. It’s powerful because it flicks our focus from the negative to the positive. The mind operates in one of two basic modes. A scarcity mindset brings awareness of what is lacking in our lives, which triggers negative thoughts and emotions. Gratitude ..read more

This is the fifth in a series of articles based on the twelve happiness habits in The Little Book of Happiness. Habit 9 is to Get Physical and Habit 10 is to Turn to Nature. Get physical and Get outdoors You’re probably familiar with the term ‘psychosomatic’ applied to illnesses where the mind has a negative influence on the body, but what about ‘somatopsychic wellbeing’ where the body has a positive influence on the mind? Using the body-mind connection is much under-rated as a means of growing your happiness. Whereas stress has a negative impact on the body’s systems, research is now showing ..read more

This is the fourth in a series of articles based on the twelve happiness habits in The Little Book of Happiness. Habit 7 is to Value Relationships, which are our number one source of wellbeing. And a very good way to do that is by Practising Kindness, the 8th habit. Wellbeing begins with ‘we’. Psychologist Chris Peterson once said that he could sum up the whole of the science of happiness in three little words – ‘other people matter’, which is why ‘Value Relationships’ is the next happiness habit in our webinar series. Relatedness is a sense of connection and belonging and is one of three fund ..read more

This is the third in a series of articles based on the twelve happiness habits in The Little Book of Happiness. Habit 6 is to Learn Optimism, one of the most reliable ways to boost your wellbeing. The positive news is that, even if you’re not a born optimist, you can still learn to think more optimistically. Happiness Habits: Learning Optimism    Is your glass half full or empty? Whether you’re an optimist or a born pessimist, it’s worth knowing about the link between optimism and mental health and that you can learn to think optimistically even if you’re more Eeyore than Tigger. Opt ..read more

This is the second in a series of articles based on the twelve happiness habits in The Little Book of Happiness. Habits 4 and 5 are Harness Your Strengths and Live with Meaning, which are both forms of eudaimonic wellbeing. Eudaimonic Wellbeing, A Deeper Happiness What makes us happy? We generally think of happiness as the peak moments of hedonic well-being, which comes from pleasure and enjoyment and is experienced as a range of positive emotions (the clue is in the name!) However hedonic well-being is a short-lived experience – a fleeting moment of bliss, delight, calm or serenity. Good new ..read more

This is the first in a series of articles based on the twelve happiness habits in The Little Book of Happiness. Habits 1 to 3 are Learn to Play, Express Gratitude and Savour the Positive, all ways of generating positive emotions. The Power of Positivity Awe, bliss, calm, delight, excitement, who doesn’t love a positive emotion? But is there more to these good feelings than a pleasant, uplifting experience? The joy of positive emotions is that they not only feel good but do us good too. One of the most significant discoveries in positive psychology is that positive emotions broaden our thinking ..read more

This article is based on a keynote given at the 2022 Learning in Law conference The number one request I’ve had as a trainer over the last two years has been for resilience training. We’ve had to tap into multiple forms of resilience to get through the pandemic. Adaptive resilience to cope positively with pivoting our lives and ‘bounce-back-ability’ to recover from the setbacks. Now, as we learn to live with covid-19, we may begin to see signs of transformative resilience, which is about reconfiguration. Navigating our way through tough times will test our resilience but also has the potential ..read more

The Covid 19 pandemic has profoundly impacted every aspect of our lives including the way we work. Over the last two years we’ve journeyed through successive waves of the pandemic alongside new waves of working practice. Pre-pandemic the first wave was ‘working on-site’ in offices and other workplaces. To get philosophical, this ‘thesis’ is the original proposition, then along comes the ‘antithesis’ its opposite, which was the second wave of working from home. This was the lockdown which turned kitchen tables into desks, bedrooms into zoom rooms and the space under the stairs into makeshift o ..read more

As the latest wave of the pandemic crashes into our lives, what is there in the science of resilience and wellbeing that can help us cope with the covid crisis? Positive psychology offers a proactive and practical approach to wellbeing with evidence-based tools that can build our defences against the virus and strengthen our mental health. Watch your diet By this, I don’t mean what you put in your mouth, although of course this will boost your physical immunity to the virus, but rather what you feed your mind. As someone whose background is in the broadcast media, I’m all too aware of its ..read more

2020 will be remembered as the year our freedom was cut short by the corona crisis. Autonomy is one of three fundamental needs for wellbeing alongside a sense of competence and relatedness in Ryan & Deci’s self-determination theory, updating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One upside to the loss is no longer being stressed by an abundance of options in the coffee shop.  Shall I have the cappuccino or a flat white? Or maybe Earl Grey tea?  You would think that having more options would increase the chances of finding something you really want and to be satisfied with your choice. But ..read more