February 8, 2024 By Elaine O'Brien - As long as I can remember, I have loved having something good to look forward to.  Don’t most of us? Savoring the thought of happy future times extends the time that we enjoy them and enhances our experiences of gratitude and pleasure. This is anticipatory savoring, a valuable, mindfulness-based tool, laden with appreciation. It’s the feeling of delight we get when we are looking forward to something special. Anticipatory savoring makes life seem really worth living. When we notice opportunities for anticipatory savoring and then intentionally integrat ..read more

January 18, 2024 By Sherri Fisher - Edition 2 According to Ryan Niemiec, Chief Science and Education Officer of the VIA Institute on Character, people who undertake a mindfulness practice often do not persist with it. This may resonate with you. If you’re a practitioner, it might sound like a client you know. Mindfulness and Character Strengths: A Practitioner’s Guide to MBSP, offers an integrated solution to this problem. By merging the practices of mindfulness and character strengths, Niemiec shows how both practices can be enhanced. Why Merge Mindfulness and Strengths? The book provides a ..read more

November 28, 2023 By Abimbola Tschetter - Food and family are often at the heart of our holiday gatherings, traditions, and celebrations. Many contend that the latter, that is our relationships, are central to well-being. But it’s just in recent years that positive psychology research suggests that food may be as well. In the newest issue of MAPP Magazine, the alumni publication of the University of Pennsylvania Master of Applied Positive Psychology program, we’re pleased to feature a collection of articles exploring these topics and this month’s theme: Food, Family, and Flourishing. The missi ..read more

November 22, 2023 By Kathryn Britton - Ryan Niemiec has been teaching mindfulness and character strengths in combination for several years all over the world.  His students asked for resources to practice on their own, and aspiring teachers asked for resources to help their students learn. This workbook is Ryan’s answer to these requests. “May this workbook brighten your journey, lighten your tension, and deepen the joy and meaning of your life.”  ~ Ryan Niemiec, workbook preface What is it all about? Mindfulness involves open curious awareness of what’s happening right here and ri ..read more

November 2, 2023 By Alex Sternick - Stress and Distress: A Universal Experience “You Come to the Cold or the Cold comes to you, You come to the Distress or the Distress comes to You, You come to the Dis-Ease or the Dis-Ease comes to you” ~ Wim Hof Stress is an inherent part of human existence, triggered by challenging circumstances that compel us to respond. It can manifest as distress, which often feels imposed and unwanted, resulting from unresolved traumas, ongoing life challenges, or even physical illnesses. In conventional medicine, the approach is typically to combat stress with pharma ..read more

October 17, 2023 By Donald Officer - I strongly recommend the book, The Mind-Body Way: The Embodied Leader’s Path to Resilience, Connection, and Purpose by Courtney Amo, Julie Beaulac, and Casey Berglund. Let me tell you why. The Bourne between Mind and Body Bourne is a word for a generally accepted limit or the flow of small streams entering larger bodies of water. In Tennyson’s poem, bourne fits both descriptions, since the “Bar” in the title was inspired by the sandbar between Tennyson’s Isle of Wight home and the North Atlantic Ocean. In the Victorian poet’s lines, that ever-shifting bar s ..read more

September 19, 2023 By Kathryn Britton - How does adventure fit into a good life? One of the joys of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) World Congress is meeting people whose experiences and points of view are very different from my own, people coming from all over the world to share time and wisdom. For an extreme case, I met Martin Frey, a man who has lived a life of high adventure, very different from the stay-at-home years I’ve experienced following COVID.  Martin is a world traveler who has climbed the 7 peaks and sailed the 7 seas.  How does his search for ..read more

September 13, 2023 By Abimbola Tschetter - While reflecting on takeaways from over 30 years of research on the how and why of happiness, Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California Riverside, shared what she believes to be the key component of happiness: social connection. In her words, “Perhaps most critical to improving and maintaining happiness is the ability to connect with other people and create meaningful connecting moments.”  Check out the newest edition of MAPP Magazine, the alumni publication of the University of Pennsylvania Mast ..read more

September 6, 2023 By Elaine O'Brien - The IPPA World Congress 2023 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was a sumptuous feast of empirical research, theory, and applied delights. The conference program and people included attendees from across the globe. Together we reveled in the goodness of the science we are all seeking to advance. There were opportunities to meet, care, and share. Many events highlighted strengths, empowerment, determination, friendships, and positive connections to the science and each other. Let’s look at this year’s stellar event from a Transcendent Strengths perspec ..read more

August 29, 2023 By Sherri Fisher - Donkey expression You may be familiar with Aesop’s fable about a donkey who chooses to join the donkey that is the laziest and greatest eater in the barnyard. The purchaser returns him to the vendor. The moral of the story is, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” This message is often repeated as a cautionary tale. Stay away from the idle and the gluttonous, or you too may be ousted from the barnyard of finer folk. But what if we took a Positive Psychology spin on that fable? What if being known by the company you keep is an opportunity for well-being ..read more