happier.com blog | a personal trainer for your happiness » Andrew Rosenthal

Join the happier.com Community on Facebook for a Chance to Win

Andrew Rosenthal — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:03:08 +0000

Join the happier.com community on facebook to meet other positive psychology enthusiasts, students, researchers and practitioners. Become a “fan” of happier.com on facebook today, to join our community of happiness enthusiasts and for chances to win special discounts, prizes and opportunities.

happier.com on Facebook

happier.com is a personal trainer for your happiness. With more than a dozen tools and tests to help you measure, track and improve your happiness, you can trust the happier.com experts to help you reach your goals. Exclusive videos and a popular blog mean there’s something new to learn every day. Download the free iPhone application or find what you’re looking for with the Positive Psychology Practitioner Directory. happier.com is on Facebook, LinkedIn, and twitter and has meetup groups in Washington, Philadelphia, and Portland, with more planned. Click here for a social media press release from our launch.

Reminder: Tonight is a happierPhilly meetup focusing on practitioners

Andrew Rosenthal — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:11:53 +0000

Reminder: happierPhilly.com free meetup is tonight, focusing on practitioners. Limited space is still available but we need to know if you’re coming, so please RSVP. We’re at the Penn Bookstore.

Click here to check out
The happierPhilly – Happiness Group Philadelphia!

Five Questions To Ask Yourself and Boost Your Mood: happier.com featured in Essence Magazine

Andrew Rosenthal — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:15:15 +0000

What gave me joy today?
Do I really need to take offense?
Is there someone I should forgive?
What are my strong points?
How can I sustain happiness?

These five questions are explored in the September issue of Essence magazine, with guidance provided by happier.com.

Members of the media interested in using happier.com experts or contents in their articles can contact us directly.

Get Real: Positive Psychology Is NOT Crippling America – Responding to "Bright-Sided"

Andrew Rosenthal — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:08:57 +0000

We’ve been reading lots about the book coming out by Barbara Ehrenreich: Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. We were invited to respond to an article about Ehrenreich following her talk at the University of Pennsylvania. The original guest column is online, and included below, with text linked out to original sources where appropriate.

Comments? Questions? Leave a note in the comments section and let us know.

Guest Column | A personal trainer for your happiness

Learning and practicing optimism can literally brighten your future

By Andrew Rosenthal and Doug Hensch

Last week, The Daily Pennsylvanian asked “Does Positivity Cripple the U.S.?” after hearing Barbara Ehrenreich speak in College Hall about her new book, Bright-Sided: How The Relentless Promotion Of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. According to reports, her talk was an argument against positive thinking and smiles. Seriously.

Although we did not attend the talk or review a pre-released copy of the book, a few things about Ehrenreich are clear. According to the DP and The New York Times, she finds herself “infuriated” by teddy bears and frustrated by upbeat T-shirts. Positivity and optimism are “the strongest sources of negativity in our society” she claims — and optimism is “just too damn much work” to be a worthwhile pursuit. However, we resist the urge to dismiss Ehernreich outright as a grump.

Ehrenreich is critical of “bogus” and “false” and “unsullied” optimism. Fine. But such specific modifiers mean that there must be a “genuine,” “real” and “authentic” optimism out there — something imperfect but grounded in reality. In fact, realistic optimism is the bedrock of positive psychology — the scientific study of well-being. When carefully defined, optimism is about seeing opportunity in challenge, identifying the limitations of bad events and finding hope in the most dire of times. Optimism is what got Barack Obama elected.

In practice, what is the difference between optimism and pessimism? A pessimist examines a situation and can identify only the most dire possible outcomes. Case in point: Ask a good attorney to review a contract, and she will point out everything that might possibly harm you in its execution. Planning for the worst situation is a good thing when it comes to attorneys and airline pilots. But artists and authors and athletes flourish as optimists, when they take a chance and try to do better, and more, than their predecessors.

This isn’t just a matter of semantics — it’s science. Research started decades ago shows that Penn students who are optimists perform better in school and exhibit fewer signs of anxiety and depression than those who are pessimists. Today, every freshman in Wharton is required to complete the PennSTART program to learn how to enhance optimism skills through resilience training. In last week’s DP, columnist Maya Brandon called for PennSTART to become available to students in all schools.

In her talk, Ehrenreich reportedly railed against smiling. But research shows that people who exhibit genuine smiles in a high-school yearbook picture are less-likely to be divorced in their mid-50’s. And a happy physician reaches a faster, more accurate diagnosis of a difficult liver condition. Positivity levels were the difference between life and death for the Sisters of Notre Dame. Nuns who expressed the most positivity throughout life lived an average of 6.9 years longer than those who expressed the least.

But some of the most striking research shows that emotions of the heart, like hope and optimism are good … for the heart. Pessimistic men who suffered heart attacks were 86 percent more likely to die of another heart attack within 10 years. Only 33 percent of the most optimistic patients suffered the same fate. Put more bluntly, being a pessimist has the same effect on heart health as smoking about three packs of cigarettes a week. These findings are nothing to sneeze at — unless, of course, you’ve got a cold. If so, your roommate should hope he is an optimist — optimists have a significantly reduced chance of catching a cold, compared to pessimists.

Authentic happiness and realistic optimism have been rigorously studied around the world. Some of the best work comes from Penn’s own Martin Seligman, Ph.D., the Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology. Seligman and his colleagues have developed tests to let you measure your own optimism and happiness. The tests are available for free, at happier.com. Is your glass half empty, or half full?

Live in DC? All Positive Psychology Enthusiasts Invited to Join HappierDC – Meetup This Thursday

Andrew Rosenthal — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:10:21 +0000

Happier DC – The Washington DC Happiness Club

Join other happiness enthusiasts based in Washington, DC for monthly meetups about the science of happiness.

New Findings in Happiness & Personality: Looking Within People, Not Just Between

Thursday October 15, 6:15pm in the Dupont Circle area

Our first meetup was a real success! The casual get-together was a chance for us to get to know each other and chat a bit about our goals for happierDC. And, thanks to everyone who responded to the survey questions asking: What do you want to get out of happierDC?

One consistent theme was that we want meetups to be an opportunity to learn and to socialize. And that’s why we’ve invited back noted author and professor Todd Kashdan, Ph.D. Todd is author of Curious? and is an expert on relationships, personality and positive psychology. This time, we’ve asked Todd to speak to us with some real detail on one of his favorite research areas: Happiness & Personality: Looking Within People; Not Just Between Them.

Our meetup starts at 6:15pm at the iStrategies lab space, in a private townhouse on Dupont Circle. The meetup location is very accessible to public transportation. Limited street parking is available and there is lots of garage parking.

Meetup schedule:
6:15pm – Gather and chat
6:40pm – Welcome and introductions
6:45pm – Todd Kashdan presents
7:45pm – Questions and discussion

Pictures from the last happierdc.com meetup

Why Do Some People Think That Positivity Is Crippling The U.S? Our Response

Andrew Rosenthal — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:00:52 +0000

Why would someone suggest that positivity is crippling the U.S.? Does anyone besides Stephen Colbert really think happiness is a threat? Today’s Daily Pennsylvanian ran an article, “Does Positivity Cripple the U.S.?” detailing a talk given at the University of Pennsylvania by Barbara Ehrenreich about her forthcoming book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.

The article reports:

According to Ehrenreich, our society’s bombardment with constant pressure to “put a smile on” and a belief that “life is good” – the name of a company with which she expressed particular frustration – emerge as the strongest sources of negativity in our society.

At happier.com, we’re pretty sure that positivity is not the “strongest source of negativity” in society. In fact, Barbara Fredrickson, one of the happier.com experts, wrote the book on the subject: Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. One of her key findings is, essentially: don’t fake your positivity. Genuine, realistic optimism and positivity is a source of social good.
Here’s our response to the article:

In today’s world, positivity provides an easy target. It’s simple to be reactionary when the economy is stumbling and people are without healthcare, and you see a “life is good” shirt. But the reality is, responsible critics separate out realistic optimism from “pollyana hapiness” or blind optimism.

The difference isn’t just semantics — it’s science. Decades of research show that realistic optimism is beneficial for everyone from college students to cancer survivors. Optimism and positivity based in reality helps prevent depression and improve academic performance and it helps patients heal faster. Optimists have 1/4th the morbidity rate from heart disease that pessimists have. And the best research in this field has been conducted at Penn over the last 30 years. Just this year, the University made headlines with its multi-million dollar project to improve resilience and optimism in the Army. The data show that it’s foolish to dismiss positivity out-right. And if the Army is willing to get behind it, we ought to give the science of happiness the respect it’s due.

-Andrew Rosenthal
co-founder, happier.com

Optimism Can Be the Difference Between Life and Death

Andrew Rosenthal — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:03:49 +0000

Dr. Michael Evans of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto writes in The Globe and Mail that Optimism May Help Ward Off Disease. He cites a recent study from Dr. Hilary Tindle et al in Circulation (the journal of the American Hearth Association) that followed 97,000 women and found that optimism is predictive of less heart disease.

Evans tells the story of a patient:

Marie was 64 when she contracted a rare form of cancer in the bile duct. Her prognosis was poor. We tried many interventions and had some success but, alas, only in the short term.

Marie was a teacher and had researched a new therapy based in, of course, California. It seemed to be a hybrid of unproven but promising new medical treatments with some alternative treatments added to the mix.

She had the money and an incredible, even refreshing, faith in this therapeutic cocktail, and wanted to try it while she was still relatively healthy. Tickets were bought and I wished her bonne chance .

She received a call the day before she was to leave to say there’d been a mistake, and she didn’t qualify for their program. Marie died the following week.

While the news about the health impact of optimism isn’t new, it’s a good reminder about the importance of becoming more optimistic.

We recently asked happier.con consultant Dr. Acacia Parks-Sheiner to define optimism from a scientific perspective: “The reason that we often talk in the research about optimism being more important is that… if you’re optimistic, you’re actually going to try, and you make it more likely that what you want to happen will [occur].”

We also asked Martin Seligman, the author of “Learned Optimism” to give an overview of the findings on optimism and physical health. The research shows that those who are optimistic have “much better” cardiovascular health than pessimists, with 1/4 the rate of cardiac deaths as the rest of the population.

Want to see optimism in practice? Then check out this great video from the people at The Foundation for a Better Life.

This video spot is from The Foundation For a Better Life.

Live in Philly? All Positive Psychology Enthusiasts Invited to Join HappierPhilly

Andrew Rosenthal — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:09:22 +0000

Happier Philly – Happiness Group Philadelphia

I started this group to bring together happiness enthusiasts in Philadelphia. Do you like positive psychology? Are you a coach or consultant? A researcher? Or someone interested in the science of happiness?

After the 1,500+ person positive psychology meeting in Philadelphia, I realized that there’s significant interest in getting together to discuss, share, and learn more. We will be learning from the 400+ person Happiness Club NY and other successful groups.

Join happierPhilly today!

Here are pictures from our last meetup

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Great Resources for Psychological Health and Wellbeing From the American Psychological Association

Andrew Rosenthal — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:34:00 +0000

We recently discovered a great website from the American Psychological Association. The APA Help Center “is your online resource for brochures, tips and articles on the psychological issues that affect your physical and emotional well-being, as well as information about referrals.”

One of the best things about the Help Center is that it’s a one-stop source of accurate, up-to-date information on psychological health and policy. The site provides answers to frequently asked questions and even has a resource center for reporters. This is our new go-to place for verified statistics and definitive answers to common questions about psychological well-being.

Props to the APA for putting everything together in one spot!
Topic areas on the site include:

Work and School

Family and Relationships

Health and Emotional Wellness

Disasters and Terrorism

Managed Care and Health Insurance

Facts and Statistics

Do you have any favorite resources on the web for psychological health information? Support for patients or facts and statistics for reporters? Feel free to share in the comments section.

Meet happier.com Expert Todd Kashdan at happierDC Tuesday 9/15, in Washington, DC

Andrew Rosenthal — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:47:54 +0000

Are you a fan of the science of happiness or a happier.com user, based in the Washington DC area?

On Tuesday the 15th, in the evening, happierDC is getting together for their first-ever meetup. The featured guest is happier.com expert Dr. Todd Kashdan, author of Curious?

Meetup details:

6:15pm

Hard Times Cafe, Fairfax

4069 Chain Bridge Rd.

Fairfax, VA 22030

No charge, and membership in happier.com is not required to attend.

RSVP online

Want to learn more about happierDC? Visit the website and sign up for free at happierDC.com

Are you an enthusiast of the science of happiness? Do you live in the Philadelphia region?

The happierPhilly group recently got together for the first time, and pictures are posted. happierPhilly is meeting-up again on Wednesday, October 14th for a special program co-sponsored by Drexel University: Workplace Wellness – The Science of Happiness in the Office.