(From L-R) Doug Hensch, co-founder; Martin Seligman, Exclusive Consultant; Andrew Rosenthal, co-founder
Co-founders Andrew and Doug are going to be there talking about how to use the tools on happier.com! Learn how to use Active Constructive Responding to improve your relationships and Three Good Things to bring gratitude into your life and sleep better every night! If you are a happiness enthusiast anywhere near New York City, we would love to see you there! It’s an excellent opportunity to connect with more people who want to learn about the science of happiness.
The event is being hosted by Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, MAPP, a member of the happier.com Positive Psychology Practitioner Directory.
Location: TBD but it will be in midtown.
Date and Time: November 12 @ 7pm
10/3/09 – Mary Jones of The Mary Jones Show talked with happier’s Andrew Rosenthal about tips for measuring your happiness and learning more about strengths..
Here you can listen to the interview (9:15) using the player, below.
Mary has developed her Happiness Meter, which we wanted to share with you:
At any point during your day, or at many points during your day, ask yourself, “How happy am I feeling right now?” Don’t worry about how happy you were yesterday or how you hope to feel tomorrow, but right now.
On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, assign a number to your level of happiness at the moment.
1: Despondent (A black cloud)
2: Stressed/frazzled (Your hair standing)
3: Content (A comfy chair)
4: Pretty darn happy! (Smiley face)
5: Ecstatic (You doing a cartwheel)
If you peg yourself at a 2, for example, have an arsenal of things that you can instantly do, anywhere, that will raise your number to a 3. You can positively raise your Happiness Meter number, at any time (we seem to forget that we have control over a lot of this, don’t we?).
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10/12/9 – The folks at AlleyDog.com, a blog search engine, just recognized us as a Top Psych blog on the web. Check us out here.
“I’m pleased to let you know that you blog was selected as on of the very best and is included on Top Psych.” -Dr. Doug Kaufman, AlleyDog.com
“It’s been proven that the physical space you’re in influences the space you’re in psychologically. And recently, scientists have discovered that the workspace environment you’re in can influence creativity levels as well. Happier.com has listed ten tips to help you set the scene for creativity.”
Catherine can be found on twitter as well @catherinefaas
Guy Kawasaki tweeted about our blog post to his followers. Guy is an original employee of Apple, most recently the author of Reality Check, and can be found on twitter @guykawasaki
“I recently came across a new website with a different twist on depression. It’s called happier. Instead of focusing on the things that make us depressed and trying to overcome those negative feelings, this site focuses on doing things that make you happier…. Happier is something most of us would love to be so I would suggest having a look at this new website. I sure liked what I saw!”
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10/16/09 – The folks at venture beat selected us as runners up for their contest to win a spot to attend and showcase our technology at the Web 2.0 Summit After the Dark party in San Francisco. We would have loved to win but are also happy to have been recognized.
Are you a member of the media interested in getting in learning more about happier.com? Email us or learn more online.
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
