Level Up Your Life

Want to level up your life? Here are some ways how. First, define what “leveling up” means for you. Would it be improving your health or your relationships? Would it be personal growth or career advancement? After you’ve defined it, set specific attainable goals, e.g. earn a title bump and raise by year end, strength […]

Cultivate Awe!

Did you know awe is an essential human emotion? According to psychologist Dacher Keltner, “awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world.” There is growing research to show that awe has many physical and psychological benefits. Physically, awe calms our nervous system, slows down […]

Give experiences not things

The science is clear. Experiences make us happier than things. Research shows that with experiential gifts, unlike material gifts, there are more opportunities for happiness. Merely looking forward to or anticipating an experience brings happiness, as well as the experience itself. For example, waiting for a concert or a sporting event evokes more happiness and […]

Take The Plunge!

Feeling stressed? Research suggests the key to managing stress is actually inducing more stress! Specifically, short periods of physical stress. One way to do this is by taking ice baths. Popularized by extreme athlete Wim Hof, a.k.a. The Dutchman, ice baths create a stress response in the body, shocking our systems at the cellular and […]

Boost Your Brain Power!

heWant more brain power? Try increasing your BDNF—brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Neurotrophins are the proteins that stimulate and manage the growth of new neurons—cells in the brain and nervous system. While there are many different neurotrophins in the brain, BDNF is the most active and important. In addition to promoting the growth of new neurons, BDNF […]

Practice Receiving Love

The key to experiencing more love in your life is recognizing the many different ways people show it. So often it’s the case we miss the love sent our way because we are looking for it to be expressed in a particular way. For example, an adolescent doesn’t feel loved by his mother because she […]

May I Live with Ease

The last phrase of loving kindness meditation is “May I live with ease.” It sounds great, but what does it actually mean? And how would that even be possible? Between juggling the daily demands of work and personal life, let alone in a pandemic and time of economic and political upheaval, living with ease may […]

Mind the Gap

You’ve probably heard “awareness is half the battle” when it comes to changing behavior. That’s because so many of the behaviors, thoughts, and emotional responses we want to change are done on autopilot or without awareness. For example, you reflexively light up a cigarette with your morning coffee, or grab a beer before you sit […]

Multiple Paths to the “good life”

If the proverbial good life still eludes you, there is encouraging news. Psychologists have discovered yet another way to reach it. For many years psychological research suggested that there were two primary paths to the good life: the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of satisfaction. The first path involves maximizing happiness simply by doing […]

Gratitude

Today we bring our awareness to the people and things in our lives that we are grateful for. We acknowledge the good no matter our current circumstances. When we’re in the midst of an emotional crisis or struggling to overcome life’s problems, it can challenging to find things to be thankful for. But that’s precisely […]