If you’ve been following me for long, you know that I write about the ABCs of happiness—appreciating, becoming and connecting. From my study of the topic of happiness for many years now, I’ve reduced happiness to these three themes. Beginning today, I want to share some thoughts and also research about the third part of […]

Meaning and purpose are part of “Becoming,” one of the three aspects of living a happy and abundant life. I define becoming is engaging in pursuits that bring inner fulfillment. It is nourishing our hearts and souls and living in a way that brings meaning to our lives. I want to talk about finding your […]

The Power of Stillness One way of nourishing yourself is through stillness. This is quieting the mind and body by placing your full attention on the present moment. As you’ve heard me say before, our world is filled with noise and distractions which alienate us from our inner, higher selves. We are continually connected to […]

I’ll be Happy When… We often associate happiness and joy with some future event  or circumstance. “I’ll be happy when I graduate and go to college…” “I get married…. “I have children…” “The children are grown and on their own…” “I get my new house/car…” “I retire and get out of this rat race…” “I […]

I’ve recently been writing about “becoming,” one of the three core principles of living a joyful life. I define becoming as growing into a more mature human being, someone able to bring your best self to the situations and challenges of life. Although there are many ways you can grow yourself spiritually and emotionally, today I […]

In a recent blog post I talked about the ABCs of happiness or the three core themes to live a happier life. Now I want to step back and talk about some of the myths of happiness. We have to understand what happiness is and also what it is not in order to live happier […]

I talked, in my last post, about what we learn from science about happiness and suggested three core themes from the happiness literature (the ABCs of happiness). I want to continue this topic by sharing a short video on the topic. Before you watch it, let me just share a bit of the backstory. The […]

As I pointed out in my last article, one of the characteristics of successful and satisfying relationships is “positive sentiment override.” This means that you have built up enough positive feelings (friendship) towards each other that you’re able to withstand the inevitable disappointments, conflicts, and just plain hard times in your marriage. One way to […]

I’ve observed that intimate relationships often grow through five stages. I call them the five stages of marital (or couple) satisfaction. I want to offer them to you to understand the milestones in your progress towards building a happy and thriving marriage. I’m also interested in your thoughts. Do you agree? How do they fit […]

In this article, I want to talk about “The Empowerment Model.” For years, I’ve talked about it in the context of “key moments,” those situations and events in which our emotions are engaged and it’s easy to react or act out our negative feelings. But I like thinking of it as an empowerment model because by […]