Happiness

My reading about life in many different hunter-gatherer cultures has led me to conclude that their work is play for four main reasons: (1) It is varied and requires much skill and intelligence. (2) There is not too much of it. (3) It is done in a social context, with friends. And (4) (most significantly) it is, for any given person at any given time, optional. Let me expand on these, point by point. Each point is relevant to our lives, today. Read More

Some months back, PT bloggers were asked to comment on their relationship with money, with a special focus on any quirks we have. This is a more personal perspective than many of us take in our blogs, but still interesting and worthwhile. I hope you like it. Read More

Okay, so I have thirteen-year-old boys in my house and they truly love saying this word. It's almost as though they feel more powerful or cool after saying it. And I have to admit I'm no prude, I like to belt it out myself on occasion. And yet, I struggle with my twins using the word too loosely. I'm constantly telling them not to talk that way around any adult, child or me. Read More

Feeling good - experiencing positive emotions - has been linked to enhanced performance at a variety of tasks. Read More

Learning about others' good fortune cultivates an optimistic attitude and makes people feel more positively about the future. Read More

One of the first and most often reinforced lessons that children learn in school is that work and play are opposites. Work is what one has to do; play is what one wants to do. Work is burdensome; play is fun. Work is essential; play is trivial. But when we leave school and go on to the "real world," at least some of us, the lucky ones, discover that work is not the opposite of play. In fact, work can be play, or at least it can be imbued with a high degree of playfulness. . . . When work is play, it is humanizing. Read More

My patient Jim, as I’ll call him, fears that he’s about to lose his job, though he actually hates his job and dreads keeping it almost as much as losing it. Thirty five years old with a pregnant wife and two year old son at home, Jim feels anxious, sleeps poorly, suffers from stomach pains and frequent headaches. Plus, his two-year old is an obstinate terror and Jim had not been nearly as eager as his wife to have another child. Jim comes to my office not so much to discuss these problems but to ask me whether I can prescribe something to calm him down. Read More

For the past two seasons, a hit drama on HBO has been gathering steam. All the signs of a tipping point are present, as the show is being talked about everywhere, from the grocery store to online listservs to academic conferences. The show is, of course, In Treatment, a seven-week long drama that is giving therapy a miraculous facelift. In Treatment takes place almost exclusively in the therapy session between Paul, the psychologist, and his four patients and supervisor. Such an honest and sophisticated portrait of one of the most challenging and strange professions has piqued the interest of an avid and proliferating following. Read More

A ridiculously interesting role model from history that we can all learn from. Only read if you're open to the possibility of modifying your belief system.

And boy do I hope that's a lot of people.... Read More