Advice for Your Best Life

Science-based practices that spark joy, meaning, and ease

Christine L. Carter Ph.D.

Should I See a Therapist?

A member of the Sandwich Generation struggles with feeling overwhelmed, sad, and stuck between caring for her parents and her children.

How Can I Get More Sleep?

Going to bed earlier is a realistic and worthy goal, one that will have real benefits for you in your busy life.

How Do I Deal With My Son’s Substance Abuse?

What to do when your child may be addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Alexis Brown

Dear Christine: My Son Went Off to College and I Want to Cry

I offer advice to a mother who feels like her college bound son has outgrown her.

Fear of missing out

The Power of Taking Time Off

We check our smartphones and laptops constantly to abate our anxiety that we are missing something urgent at work.

How Independent Should Teenagers Be?

Healthy, self-disciplined, motivated teenagers have a strong sense of control over their lives.

Accessing Authenticity

Authenticity’s appeal is obvious, but how does a person even go about being fully authentic, anyway? Here are three tips to get started.

Three Steps to Say “No” Gracefully

It can be really hard to say no. Despite my best attempts not to care what other people think of me, I still find myself wanting to be liked.

How to Get Better at Achieving Your Goals

Setting goals is, at its core, about behavior change.

The Real Reason We Get Annoyed with Our Partners

When we feel hooked and irrational or harshly judgmental about someone else’s shortcomings, rather than empathetic or compassionate? We are probably projecting.

The New Sex Talk: 3 Tips to Get You Started

Times have changed, and so has how we talk to our kids about sex.

3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Make a New Year’s Resolution

My fantasy is that January 1st will be THE day we launch headlong into our new-and-improved lives. I LOVE a fresh start, and there's nothing fresher than the start of a new year.

9 Ways to Ease Overwhelm

Ever feel like you are constantly drinking from a firehose of information? We have more information coming at us than ever before.

5 Tips for Living a More Authentic Life

It is far better to be ourselves and risk having people not like us than to suffer the stress and tension that comes from pretending to be someone we’re not.

Want to Be Successful? Spend More Time Staring Into Space

Think about the last time you had a great idea or solved a problem that had been plaguing you—were you in the shower?

Are You a People Pleaser?

People often ask me what the secret to happiness is. My response is that the most important thing for happiness is living truthfully.

How to Only Do Things You Actually Want to Do

Can you remember the last time your to-do list was short enough to be, well, do-able? How about the last time you looked at your list and actually wanted to do everything on it?

Feeling Entitled to a Little Gratitude This Mother’s Day?

Here’s an icky confession: Since becoming a mother, I have dreaded Mother’s Day.

You Will Never Find Work-Life Balance

Your work and your personal life do not amount to a zero-sum game, where more of one means you’re compromising the other.

3 Surprising Ways to Feel More Loved

Are you focused on romantic love this Valentine’s Day? You’re missing an opportunity! Building stronger connections with others can lead to happiness, health and fulfillment.

Five Steps to End Your Email Addiction

Many of my clients spend most of their waking existence monitoring their email and social media feeds. Sound familiar? 5 steps to help you check less, but work—and play—more.

Are You Setting the Right Goals?

Hundreds of studies have shown that goal setting is a way to improve performance as well as happiness and well-being.

3 New Year’s Resolutions to Make You Happier

Make the right resolution this year. Pick one that research shows will make you happier! Three good ones here.

5 Ways to Say No When You Really Need To

Saying “yes” to invitations, favors, and requests when we mean “no” is a recipe for overwhelm and exhaustion.

20 Questions to Ask This Holiday Season

Our friends and family know what to expect when they come to our house for a meal: Jeffersonian conversations. Thomas Jefferson seated all his guests at one table for dinner, where he asked each guest a single question for all to hear…no side conversations or small-talk allowed. Sounds rigid, but these sorts of dinners are FUN over the holidays.

3 Surprising Ways to Feel Less Busy

Although people tell me all the time they like feeling busy — perhaps because it makes them feel important and significant — I’m not buying it. Would you ever choose busyness over a more relaxed form of productivity?

3 Steps to Finding Your Flow

Athletes call this mental state being in “The Zone”; psychologists call it “flow” or peak experience, and they have linked it to leading a life of happiness and purpose.

The 3 Essential Pieces of an Effective Apology

People make mistakes all the time. Not just bad people, or weak people. All people. Our mistakes are what make us human. And even when we don’t think that we’ve made a mistake, other people will often find errors in our ways. We human beings are walking offenders.

8 Ways to Achieve More by Working Less

Strategic slacking has enabled me to dramatically increase both the quality of my work and the amount I get done in a given day. It increases productivity because we don't think or work or create at the same rate throughout the day.

3 Risks You Should Be Ready to Take to Fall in Love

Love feels magical and biological—something that just happens to us, something beyond our control. Research shows, however, that love is better thought of as behavioral—or even transactional.

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