Category Archives: Positive Psychology

There are methods in buddhist practice devoted to cultivating loving kindness and compassion. Here, the meditations try to generate all pervading sense of benevolence, a state in which love and compassion permeate the entire mind.

No amount of tweeting could help the Occupy Movement clarify their very general political view, develop their leadership capacity and strategy, or maintain the passion of their supporters over a prolonged period. All these typically require face to face meeting and the hard, time-consuming work of collective organising.

Highly emphatic people recognise that by words and pictures offer only second hand experience rather than the real thing, they deserve to be taken seriously, and not dismiss as little more than ‘ empathy lite.’ Why? because art has a long and distinguish history, going back centuries, of kicking our empathic selves into action, be it for the struggle against child labour or the anti war movement.

Paradoxically, humility promotes strength of character: the humble person makes decisions on the basis of what he believes to be right and sticks by them without concern for his own image or the opinions of others. 

Mihali Csiksgentmihalyi was struck by the fact that when the creation of a painting was going well, the artist was completely absorbed in his work and stayed with it to completion, unaware of being tired, hungry, or uncomfortable.

Eighty percent of Americans claim to be happy! But the situation is far from being as encouraging as it looks. Despite the improvement in material conditions, depression is now ten times as prevalent as it was in 1960 and affects an ever younger sector of the population. Forty years ago, the mean age of people succumbing to depression for the first time was twenty nine; today it’s fourteen.

We call these pleasurable states that we value most moving toward values because these are the emotional states we will do the most to attain. What are some of the feelings that are most important to experience in your life on a consistent basis?

The first practice of our life is to be deeply grateful that we are graced to be alive with a healthy body. Bring the thought of good health as one of the first thoughts each morning.