It’s not to much to say that David Steindl-Rast is the ambassador of gratitude. The Benedictine monk is known worldwide for his teaching of practices of gratitude. “Practices” may actually make it sound more difficult or complex that it needs to be, however, as Brother David’s counsel in this TED Talk is really rather simple. Reminding us of the three instructions we were given as children when approaching a street corner, he tells us to “Stop, look, and go.” Stop – slow down, take a break, pause long enough to take a breath. Look – notice and pay attention to just how many things are given to us freely and without...

Name the one thing that, if you could get it tomorrow, would make you totally happy. If you’re at all like me, you probably had no trouble thinking of something. Or, actually, if you had a problem, it was limiting yourself to just one thing. And therein lies the key, actually, to our unhappiness. Somewhere along the line, we bought into the idea that if we could only get a little more we’d be happy. A little more money, a little more vacation time, a little better car or house, a little better job, a fancy new gadget… any of these things – depending on who you are – will make you happy. But it’s a lie. A lie constructed by our...

I found the following video fascinating. It’s not that the content is all that incredible – it’s essentially a simple retelling of the story of Jesus’ encounter with Mary and Martha followed by a brief interpretation of why this story is important to the narrator. Rather, it’s the very fact that a popular “secular” (not my favorite term, but…) author uses the story at all, let alone to good effect. Gretchen Rubin is the author of The Happiness Project and it’s follow-up Happier at Home, both of which are geared toward helping people discover and lay hold of practices that will make them – you guessed it – happier. On...

The relationship between money and happiness isn’t a new topic for this blog and its readers. We’ve discussed before the relationship between happiness, money, and memory and, in particular, our inability to predict what will make us happy because of the fragility of memory. We’ve explored the peculiar power of our cultural narrative that having more stuff makes us happy when, in fact, what we need and want so much more than “more stuff” is time enjoy what we have. And we’ve seen how money can, in fact, make you happy when you spend it on others. In this vein, I recently came across a brilliant little video that summarizes a lot...

I have a confession to make: I started listening to Christmas Carols in earnest two weeks ago. I know I’m not supposed to. I mean, I know that I should wait at least until Advent. (Actually, we’re often told that we should wait until Christmas itself to sing Christmas carols and should content ourselves with Advent songs until then. That’s a debate I’ve entered into before and something, quite frankly, about which I have some strong feelings. 🙂 ) So there’s no way around it: I know I shouldn’t be listening to Christmas music yet. But here’s the thing: listening to Christmas music makes me happy. I actually listen to it...