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Happiness, Well-Being, and Positive Psychology Resources
Self Help Resources >>Happiness & Well Being
- Prezi on "Happiness and Well-Being"
- Once in the presentation, click on the "more" button and expand to "full screen." The presentation is self-paced; just click on the play button to move forward each time you are ready for a new section. Make sure to watch all the youtube clips-- they are great and inspirational!
- If preferred, click here for an accessible Power Point that contains this material.
Websites
Art and Practice of Learning to be Happy
Many ideas from different sources on learning to be happy
Authentic Happiness & Positive Psychology
This website is hosted by Martin Seligman, a psychologist central to the Positive Psychology movement
Biology of Joy
Article based on the brain science work of Richardson and others
Brain Rules
What we know about the brain in relation to well-being
Brene Brown's Blog
A website addressing happiness, authenticity, shame resilience, and self-compassion (among other things)
Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship
This center is devoted to transforming organizations through research on the theory and practice of positve organizing and leadership
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index
Statistics on well-being in the U.S.
Gratitude Website
A link to a a neat website explaining how gratitude can help make you happy.
Greater Good Science Center
This center is run out of UCB. The center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being and teaches skills of compassion
Habits of Happiness
A YouTube Clip of a talk by Matthieu Ricard (a Buddhist monk)
Happiness
A YouTube Clip from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown?”
Happy At Work
Found at Positivesharing.com, a group called Improv Everywhere set up a podium and a megaphone on a New York street corner on 8/24/11 at 2:13 p.m. with a plaque that said simply “Say something nice.” And people do: Say something nice… and say it loud
Introduction to Positive Psychology
From University of Pennsylvania
Megan Birney on the Pursuit of Happiness
Article in the "Social Psychology Eye"
National Accounts of Well Being
Statistics on markers of well being from several countries
On-Line Gratitude Journal or thakfulfor
These are free online gratitude journals. Also check out the CAPS gratitude log!
Original Happiness Project
By Satya Colombo. The site includes written word, photos, and video clips
Positive Sharing
From Alexander Kjerulf, a leading expert on happiness at work
Relaxation
Webpage at the Counseling Center of Loyola University Maryland which has a lot of good resources and links for various relaxation and meditation techniques
Road to Well Being
This is a great collection of research by Canadian public health professionals presented in a fun format
Self-Compassion
A website by Kristin Neff that provides information about self-compassion and is intended for students, researchers, and the general public
Sustainable Happiness
This is a cool map/flow chart with "sustainable happiness" as the central concept
TED.com
Type in "Happiness" in a topic search and find a host of wonderful TED talks on the subject. You'll find talks by Shawn Achor, Philip Zimbardo, Mihaly Csikszentsmihalyi, Dan Gilbert, Martin Seligman, Matthieu Ricard, and many others.
Thehappymovie.com
Clips and information about the Happy Movie and Movement
The Pursuit of Happiness Often Backfires This is an Article by Rick Nauert
Website of Ruut Veenhoven
Ruut Veenhoven is Emeritus-professor of “social conditions for human happiness” at Erasmus University Rotterdam
Wellnessvideos.blogspot.com
This is a powerpoint on ways to be happy.
Work-Related Happiness
Positive work outcomes are associated with:
- Positive work orientation (seeing work as job, career, or calling): Employees who identify a sense of meaningfulness in their work are happier (Pratt and Ashforth, 2003).
- Positive climate (psychological experience of work environment): A positive work climate has been found to enhance decision making, productivity, creativity, social integration and prosocial behaviors (Staw and Barsade, 1993).
- Positive communication: “Single most important factor in predicting team performance, which was more than twice as powerful as any other factor, was the ratio of positive comments to negative comments” (Losada and Heaphy, 2004).
Gratitude Journals
Research has shown that students who kept gratitude journals experienced:
- Fewer physical symptoms such as headaches and colds
- Felt better about their lives and were more optimistic about the coming week
- Had higher states of alertness, attentiveness, determination and energy
- Reported fewer hassles in their lives
- Engaged in more helping behavior towards other people and had a sense of being more connected to others
- Experienced better sleep quality
- Were absent and tardy less
- Had higher GPAs. (Emmons)
Scholarly Articles
In the Journal Psychological Science, check out these AUTHORS: Csicksentmihalyi; Diener; Seligman; Fredrickson; Peterson; Steen; Niemac; Deci; Ryan; Lyubomirsky; Isen; Park; Reschly; Gable; Furlong; Snyder; Lopex; McCullough; Richardson; Taylor; Park; Hu; Luskin; Ben-Shahar
Books on Happiness & Positive Psychology
- Achor, Shawn. The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. Crown Business; 2010.
- Hanh, Thich Nhat. Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices. Parallax Press; 2009.
- Hanson, Rick. Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence. Harmony; 2013.
- Hanson, Rick and Siegel, Daniel. Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. New Harbinger Publications; 2009.
- Harris, Russ. The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living. Trumpeter; 2011.
- Ricard, Matthieu. Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill. Little, Brown, and Company; 2008.
- Salzberg, Sharon. Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program. Workman Publishing Company; 2010.
- Seligman, Martin.
Apps for iPhone/iPad (iOS) or Android
- Apps on general mental health and well-being
- Additional apps that may be of interest:
- Buddhify 2: "the mindfulness app for your modern life." Dozens of custom meditations for 14 different parts of your day. iOS.
- Conscious: increase your mindfulness and awareness by taking simple and effective daily challenges alongside other like-minded people. Android.
- The Gratitude Habit: A Happiness Workshop from LiveBetterYou. Workshop on happiness with tips on incorporating gratitude and appreciation into your own life. iOS.
- Gratitude & Happiness (Self-Help Journal, Todo, Thoughts and Mood Tracker): Track basic happiness items and graph them. This is "a slice" of the Track & Share app. If you purchase that app, skip this one. iOS.
- Gratitude Journal: create and search journal entries, add photos to entries, email entries, set a daily reminder, etc. iOS.
- Happy App--Beat Depression, Anxiety & Stress, Guided Meditation & Hypnosis. Guided hypnosis by Racheal Meddows. iOS
- Headspace (on-the-go). Meditation app with quick techniques to "help you sleep better, focus more, & get some relief from a busy mind." For iOS and Android.
- iZen Garden for iPad: Create your own Zen garden (with a rake, sand and rocks..). iOS.
- Lift-Daily Motivation: "Unlock your potential. Change your life." Coaching toward making your goals habitual, see your progress visualized, get support from your friends, try to beat your best streak. iOS and Android.
- Meditation 4 Inner Wisdom: guided meditation/self-hypnosis. iOS.
- Mindfulness Meditation: guided meditations ranging from 5 to 40 minutes; includes an audio guide to meditation. iOS.
- MindHealth: an app (based on Buddhist Psychology) to help you reduce stress, calm the mind, and "sow the seeds of happiness" through your meditation practice. Helps you learn acceptance, non-judgment, compassion, gratitude, loving kindness. Android.
- Mindful Meditation Hypnosis by Subliminal Affirmations. Choose a short or long session of hypnosis led by Rachael Meddows. iOS.
- The Now-Mindful LIving: helps you to retrain your mind to live more fully in the moment. Provides periodic cues to be fully focused on the present. iOS.
- The Power of Gratitude: understand the power of gratitude, keep your own gratitude list, etc. Android.
- Transform Your Life: A Year of Awareness Practice by Cheri Huber: provides 365 days of inspirational quotes, encouragement, and daily assignments supporting awareness practice. iOS.
- Zen Wisdom: Collection of Zen quotes that bring perspective.
Self Help Resources >>Happiness & Well Being