You searched for practice | Page 33 of 76

7 Expert Guides for Fitness and Health

When you pair exercise with healthy eating, you are on the pathway to fitness. Add strength training and aim for the recommended eight hours of sleep each night, and you will accelerate your progress, according to the experts. While you can’t sit down and read your way to fitness, the knowledge and expertise in these books will inspire you to start or improve upon your own journey toward health. As the popular fitness mantra states, “In order to become unstoppable, you have to start.” 1. Ask Dr. Nandi by Dr. Partha S. Nandi Dr. Partha Nandi is a practicing gastroenterologist and internal medicine physician with his own internationally syndicated television show. In his book, Ask Dr. Nandi, he asks: “What if you made your health the most important part of your life?” When we have our health, we have everything, he writes. Partha encourages readers to eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruit and make movement a key part of each day. Fit Tip: “Get up and move. Park far away from the store and walk. Take your bike instead of drive. Wash your own car. Garden. Choose purposeful movement.” 2. No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness by Michelle Segar, Ph.D. Create an active lifestyle based on your personal preferences so that you will no longer dread having to exercise. Using scientific research, author Michelle Segar, Ph.D, shows you how to stay motivated with her four-point plan. Create a personalized approach to exercise that works for you and feels like play, she writes. For fitness motivation, tap into fitness benefits like mental clarity, emotional calm, feeling strong and capable, and the joy of being in nature. Fit Tip: “Tap into how fitness and exercise benefit your daily quality of life—having more energy, less stress and an improved mood.” 3. Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes by Tom Rath Best-selling author Tom Rath was diagnosed as a teenager with a rare illness. He shares his discoveries made through extensive research in the areas of nutrition, exercise and sleep. Your everyday decisions significantly impact your health, Tom writes. Forget diets and exercise trends and work more movement into your life. Focus more on getting the restorative sleep your body needs and sit a lot less, he recommends. Discover numerous ways to shift your lifestyle toward activity and fitness. Fit Tip: “The real magic lies at the intersection between eating, moving and sleeping. If you can do all three well, it will improve your daily energy and your odds of living a long, healthy life.” 4. Thinner Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Female Body by Michael Matthews In this book, personal trainer Michael Matthews dispels several fitness myths and outlines a plan for using strength training to get fit. By creating more muscle, you will burn more calories—even at rest—and your metabolism will work on your behalf, Michael writes. Experience high energy levels and improve your outlook when you incorporate strength training with heavier weights and intense cardio into your exercise regimen. (Note: This book is recommended primarily for those who already have a well-established workout routine.) Fit Tip: “What drives muscle growth? The answer is known as progressive tension overload, which means progressively increasing tension levels in the muscle fibers over time.” 5. Mini Habits for Weight Loss: Stop Dieting, Form New Habits. Change Your Lifestyle Without Suffering by Stephen Guise If you are done with diets, this is the book for you. Focused on behavior change, Mini Habits makes a case for consistent, daily decisions that lead to lasting change. “It’s more energy efficient to automatically do something than to manually weigh your options and decide to act the same way every time,” writes author Stephen Guise. Mini Habits for Weight Loss shows you how to make dietary changes that don’t include swearing off carbs forever. Fit Tip: “We’re quick to blame ourselves for lack of progress, but slow to blame our strategies. Then we repeat them over and over again, trying to make them work. But here’s the thing—if you fail using a particular strategy more than a few times, you need to try another one.” 6. The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises: Four Weeks to a Leaner, Healthier, Sexier You by Adam Campbell, MS, CSCS The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises focuses specifically on the techniques that work for women—from beginners to fitness enthusiasts. This encyclopedic tome is filled with tips, photos and research and various exercises. It also includes workouts from top trainers and movements to work every muscle group. Fit Tip: “Lifting weights gives you an edge over belly fat, stress, heart disease and cancer.” 7. Deskbound: Standing Up to a Sitting World by Kelly Starrett In Deskbound, physical therapist Kelly Starrett takes on the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, specifically sitting too much. Research shows the correlation between sitting and a shortened lifespan. Kelly offers solutions for reducing the amount of time you spend sitting, such as not sitting when you have other options (like on a subway). He encourages the use of standing desks or active workstations. He also writes about how to identify and fix poor posture and prevent and treat lower back, neck, shoulder and wrist pain. Fit Tip: “Sit less. Our bodies were built for movement.” Read more: 19 Best Books to Help Achieve Your Goals Sandra Bilbray is a contributing editor for Live Happy, and the CEO and owner of themediaconcierge.net.

relationships

21 Ways to Spread Love in the World

1. Pass a good book on to a friend. 2. Volunteer at an animal shelter. 3. Cook a homemade meal for someone. 4. Give to a good cause. 5. Let someone keep the change. 6. Volunteer at a senior center. 7. Smile at a stranger. 8. Let someone cut ahead of you in traffic. 9. Tell someone you love him or her. 10. Leave a big tip. 11. Love the people you can be crazy with. 12. Give lunch to a homeless person with a positive note attached. 13. Make a store clerk smile. 14. Send a handwritten appreciation/thank-you note to someone in your life. 15. Pay for the person behind you in line (coffee, food, etc.). 16. Tell your friends how much they mean to you. 17. Send flowers to your partner for no reason. 18. Pick up trash in a park. 19. Be a good listener for someone. 20. Make your co-workers laugh. 21. Be the cream in someone’s coffee. Read more: Practice Random Acts of Kindness Every Day

science

You Are What You Tweet

Margaret “Peggy” Kern doesn’t need to meet you to know how happy you are, or to get an idea of how good your physical health is. She doesn’t have to look at a photo of you or consult a crystal ball; she just needs to spend some time with your social media posts. “Words reveal so much about us,” says Peggy, senior lecturer at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education in Australia. She earned her master’s and doctorate’s degrees in social/personality psychology at the University of California, Riverside, before pursuing additional postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania. “We consistently see the effects of using certain types of language. If people use a lot of hostile language, they tend to have poor relationships, and they have bad habits such as smoking.” Peggy is one of the researchers on the World Well-Being Project at the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, which measures psychological and physical well-being based on the analysis of language used in social media. Research results showed that people who used agreeable words were less likely to be depressed, while those who talked about pain were more likely to experience depression. In one study, for example, social media users whose posts were dominated by hostile and apathetic words, such as “hate” and “bored,” and cursing showed high risk for atherosclerotic heart disease, while those who used positive words like “wonderful” and “friends” consistently showed lower risk. “The differences are really surprising,” Peggy says. “It’s amazing how quickly you can make a story about someone’s life based on the language they use.” Which Came First? What the research can’t tell us about the subjects studied through the World Well-Being Project is whether negative language was already in place before their physical and mental health were affected, or if a diminished state of health and happiness led to the use of negative language. Peggy says both scenarios are possible. “Language reveals who you are, but it also impacts who you are,” she says. “As you use language and it becomes more and more a part of you, it influences who you are and how you think.” Joseph Cardillo, Ph.D., author of Body Intelligence: Harness Your Body’s Energiesfor Your Best Life, says that words have more power than we might realize, and using them affects us as well as having an impact on the people around us. “If we are constantly using dark or negative language, it’s not just about the words—it’s that we feel negative, too,” he explains. For example, if you frequently say you are “sick and tired” of one thing or another, you’re sending a message to your brain, which will react accordingly. “Our brain understands patterns. So if you keep telling your brain these things, then that pattern becomes your brain wave activity. And then you are sick. Or you’re tired. And you have more stress and more anxiety, and it affects your higher-level thinking and problem solving. In the end, it influences your relationships.” The words we use, Joseph notes, are not only an indication of how we feel, but also a map to where we are headed. “The good news is, you can pay attention to the words you use and possibly avoid getting into problems down the road. Your words will tell you what things are draining our energy and which things are boosting them. It’s not just the words, it’s about looking at where those words are coming from and what that’s doing to us.” The Power of Words There’s also proof from the medical community that words are strong influencers of our mental state. In their book Words Can Change Your Brain, Andrew Newberg, M.D., and Mark Robert Waldman illustrate how the use of certain words can change the brain structures of both the person talking and of those listening. Positive words, their research found, strengthened areas in the brain’s frontal lobe and promoted cognitive brain function. Negative or hostile words, on the other hand, triggered the release of neurochemicals designed to protect us from stress. When those words are processed by the amygdala—our fear center—it sounds the alarm, shutting down our frontal lobe activity and triggering the fight-or-flight response. Just a single word, they write, can influence the physical and emotional stress response. “Words are energetic,” Joseph adds. “First of all, the sound itself is energetic. And then that release of energy impacts the other person.” He suggests putting more thought into what words we use to help create more positive situations and outcomes. “It’s a form of mindfulness we can all practice,” he says. Rethinking Our Talk Knowing how much words can influence the way we think and how they affect others gives us an opportunity to change. Peggy, who has lived both in the U.S. and abroad, says that even the way the evening news is presented has an effect on well-being and mindset. “In the States, every broadcast begins with the words, ‘breaking news,’ ” she says. “So immediately it sends people into crisis mode. It becomes a language that impacts our well-being. Changing the language we use can change the culture and create a positive impact.” Becoming aware of it is the first step, according to Peggy. “We certainly see from neuroscience the idea that growth can happen if you practice something over and over. We can rewire our brains in some ways, but it takes time and it’s constant,” she says. “This is about a pattern you create over a long period of time.” Paula Felpsis the Science Editor for Live Happy magazine.

Podcast

How to Build Love that Lasts with Suzie Pileggi Pawelski and James Pawelski

In the movies, happily ever after comes pretty easily. In real life? Not so much. But the husband and wife team of Suzann Pileggi Pawelski, a writer with a Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and James Pawelski, Ph.D., professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, have learned a few things about what it takes to be “Happy Together.” That’s the name of their new book, Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love that Lasts, and in this podcast they share the secrets of what it takes to create deep, lasting love. What you'll learn in this episode: How to bring out the best in yourself and your partner The importance of prioritizing positivity in your relationship How to go on a "strengths date" Links and resources mentioned in this episode: Purchase their book Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love that Lasts. Check out their website here. Follow them on Facebook.

Flourishing Center

A More Positive Way of Grieving

I’ve been interested in the grieving process since I was 14 years old.My brother died in a tragic accident trying to save his fiancée’s life.It was a late summer night in Long Beach, New York. She was drowning, he ran into the water to try to rescue her.She survived, he did not. It was my first intimate encounter with grief, touching the cold skin of a dead body, and learning to ride the roller coaster of emotions that come with mourning a loved one. Since that time, I have also buried my mother, my half-brother, aunts, uncles and grandmother. I’ve had friends die young. I’ve buried my dear friend’s mothers and fathers. I’ve attended the funeral of many close to me. I have supported many people in their grieving journeys—a journey that’s never over. You never really get closure. Instead, you savor the bitter-sweetness of reminiscing. Ritual and Remembrance Last Saturday marked another loss; my best friend’s father passed away. He suffered a heart attack on the tennis court playing with his friends, one of the many physical joys he savored. Monday would have been his 76th birthday. The family had birthday dinner plans and they kept them. We set a place for him at the table, got him a balloon, ate a delicious meal, including his favorite cake, and we sang “Happy Birthday.” Then we lit a candle and took turns while each person recounted a special memory about him. Not only was it an incredibly moving experience, it was a beautiful demonstration of the power of positive psychology put into practice and positive grieving. Positive psychology is defined as the scientific study of optimal human functioning. It aims to move people north of neutral, rather than treating depressed people in order to get to a baseline of happiness. Positive grieving is a way of grieving that does not just get a person out of the negative and back to baseline; it isa form of grieving that builds cognitive, emotional and social resources along the way. The key is using the power of ritual and preventatively building those muscles so that they are there for you and your family during times of need. Many people turn to positive interventions in the heat of the moment and wonder why they didn’t work. I’ve had people tell me, “I tried that deep breathing stuff and it didn’t help me.” “Oh yeah?When did you try it?” I’d ask. “I was having a panic attack, and I tried to take deep breaths to calm down,” they would reply. Well, that’s like running a marathon when you’ve never run a 5K. The purpose of these practices is that you do them over and over so that they become available to you in times of need because you’ve developed that muscle. Building the Muscle According to Jan Stanley (MAPP), who writes frequently on positive psychology, habits, practices and rituals each serve different functions. A habit is abehavior repeated so often it becomes automatic. A practice is an activity that is performed to acquire or improve a skill. And a ritual is a behavior that is performed with symbolic actions that anchor an experience. My best friend’s family has gathered for every birthday dinner and performed this candle ritual for decades. The rituals they’ve performed built a reservoir of social capital in their family. They deepened trust, belonging and safety. And at a time when they needed it most, the ritual—in all its meaning—was there for them. I was profoundly honored to witness their process. We wept together and shared memories. Everyone supported each other and they celebrated his life. I kept thinking, this is positive psychology in practice. Routines provide comfort and predictability in life. Rituals unite people and elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary. Living Through Loss Loss is something that everyone will face at some point in their life. And while you can never prepare for what it will be like to receive that call, you can identify the practices and rituals you share with your friends and family, that build your social glue and networks of support. Bring people together to share, connect and celebrate. Then, you and your community, can stand by each other’s side, hold each other through the tears and build a buttress of support to get through life’s dark days. Read more: 9 Best Books for Dealing With Grief and Loss Emiliya Zhivotovskaya is the CEO and founder of The Flourishing Center, a New York City-based, Benefit Corporation (B-Corp) that is dedicated to increasing the flourishing of individuals, organizations and communities worldwide. She is the creator of the acclaimed Certification in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) program, currently offered in 12 cities across the U.S., Canada and online. She holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Positive Psychology and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Mind-Body Medicine from Saybrook University. Emiliya holds a PCC credential with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), as well as over a dozen certifications, ranging from yoga to Thai massage, biofeedback, motivational interviewing and more.

relationships

Love and Happiness

In fairy tales, lasting love just happens. But in real life, healthy habits are what build happiness over the long haul. What follows is an excerpt from Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts. Written by positive psychology experts and husband-and-wife team Suzann Pileggi Pawelski and James O. Pawelski, this is the first book to explain how you can use the principles of positive psychology to create thriving romantic relationships. *** As important as positive emotions are for us as individuals, they may be even more important for our relationships. They help us forge strong connections with others by breaking down boundaries that separate us from each other. By broadening our attention in ways that help us see ourselves as less distinct from others, they allow us to create all kinds of relationships, including romantic ones. When we are in romantic relationships we desire to expand ourselves by including our partner or spouse within our self and we associate that expansion of our self with the other. Overlapping Circles of Self This influential self-expansion model of love is based on the research of leading relationship scientist Arthur Aron, professor of psychology at Stony Brook University. Aron argues that self-expansion is a catalyst for positive emotions. He and his colleagues use pairs of overlapping circles to ask couples about their relationship quality. On one end of their scale, the pair of circles does not overlap at all, and at the other end, the circles overlap almost completely. The researchers have asked thousands of couples to pick which pair of circles best depicts how they feel about their relationship. The more overlap an individual feels with his or her partner, the better the relationship is likely to fare. This simple measure has been more effective than more complex surveys and interviews at predicting which couples will stay together and which will break up. While self-expansion triggers positivity, Barbara Fredrickson, Kenan Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the leading researcher on positive emotions, finds it works the other way around, as well. In a variety of experiments, she has found that even lab-induced positive emotions can help people see more overlap between themselves and others. These emotions can help people feel closer and more connected to their loved ones. And the more you continually kindle positive feelings in your relationships, the more connected and happy you feel overall. Our Contagious Emotions Another way positive emotions can enhance relationships is through contagion. Just as we can pass colds along to our partners through physical contagion, so we can pass along our feelings to our partners through emotional contagion. Ever notice how when you spend time with your partner, you often wind up feeling the emotions he or she is experiencing? Emotional contagion is rather complex and often happens below the level of our consciousness. It results from the fact that we are built to mimic each other. As infants, we start mimicking our parents soon after we are born, behavior that is critical for our development and constitutes a primary pathway to learning and growing throughout our lives. Emotional contagion results from our tendency to copy or synchronize our facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and behaviors with those around us, and as a result take on their emotional landscape. So although the underlying processes are different, we can talk about catching emotions from others, just as we can talk about catching their colds. And just as there are those who are more susceptible to catching colds from others, there are those who are more sensitive than others to their emotional environment, and thus more likely to pick up the emotions of those around them. This experience, of course, is even more common than the common cold. How many times have you found yourself in a situation in which you are doing fine, but then you spend some time with a partner who is not doing fine? Soon you begin picking up the other person’s negative emotions, and before you know it, you are not doing fine, either. Your partner’s negative emotions have spread to you, and you are now feeling them yourself. How Emotions Spread Researchers have studied this phenomenon by various means and have documented ways in which emotional contagion can result in behavior change. One such researcher is Sigal Barsade, now professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She and her colleagues conducted an experiment with ninety-two college undergraduates, bringing them into a lab and randomly assigning them to twenty-nine groups of two to four students each to simulate a managerial exercise. In some of the groups, she also included a research confederate, an actor trained to display a negative mood. Before beginning the managerial exercise, participants completed a mood questionnaire rating how they felt right at that moment. Each participant, including the confederate, took turns giving a presentation. Immediately afterward, participants completed another questionnaire with the same mood items they had rated previously. They were also independently rated by video coders trained to recognize emotion through facial expression, verbal tone, and body language. Sure enough, the groups with the research confederate became more negative over time, with lower levels of cooperation, decreased perceived performance, and more conflict as compared to the other groups in the study. . This indicates that negative emotions can not only spread to those around us but also negatively affect behavior and performance. This study and others like it show us how important it is to be aware of our emotional states. The negative emotions we are feeling can easily spread to our partners and this can affect not just how we feel but also how we behave. Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts by Suzann Pileggi Pawelski, MAPP and James O. Pawelski, Ph.D. © 2018 by Suzann Pileggi Pawelski and James O. Pawelski. TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Suzann (“Suzie”) Pileggi Pawelski (MAPP) holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a freelance writer and well-being consultant specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on health and relationships. Suzie blogs for Psychology Today and writes the “Science of Well-being” column for Live Happy, where she is also a contributing editor. James O. Pawelski, PhD, James O. Pawelski, PhD, is Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center and Adjunct Professor of Religious Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Principal Investigator on a three-year, $2.5M grant from the Templeton Religion Trust on “The Humanities and Human Flourishing.” Together, Suzie and James give Romance & Research® workshops around the world. Go to buildhappytogether.com to interact with the authors.

Podcast

Attitude of Gratitude with MJ Ryan

MJ Ryan is one of the creators of the Random Acts of Kindness book series and the author of several books, including The Happiness Makeover, The Power of Patience and Attitudes of Gratitude. MJ has mastered the art of living in gratitude, and says that anyone can find more joy by applying this simple practice. She’ll teach us how we can improve our workplace, our relationships and our personal lives with a little more gratitude. What you'll learn in this episode: The value of gratitude How to practice gratitude during difficult times How gratitude can improve your relationships Links and resources mentioned in this episode: Learn more about MJ on her website. Purchase her book Attitudes of Gratitude: How to Give and Receive Joy Every Day of Your Life. Follow her on Twitter.

Self-Care

3 New Year’s Resolutions for Optimists

To those of you who are optimists, like us, who push yourselves to exhaustion to be better every day and are way too hard on yourselves when you don’t hit your own irrationally high standards, we have some advice for you: Stop it. This time, we are approaching end-of-year goal setting in a new way. The research in Shawn’s book The Happiness Advantage shows that we have our thinking backward when we assume that success will lead to happiness when, in truth, having a positive mindset is the greatest predictor of our sustained success. Goals are important, and you may have lots of them, but the best way to achieve them is to start with positivity. So, the key to next year is focusing on the good things in this year. Our three resolutions for optimists are based on new positive psychology research. Resolution No. 1: Be the same in the new year as you were last year. Why does a resolution have to force you to be different? Instead of striving to do something you’ve never done before, like learn Spanish or write a novel, repeat patterns that worked well for you this year. In Before Happiness, Shawn outlines research that shows only two things motivate a brain: seeing that the finish line is close and seeing progress. So, the list you should make for Jan. 1 is not a list of “never-dones,” but rather a list of “dones”—areas you have seen progress in your life that you want to build upon. Think back over the past year. What led to your best moments? Was it taking time to have a date night? Was it saving money so you could vacation in wine country? Whatever it was, resolve to do it again. In research, some say that the best predictor of future performance is past performance. We don’t fully agree with that because it ignores the potential for big change. In general, the only way big change can occur is by repeating a pattern of positive behavior that leads to success. So, instead of starting something new, do even more of what’s already been working for you. What’s the favorite part of who you were this year? Keep it going! Resolution No. 2: For one year, don’t repeat a previous resolution. If starting a yoga practice has been on your list for three years and you still haven’t done it, it’s time to take it off your list. You are better off showing your brain progress rather than continually reminding it of failure. This goes along perfectly with the character strengths research that shows you are better off capitalizing on one of your strengths rather than spending all your time on fixing the weaknesses. When you beat yourself up mentally for your weak areas, you waste mental resources that could be better used on your strengths. Resolution No. 3: Stop saying how happy you will be when you hit this goal. There are admittedly a few hours of anticipatory joy when you make your resolutions for the next year, when you think about how amazing things will be. But that is often quickly replaced by reality. It is much better to peg your happiness to positive things in the past and good things in the present. This is scary for optimists like us who love thinking about the future and talking about new plans. We found as a couple we’d spend time on our vacation dreaming about future vacations, and in doing so, our brains were not in the present. So instead, resolve to be happy today. Do not worry that this will make you content to not grow in the next year. The Happiness Advantage research is clear: Create happiness and every aspect of your life improves in the future. That’s incredible! Moreover, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds, that is an excellent goal. But you will not necessarily be happier, even if you think you will. We bet today alone you met several skinny people who are quite unhappy. Getting a promotion or hitting a sales target are good goals, but you will not necessarily be happier when you attain them. The gain in happiness from money is negligible. There is no known correlation between the number of books you read, how many languages you speak, whether or not you go skydiving and happiness. So many of the things that fill up your resolutions will not make this a happier year. Things that scientifically will make you happier? Being grateful daily for the past and present. Journaling about positive experiences. Making someone else’s year better through an act of kindness. Being resolved to be happy and kind today, focusing on your strengths and giving yourself a break are the keys to your best year ever. Listen to our podcast: The Happiness Advantage With Shawn Achor Read more: Which Kind of Goal-Setter Are You? SHAWN ACHOR is best-selling author of the The Happiness Advantage and Before Happiness. Shawn’s TED Talk is one of the most popular ever, with over 5 million views, and his PBS program has been seen by millions. His latest book is called Big Potential. Learn more about Shawn at Goodthinkinc.com. MICHELLE GIELAN is an expert on the science of positive communication and how to use it to fuel success and the author of Broadcasting Happiness. Formerly a national news anchor for CBS News, Michelle holds a masters of applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Learn more at Goodthinkinc.com.

Practice

Livehappy.com’s Top 10 Stories of 2017

This has been a year filled with lively, uplifting articles and plenty of recommendations for books filled with tools and tips for living a happier life. Here are our 10 most popular stories of the year. 1. 10 Books for Depression and Anxiety We interviewed experts in the field of mental health and combed through the shelves to find the most recommended, helpful and varied list of titles about overcoming depression and anxiety. From straight-ahead workbooks by psychiatric specialists to literary memoirs, the books on this list are intended to make those who are suffering know that they are not alone. 2. Top 10 Books About Happiness Looking for an uplifting read over the holidays? This list will take you all the way to next year, with can’t-miss recommendations such as Brene Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection and Gretchen Rubin’s best-seller, The Happiness Project. 3. 9 Best Books for Spiritual Enlightenment If you have been feeling a little mired down in the material world, try picking up one of these books—by authors such as Deepak Chopra, Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama. They are sure to transport you to a higher plane. 4. Top 10 Books That Will Change Your Life in 2017 In 2017 we recommended exciting new titles from digital happiness expert Amy Blankson, hygge writer Meik Wiking and grit guru Caroline Miller. 5. Sharing Brings Happiness Though published on Livehappy.com back in 2013, this article on the importance of sharing continues to please. 6. Ditch These 5 Habits to Find Happiness This feature story, originally published in the print edition of Live Happy, highlights several people who drastically changed their lives to follow their dreams and discover true happiness. What would you give up to find happiness? 7. Top 10 Books That Will Change Your Life in 2016 This article topped the chart in 2016 and 2017. The list includes groundbreaking books such as The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha and The Happiness Track by Stanford researcher Emma Seppälä. 8. 10 Best Books to Help Achieve Your Goals It can be hard to get motivated and stay committed when we set goals for ourselves. Luckily, we can learn from the pros when it comes to motivation, productivity, goal-setting and time-management. This book list has it all. 9. 12 Top Positive Psychology Courses You Can Take Online Anyone interested in studying the fascinating science of happiness can now do so at the click of a keyboard. Whether you want to take a casual class or earn a certificate, there are several great options to choose from, taught by some of the biggest names in the field. 10. 3 Expert-Tested Tips to Tackle Anxiety Alice Boyes, Ph.D., is not only a psychologist and expert on crippling anxiety, she has also experienced it. Read some of the main tips for overcoming the racing heart, nausea and obsessive thoughts that are included in her book, The Anxiety Toolkit.

Live Happy 9 Books for Dealing with Grief

Reading

9 Books for Dealing With Grief and Loss

Grief and loss take you by surprise: One minute you are sobbing and the next you are laughing through tears when you recall a funny memory. Grief can take your breath away with gut-wrenching sorrow, and it can also make you cherish the great moments you shared with a loved one. Grief is messy and different for everyone who experiences it. The amount of time that has passed doesn’t necessarily indicate how much you’ve healed. To help you navigate the path of loss, here are some of the best books to comfort you through your grief. 1. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy By Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant Only in her mid-40s, Sheryl Sandberg faced the unimaginable. The COO of Facebook and author of the best-seller Lean In, Sheryl found her husband, Silicon Valley executive Dave Goldberg, suddenly dead during a vacation in Mexico. After the shocking loss, she would then have to face her children, her demanding job and her own seemingly bottomless grief. “We all live some form of Option B,” Sheryl writes. This version of her life—without the love of her life by her side—became Sheryl’s Option B. Co-written with psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant, Ph.D., Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, shows how the capacity of the human spirit can help you to persevere and rediscover joy even after facing tremendous pain and loss. Inspiring words: “When we realize that negative events don’t mean ‘everything is awful forever’ it makes us less depressed and more able to cope.” 2. The Year of Magical Thinking By Joan Didion Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne were married and worked side-by-side as writers for 40 years. In 2003, John died from a massive heart attack at the same time the couple’s only daughter, Quintana, lay unconscious in a nearby hospital suffering from pneumonia and septic shock. Her husband’s death propelled Joan into a state she calls “magical thinking,” where she expected her husband to return and “need his shoes.” The Year of Magical Thinking is a memoir of her mourning, as she attempts to make sense of her grief, while tending to the severe illness of her daughter. Inspiring words: “Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” 3. Resilient Grieving: Finding Strength and Embracing Life After a Loss That Changes Everything By Lucy Hone, Ph.D. After losing her 12-year-old daughter in a car accident, psychology professor Lucy Hone had to figure out a way forward with her sorrow. Resilient Grieving combines her bereavement research with positive psychology to show the human capacity for growth after traumatic loss. Calling “resilient grieving” an innate ability, her book details the ways possible to move through grief and discover how to live a more deeply engaged and meaningful life. Inspiring words: “The death of someone we hold dear may be inevitable; being paralyzed by our grief is not.” 4. I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye: Surviving, Coping and Healing After the Sudden Death of a Loved One By Brook Noel and Pamela D. Blair, Ph.D. Called a book of solace, I Wasn’t Ready to Say Goodbye is like a companion to walk you through your grief after unimaginable loss—the kind of book you can turn to again and again. Authors Brook Noel and Pamela Blair, PhD., write about unique circumstances of loss such as suicide and homicide, as well as different grieving styles and myths and misunderstandings about grief. Discover how to get through the pain of losing someone and begin to rebuild your life. Inspiring words: “A heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” 5. A Grief Observed By C.S. Lewis “The death of a beloved is an amputation,” wrote author C.S. Lewis after losing his wife, Joy Gresham, to cancer. A Grief Observed, which inspired the movie Shadowlands, is his raw account of grief so strong it caused a man of stalwart faith to question the universe. He wrote, “…[grief] feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.” Inspiring words: “Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.” 6. On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss By Elisabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler Influential psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s groundbreaking book, On Death and Dying, turned into a national discussion about grief and its five stages. Before her death in 2004, she and David Kessler wrote On Grief and Grieving, which examines the experience of grief. On Grief and Grieving explores how the process of grieving helps us live with loss, including the authors own experiences, practical wisdom and case studies. It delves into sadness, hauntings, dreams, isolation and healing. Inspiring words: “The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not ‘get over’ the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal, and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.” 7. Please Be Patient, I'm Grieving: How to Care For and Support the Grieving Heart By Gary Roe A hospice chaplain and grief specialist, Gary Roe helps provide comfort to those facing the devastating loss of a loved one. His book is filled with tips on how to manage the ups and downs of grief. Learn how to navigate all the changes after a loss of a spouse or significant other, and face the future with hope again. If you want to feel understood, and like you aren’t alone, read this book. You also will find suggestions for helping people you love deal with grief. Inspiring words: “You are far from alone, you’re not crazy, and that you will make it through this.” 8. When Bad Things Happen to Good People By Harold S. Kushner Harold Kushner was a young rabbi when he learned that his 3-year-old son was facing a fatal illness. This grim diagnosis sent Harold on a lifelong quest to examine how God could let good people suffer. He shares how he merged his religious faith with the fear, questions and doubts in this classic book, which has become a resource for others facing similar tragedy. It includes Harold's own experience, plus stories from people he’s helped throughout his career. Inspiring words: “I wanted to write a book that could be given to the person who has been hurt by life—by death, by illness or injury, by rejection or disappointment—and who knows in his heart that if there is justice in the world, he deserved better.” 9. When Things Fall Apart By Pema Chodron When Things Fall Apart is a collection of Buddhist nun Pema Chodron’s wisdom on dealing with grief, illness, fear and more. In the beloved classic, she advises those who are suffering to move toward the pain instead of running away from it. She believes that embracing the negative situation or emotion will help readers find ways to cope and, ultimately, heal. The book weaves in Buddhist wisdom and practical advice throughout to target a variety of life situations. “The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought. That’s what we’re going to discover again and again and again.” Inspiring words: “Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is they are intimate with fear.” Sandra Bilbray is a contributing editor for Live Happy, and the CEO and owner of themediaconcierge.net.