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Stack of homemade wholegrain buckwheat pancakes. Individually fried on pan, thus imperfect shape

Home Cooked Happiness

There are countless reasons we are lucky to live in a time with the internet. Here are a few examples... 1. Maps: I can't believe we ever didn't have cell phones with maps. 2. Information: The sheer volume of information that we have access to that we didn'tused to, mind-boggling. 3. Culture: The access to other people, their ways of living and new ideas for expanding your own life. I begin with these three slightly arbitrary, but important, details about how the internet has made life better because the point is that it's clearly a net positive (get it?!?) BUT we all know there is a dark side to the internet... social media. Social media can make us feel less than, provides endless quantitiesof FOMO, and most importantly provides an ample example of unrealistic everything. But, we're not here to talk about everything. We're here to talk about FOOD. And more specifically how to shut out the noise of Instagram-perfect dishes and unrealistic expectations of what your meals at home should look like. As a person who has worked in and around the food industry for years, I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that most of what you see on the internet is completely inedible. It's been touched by ten hands, lit from every angle, probably sprayed with some preservative or shine enhancer, and is likely festering some sort of bacteria from sitting out too long. The idea that your food should look as perfect as a picture is an unrealistic and unfair expectation, especially for new home cooks who just want to cook a steak without burning the house down. I challenge you to stop comparing your food to an Instagram feed, or to what you saw on TV, or to your favorite food magazine. I challenge you to make food at home and feel really good that you're nourishing your own body and the bodies of the people you love. I challenge you to make dinner about the communal experience of enjoying a night in. I challenge you to put down shame, fear, and anxiety about your dish not being right and just going for it. I challenge you to embrace possible failure. For me, this is happiness in the kitchen. Making simple recipes (and videos) that are easy, delicious, that express love for the people in my life, and that doesn't require an entire day of my life to prepare. Reframe your idea of an ideal meal at home and get cooking! By the way, you know the great thing about the internet? You have access to amazing, simple recipes right at your fingertips and some even have video!

Podcast

Build a Happier Brain With Dawson Church

With his breakthrough book, “The Genie in Your Genes,” Dawson Church, Ph.D., showed the scientific connection between emotion and genetics. Now, with his fascinating follow up, “Mind to Matter,” he looks at the science of achieving our peak mental states, how the energy around us affects our hearts and minds … and how we can change our state to build a happier, healthier life. In this episode, you'll learn: How to access the energy around How negative thinking affects your health The role of meditation and mindfulness in creating better well-being Links and Resources Download the first chapter of his book for free here: https://mindtomatter.club/ Facebook: EFTUniverse Twitter: @EFTUniverse Don't miss an episode! Live Happy Now is available at the following places:

Podcast

Make Work Your Playground With Andrea Goeglein

Andrea Goeglein, Ph.D., also known as Dr. Success, is an author, speaker and executive coach who uses the practices of positive psychology to manifest success in the business world. Having worked as an entrepreneur as well as the executive level, Andrea uses her experience to teach business leaders how to implement the principles of positive psychology to find both personal fulfillment and greater career success with her Las Vegas-based company, Serving Success. Andrea joins Science Editor Paula Felps to discuss how positivity and character strengths can lead to personal success, as well as other top secrets that lead to a flourishing life. In this episode, you'll learn: How success and positivity can flourish together Why it’s important to use your character strengths at work Adversity can be a catalyst to change Links and Resources To find out more about Dr. Success, visit servingsuccess.com Linkedin: drsuccessphd Twitter: @drsuccess Don't miss an episode! Live Happy Now is available at the following places:

Practice

5 Things You Need to Know About Mindfulness

We all could use a break from time to time. Creating good habits, like being more mindful, can help keep stress from over taking your life. Here are five things you should know when it comes to practicing mindfulness. We’re talking about practice. We will never get good at anything without practice. Experts recommend finding ten minutes for mindfulness throughout the day, preferably in the morning. Set a timer or alert on your phone to help you create and maintain the habit. Mindfulness guru Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “If you can learn how to live in this present moment, then mindfulness doesn’t take any time at all. You’re moving through life, surfing on your breath and handling whatever comes up as you need to.” It’s not voodoo. Mindfulness practices and meditation have roots in many cultures dating back thousands of years. This may make some people thing that there is some sort of mysticism involved, but mindfulness is a natural process that allows to focus on your present awareness. You can practice mindfulness by washing the dishes or walking your dog. As long you are focused on the moment and don’t let yesterday or tomorrow creep in, you are where you need to be. Need Help? That’s easy. Andy Puddicombe’s leading meditation app Headspace, has proven to be a leader in teaching mindfulness. Andy’s easy-going attitude and soothing voice guide you through the journey of your inner you. The first 10 sessions are free. If you like what you hear (and feel), a monthly subscription opens a whole new world of meditations designed for specific areas in your life, including stress and anxiety. The time is now. If your life is busy and you aren’t sure about a when is a good time to start your practicing mindfulness, how about now? Jack Kornfield, author of No Time Like the Present and one of people responsible for introducing mindfulness to Western culture, says there is no time better than the present to start your mindfulness journey. Being mindful can open the door to getting more joy and fulfillment out of your life. Build a Better Brain. Practicing mindfulness on a regular basis can strengthen parts of your brain designed for empathy and self-awareness, according to Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Just One Thing and Hardwiring Happiness. Being mindful can thicken the brain’s cortical layers that help us focus and activate the left prefrontal cortex that keeps our negativity in check.

Practice

Finding Happiness in People

As the late psychologist and pioneer in positive psychology Christopher Peterson famously wrote in his book Pursuing the Good Life, “Other people matter.” As cultural creatures, humans have unique capabilities to communicate our needs with each other. Through touch, sound and even feelings, we can signal when we are sad, angry or content. Without other people, we wouldn’t know right from wrong and we certainly wouldn’t know what makes us happy. Here is the latest in research related to the science of happiness and well-being that proves Christopher may have been on to something. Hugs Not Shrugs People who settle their differences with a nice warm hug have happier, stronger relationships than those who do not prefer personal contact, especially on a really tough day. According to new research from Carnegie Mellon University, the positive results from hugging were the same for men and women, married or not. While the outcomes are correlational at this point, researchers point out that interpersonal touch is a shield to stress and is associated with “increased attachment security, greater perceived partner support, enhanced intimacy, higher relationship satisfaction and easier conflict resolution.” Like a Good Neighbor Having friends living nearby and making regular positive connections with your neighbors can improve the overall satisfaction with your neighborhood. In a longitudinal study recently published in the journal City & Community from the American Sociological Association, researchers found that neighbors who practiced good neighborly behaviors, such as looking after one another’s property and doing favors for each other, may actually stave off negative perceptions about disadvantaged areas too, leading to opportunities of investment back into the neighborhood. Stronger bonds within the neighborhood mean less fear and isolation, which can then increase life satisfaction. Forgive to Live Forgiveness is not just a good practice for long-lasting happiness and well-being, but it may be a survival tool that we have always had. New research appearing in the journal Nature Human Behavior suggests that having the ability to forgive helps us maintain our social relationships, even when someone hurts another. “Humans have not evolved in isolation, but in groups—we need to cooperate with others to survive,” says Jenifer Siegel, a Ph.D. student at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study. “Lenient and forgiving strategies in natural selection offer an advantage because they allow people to make mistakes and prevent us from prematurely terminating relationships that are necessary for the survival of our species.” Conversely, she says, our forgiving nature can also cause us to stick around in bad relationships, too. Happiness and Beyond As we increase our happiness in our later years, we may be able to decrease our risk of death, creating longer lasting lives, according to new research from the DukeNUS Medical School. The study, recently published in the scientific journal Age and Ageing, surveyed Singaporeans aged 60 years and up, found that people who reported to be happy with their lives had 19 percent less of a chance of dying over people who said they were unhappy. The findings suggest the even small increments of happiness benefit longevity in both men and women.

Flourishing Center

Financial Well-Being and Positive Psychology

Take a glimpse into the world of positive psychology withThe Flourishing CenterPodcast. Each episode is divided into three sections giving you insights into living an authentic happy and flourishing life. What you'll learn in this podcast: Science Says—A 2010 study shows that high income improves evaluation of life but not well-being, since day to day emotional well-being is quite different from our thoughts about life satisfaction. LifeHack—How to use PERMA-V to achieve your financial goals through supporting your overall well-being. Practitioner’s Corner—Meet Carin Rockind, Founder of Women’s Global Happiness Day. Learn more aboutThe Flourishing Center

Cheerful businesswoman standing in office environment. Young female executive standing and looking at camera.

work

3 Ways You Can Work Like an Entrepreneur

If you aren’t familiar with entrepreneurs, you might assume that they lead the lonely life: You have the image of them toiling in a garage (Hewlett and Packard, Steve Jobs and Wozniack) or going it alone to keep a struggling business in the black. If that’s what you believe, have I got news for you: When entrepreneurs are “doing their thing” they are so driven (in a healthy way), so focused (as in the precursor to flow) and riding cloud nine. Entrepreneurs awake each day yearning to get to work. Often, they don’t stop working until someone prompts them to take a break so they can have a meal. The good news is even if you’re not an entrepreneur, you can be entrepreneurial. The ABCs of doing so are described below: Make It Better The entrepreneur has no need to invent anything at all to be happy! One of the most respected scholars in the field of entrepreneurship, Harvard economist Joseph Schumpeter, said that entrepreneurs engage in “creative destruction”—replacing old ways of doing things with new and improved methodologies. If you have “a better idea” regarding how something is done, you have most of what it takes to be entrepreneurial. All you must do is improve upon the status quo in a particular business arena or market. Your “better idea” doesn’t even need to be terribly novel. Consider how Amazon handles returns: If you ask for a refund on an item and it is within a reasonable period of time, a few keystrokes on your computer gets the job done. You do have to ship the item, but contrast returns to Mr. Bezos’ shop with most other vendors. Part of his genius is realizing that standing in line to return an item that’s wrong adds insult to injury. Yes, Amazon is much more that easy returns, but that alone is a game-changing idea. Passion Project You must be impassioned to be entrepreneurial and make yourself happy at work. In fact, you must see no impediments at all to actualizing your dream. The worst thing that can happen to an adult is to lose a child, particularly to a murderer. It happened to the woman who founded MADD (Mother’s Against Drunk Driving) and the man who founded America’s Most Wanted. Instead of seeking revenge for their losses, these people converted their rage into pro-social endeavors: MADD, to “get” all drunk drivers off the road, and America’s Most Wanted to bring all criminals to justice. The entrepreneurs behind these endeavors never flagged in the work it took to develop them. You needn’t suffer a major tragedy to get angry and “get them” in a pro-social manner. Does homelessness enrage you? Fight to help build it in a manner akin to Habitat for Humanity. Take any societal “wrong” and solve it creatively, and you’re guaranteed passion and entrepreneurial energy for life. Avoid the Burn Why is anger that is not converted into entrepreneurial energy the No. 1 predictor of job burnout? Burnout is born of Sisyphean work—rolling a rock up a hill only to have it roll down again, over and over, for eternity. Or, “the same old, same old.” If you feel that this sort of work is wasting your mind—your potential to do creative things—how can you feel anything but anger? The problem is, virtually all of us must work to pay bills, so it’s not guaranteed that we can march into a boss’s office and scream, “Take this job and shove it.” If you realize that you are angry but need to work, be entrepreneurial on the job. Take the worst aspect of your job or your company and improve upon it. The paradox of adding entrepreneurial work to your life is that it is energizing! It gives you a “runner’s high” because the feeling of doing something good—what psychologists call “self-efficacy”—taps into all the reward centers of your brain and spews “mood elevating” chemicals into your body.

Podcast

Strengths-Based Parenting With Lea Waters

Lea Waters, Ph.D., is more than just the current president of the International Positive Psychology Association; she’s also a researcher and expert on character strengths—and the mother of two. Her latest book, The Strength Switch: How the New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish showed parents how focusing on children’s strengths instead of trying to correct their weaknesses can yield extraordinary results. Now, Lea has created an online course based on The Strength Switch to give families the tools they need to put her findings into practice. In this episode of Live Happy Now, Live Happy CEO Deborah Heisz talks to Lea about how (and why) strengths-based parenting can benefit every family. In this episode, you'll learn: How focusing on your child’s strengths can unlock their full potential Why it’s important for families to work on this together How your family can benefit from this online course You can learn more about Lea's online course here, and you can also hear more from Lea about The Strength Switch here. Also in this week's episode, Mike Pepperman of LG Electronics explains the company's Experience Happiness initiative, which is bringing the principles of sustainable happiness to schools. Links and Resources Twitter: ProfLeaWaters Instagram: ProfLeaWaters Don't miss an episode! Live Happy Now is available at the following places:

Lifestyle

9 Books for a Happy Home

What does it take to have a happy home? It’s the people who live there. You could have a $3 million estate or a tiny house, but the people inside will have the greatest contagious effect on the energy, mood and feeling of the place. We put together the nine best books to create a happy home. Happy Home: Everyday Magic for a Colorful Life by Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau What if you could give your home a happiness makeover? Happy Home: Everyday Magic for a Colorful Life will make your house come alive with color and playful accessories. Do-it-yourself projects and contemporary designs transform rooms with bright colors, cheerful patterns and interesting textures inspired by designer Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau and her home furnishings company Rice. Add some humor to your décor and deploy her ideas, including vibrant throws and cushions, storage ideas to hide clutter, hand-painted furniture and decorative motifs for walls and other surfaces. Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis What if the stories you tell yourself are derailing your happiness? If you think other people have life all figured out and you are lagging behind, this book can snap you awake. Rachel Hollis, founder of the lifestyle website TheChicSite.com reveals 20 lies and misconceptions that can hold us back. With vulnerability, Rachel shares her personal story to show how happiness is a choice you can make each day—regardless of where you are on your journey. Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo You’ve likely read or heard of Marie Kondo from her international best-seller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, that inspired millions of people to get organized and surround themselves only with items they truly love. In her latest book, Spark Joy, she illustrates her popular KonMarj method of organization. Use her advice to organize kitchen tools, cleaning supplies, hobby goods and digital photos. When’s the last time you asked yourself if your items are propelling you forward or holding you back? Experience the euphoria and mental freedom that comes from Marie’s magical decluttering advice. The Empowered Mama: How to Reclaim Your Time and Yourself While Raising a Happy, Healthy Family by Lisa Druxman “There isn’t enough time in the day.” If you’ve ever said this sentence (or felt it!) then this book is for you. The old adage that if mama isn’t happy no one is—is so true. Use the tools in The Empowered Mama to learn how to recharge your body and mind when the demands of motherhood, your professional life and your home life are taking all of your time. Maximize your time by focusing on what you have to accomplish most and use her many tips to get your life in order. Rediscover how to feel like an empowered mother for your own well-being. When moms are happy, the home will be full of happy energy, too. Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave by Joanne Gaines Joanna Gaines, famous designer and co-star of HGTV’s Fixer Upper with her husband, Chip Gaines, shows you how to create a home that reflects your personality and becomes a place you never want to leave. In Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave, learn how to know your design style by assessing your likes and dislikes and going with your instincts. Homebody is your go-to manual to create a beautiful home and spaces customized to your personal tastes. Her step-by-step guide will help you redo your house room by room. Happier Now: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Embrace Everyday Moments (Even the Difficult Ones) by Nataly Kogan When you step inside your home, you know it holds memories both good and bad. What if you began looking at your life differently and looked at every moment of your life as truly living—even the painful moments? Author Nataly Kogan immigrated to the United States from Russia and has a unique perspective and draws from science, Eastern traditions and her experience as a refugee on how to be happier by boosting your resilience and building up your emotional immune system. Stop the “I’ll be happy when” and change your life to “I’m happy now because …” Embrace difficult times with more compassion and stability. Enjoy life inside your home no matter what is going on in your life at the moment. Getting Back to Happy: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Reality, and Turn Your Trials into Triumphs by Marc Chernoff Use the power of your daily rituals, mindfulness practices, and self-care routines to overcome whatever life throws your way and be your best self. Personal development experts Marc and Angel Chernoff wrote the book they needed most. Elevate your sense of purpose at home and live with a greater sense of self-worth. For example, learn the art of mindful reframing to get in a better mental state. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, reframe how you view your life and begin to see your life as rich and interesting. You also will learn how to work on your relationship skills to foster mutual respect, genuine affection and lifelong trust. Simplify: 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life by Joshua Becker What if you reduced the possessions you own to inspire living? Simplify is a celebration of minimalism. Find out how to live more by owning less from someone who made the leap. Author Joshua Becker and his family minimized possessions, decluttered their home and simplified their lives. His experience led to a profound sense of freedom and inspired him to share his story with others. “We were never meant to live life accumulating stuff. We were meant to live simply enjoying the experiences of life, the people of life and the journey of life—not the things of life,” he writes. Get It Together! An Interior Designer's Guide to Creating Your Best Life by Orlando Soria Designer Orlando Soria started out on HGTV and his popularity grew with his well-known design and lifestyle blog, Hommemaker. With his signature blunt and funny style, Get It Together! walks you through challenges such as how to plan a dinner party when you’re broke, how to hang art like you own a gallery, or prepare your home for an unwanted guest. Laugh out loud with his take on topics such as "How to Make Non-Garbagey Flower Arrangements.” He offers design tips for men, how to make your own coffee table and decorate a kid’s room. Solve home entertaining dilemmas, avoid newbie design mistakes and host guests like a pro. With humor, he shows anyone how to get it together on the home front.

Podcast

Let Creativity Flow with Keiko Agena

If your internal critic and busy schedule keep you from the creative pursuits you enjoy, this interview—and a new book by actress Keiko Agena—are for you. Keiko, best known as Lane Kim on the TV show Gilmore Girls, wrote and illustrated No Mistakes: A Perfect Workbook for Imperfect Artists, for anyone looking to nurture their “wild, wacky” and more spirited side. In No Mistakes, interspersed with coloring pages and her original artwork, Keiko guides you through simple exercises based on one of the founding ideas of improv: Any misstep is an opportunity for growth and creativity. In this episode, you'll learn: What most adults get wrong about creativity How to dial down your critical inner voice to try new things Keiko’s “no mistakes” philosophy and how to apply it to your life How to carve out time for creativity Also in this episode, Science Editor Paula Felps talks to Live Happy CEO Deborah K. Heisz about her new Find the Good blog on livehappy.com. Links and Resources For more go to mskeikoagena.com Twitter: @KeikoAgena Facebook: Keiko-Agena Instagram: @keikoagena

Home Cooked Happiness

Build a Happier Brain With Dawson Church

Make Work Your Playground With Andrea Goeglein

5 Things You Need to Know About Mindfulness

Finding Happiness in People

Financial Well-Being and Positive Psychology

3 Ways You Can Work Like an Entrepreneur

Strengths-Based Parenting With Lea Waters

9 Books for a Happy Home

Let Creativity Flow with Keiko Agena

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