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Illustration of people playing a card game

Fun at Work with Scott Crabtree

Scott Crabtree, founder of the company Happy Brain Science, has spent years studying positive psychology and what makes us happy. But when Scott combined his love of game design with his passion for positive psychology, he blazed an entirely new trail by creating the game, Choose Happiness @ Work. Today, Scott tells us how the very things that make us happy when playing games are the same things that make us happy at work — and then he explains how we can all gamify our lives to create greater happiness at work. What you'll learn in this episode: What "gamification" means and how it can be used in daily life The four components of games (and work) that make you happy The science of why games engage us, and what we can learn from them Also in this episode, Web Editor Chris Libby drops by to talk about the latest and greatest new Happy Facts! Links and resources mentioned in this episode: Follow Scott on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Learn more about his company Happy Brain Science here. Enter code LIVEHAPPY25 at happybrainscience.com for 25% off Choose Happiness @ Work. Text HAPPYGAME to 345345 to get a free e-book on gamification!

Schoolchildren carrying notebooks at school

Education

Celebrate Character Day on September 26

Join us for the fifth annual Character Day on September 26! Last year there were more than 133,000 Character Day events in 150 countries and all U.S. states. “In a world that seems to become more and more divided, it has never been more important to stop and recognize our own character strengths in ourselves and in others,” says Makenzie Darling, Let It Ripple director of strategic partnerships and engagement. “Character Day brings out the best in humanity and promotes happy lifestyles where people feel more interconnected.” Character Day is a free day and global initiative where school districts, individual classrooms, companies, organizations and families—groups of all sizes—screen films on the science of character development from different perspectives, dive into free printed discussion materials catered to different ages and join an online global Q&A conversation featuring prominent leaders discussing the importance of developing character strengths (resilience, grit, empathy, courage, kindness)—all rooted in evidence-based research. Character Day is one day. The resources are available year-round. Please watch the 1 minute trailer (also embedded below) and sign up today! How Character Day Works Character Day and all of the materials are supported by grants so there is no cost to participate. Your Character Day event(s) can look and feel any way you would like it to be...any time of the day, anywhere and any size. The Character Day team provides your group with films, the Periodic Table of Character Strengths Poster, printed discussion materials, a robust online hub of resources and an online conversation with leading experts on character education from multiple perspectives. Watch the Films You may watch the acclaimed films 30,000 Days (11 minutes), The Science of Character (8 minutes) and The Adaptable Mind (11 minutes) to get a better sense of what types of films will be shown on Character Day. A new feature length film, Connected, will be offered this year along with other curated resources from partner organizations. A poster of The Periodic Table of Character Strengths is included in the free hands-on discussion kit. Also included in the kits: a deck of 44 conversation cards with discussion guides, questions for all ages and quotes related to the poster. 2018 Character Day Invitation from Let it Ripple on Vimeo.

Lifestyle

10 Best Books for Good Mood Food

Folate in spinach can boost those mood-controlling neurotransmitters in your brain. Yet if Popeye’s fix doesn’t appeal to you, try eating an orange or grapefruit to get the same mood-regulating vitamin B benefits. For a moment of calm, eat a banana for its potassium and serotonin. Grumpy? Shift that mood with some berries. Eating the rainbow is sage advice for a happier you, and no, we don’t mean that bowl of sugary Froot Loops. Healthy, colorful fruits and veggies can make for a healthier brain and a happier you. We rounded up 10 books to help you rock your good mood—with food. Flat Belly 365: The Gut-Friendly Superfood Plan to Shed Pounds, Fight Inflammation, and Feel Great All Year Long by Manuel Villacorta If you’ve ever consumed too many doughnuts in one sitting, you know sugar can make you feel sluggish and tired. Superfoods do the opposite, helping you feel super! Flat Belly 365 offers enticing recipes even if your goal isn’t to have washboard abs. National dietitian Manuel Villacorta shares recipes made with superfoods, anti-inflammatory fats, and prebiotic and probiotic foods to balance your appetite, reduce cravings, regulate blood sugar, fight inflammation and fuel your body for optimal health. Each chapter is organized by the seasons of the year, making shopping and meal planning easy. Seven-day menu plans are included. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating by Walter Willett, MD and P.J. Skerrett If you want to eat healthy but your head spins from all the food trends, conflicting information and celebrity diets, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy cuts through all the noise. Walter Willett, MD, chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, draws on cutting-edge research to explain what the USDA guidelines have gotten wrong—and how you can eat right. Learn simple principles and meal plans to live better and longer. Discover the research behind the best types of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and the importance of supplements. After not smoking, controlling your weight is the single most important factor for a long, healthy life, the authors contend. The Simple Guide to Natural Health: From Apple Cider Vinegar Tonics to Coconut Oil Body Balm, 150+ Home Remedies for Health and Healing by Melanie St. Ours Use medicinal plants, healing foods and everyday ingredients like coconut oil and apple cider vinegar to help you heal from ailments and thrive. Clinical herbalist Melanie St. Ours offers recipes that promote emotional balance and health. Try her mood-lifting trail mix, happiness syrup or pick-me-up peppermint latte. Make a cup of lavender or chamomile tea to relieve anxiety or depression. The food in your pantry and fridge can support your health and improve your outlook. Rise and Shine: Better Breakfasts for Busy Mornings by Katie Sullivan Morford How you start your day matters. You already know breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but what if you could make breakfast so appealing it brings your family together around the table each day? Nutritionist and mother of three Katie Sullivan Morford offers tips, recipes and inspiration for making delicious and nutritious breakfasts.Rise and Shineis for parents who don’t want to sacrifice quality time and quality meals on busy mornings. The Happiness Diet: A Nutritional Prescription for a Sharp Brain, Balanced Mood, and Lean, Energized Body by Drew Ramsey, MD and Tyler G. Graham What if the foods responsible for the obesity epidemic are also causing increased levels of depression and anxiety? That’s the premise behind The Happiness Diet. If you want simple solutions to make and eat feel-good foods for your brain and your body, this is the book for you. Learn how to move away from the modern American diet (which the authors call MAD) and get nutrition back in your meals. The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions—Today by Julia Ross Julia Ross’s plan provides a natural cure for your mood based on deficiencies in our neurotransmitters. She believes we can use food to overcome depression, anxiety, irritability, stress and other negative emotional states that take a toll on the quality of our lives. Julia’s plan is based on the use of four mood-building amino acids and nutritional supplements. Enjoy meals that include protein, healthy fat and certain key vegetables. Take her mood-type questionnaire to start feeling better and brighter. Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power by Lisa Mosconi, Ph.D. Lisa Mosconi is a neuroscientist and a certified integrative nutritionist who focuses on the dietary needs of the brain. Lisa provides recommendations for a complete food plan while calling out some popular notions, including: why a paleo diet may not be ideal, why avoiding gluten may be a mistake, and how getting enough water improves alertness.Review lists of what to eat and what to avoid and take a quiz that will tell you where you are on the brain health spectrum. Use your food choices to improve memory, prevent cognitive decline, eliminate brain fog, lift depression or improve mental alertness. At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen: Celebrating the Art of Eating Well by Amy Chaplin and Johnny Miller When your food, kitchen and meals are bright, you will be, too. Delight in the joy of food again in this colorful book full of recipes, menus and whole food tips. “Cook simple meals with organic ingredients. Find a daily practice that helps keep you connected, inspired and grounded. Practice gratitude and do what you love,” writes chef, food stylist and lover of food, Amy Chaplin. Vegans, vegetarians and carnivores will all find recipes to add to their collection and ideas to inspire a beautiful kitchen. The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig The popular The Whole30offers a 30-day meal plan designed to reset your health, habits and relationship with food so you can overcome cravings and addictions. The science behindWhole30is covered in the authors’ first book,It Starts With Food.The plan focuses on the quality of real food and omits processed foods and sugar as well as grains and legumes. You will have to say goodbye to cheese and even hummus (made from legumes), but you can keep your morning coffee if you drink it black or with almond milk. Eat foods for a healthy psychological response, transform your relationship with food, quash cravings and boost your immune system. Keto Comfort Foods: Family Favorite Recipes Made Low-Carb and Healthy by Maria Emmerich Comfort foods…just hearing those two words can make you feel good. We all crave them and they are designed to give us a big helping of comfort and foster well-being. The problem is, most comfort foods aren’t really good for your body—until now. In Keto Comfort Foods, enjoy a healthy spin on some of your favorite comfort foods with a variety of recipes presented with beautiful photography. Each recipe contains nutritional information and rated low, medium or high ketogenic (putting the body into a state of ketosis to burn stored fat). Whip up some beef stew, BBQ chicken lasagna, clam chowder, maple bacon ice cream or Sunday pot roast.

Lifestyle

Kindness Sticks

Welcome, Happy Activists! A Happy Activist is someone who, through kind words and intentional actions, strives to make the world a better place. Live Happy invites you to join our #HappyActs movement! On the 20th of each month, we encourage everyone to incorporate kindness into your daily lives by participating in each month’s planned activity. The more who join the #HappyActs movement, the more positive impact we'll all have on our homes, workplaces and communities. What you think and do matters! August’s theme—just in time for the back-to-school season—is education. For students of all levels, learning character strengths and mental and physical well-being alongside the academic basics ensures both greater achievement and long-term happiness. And for adults, scientists confirm that lifelong learning is associated with greater life satisfaction and a sense of optimism and engagement. Our August 20 Happy Act is to post encouraging and positive notes at school; try our school-themed sticky notes to get things started! Meet our Happy Activist of the month, Kathleen Desloges, a music, drama and dance teacher in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. “I get to work with hundreds of students in a week, and every day we start our classes with a conversation about gratitude, happiness or kindness,” she says. “It’s fun to show up with a purpose!” 3 Steps on How to Prepare for a Happy Act: Researchwhat charitable opportunities are near you. Contactthe organization and discuss how you can help. Plana time to go volunteer and/or determine what you can donate. Learn more: Lifelong Education Delivers Confidence, Joy and Hope. If we’re not learning, we’re not growing. According to the VIA Institute on Character, adults who are learning something new—by taking a class, pursuing a hobby or reading every day—report less stress and greater feelings of hope and purpose. Never Stop Learning. Try these three strategies from Ryan Niemiec, Psy.D., of the Via Institute on Character, to boost your learning mindset and start to see challenges as opportunities. Character and Well-Being. British schoolmaster Sir Anthony Seldon says positive education “isn’t a case of either teaching for tests or teaching for personal growth and happiness; if you teach for happiness and growth and character, you’ll get better exam results because you’ll be developing their intrinsic motivations rather than extrinsic motivations.” 4 Ideas Shaping the Future of Education. Learning to develop grit and character; considering the role of parents; emphasizing what’s going well and focusing on problem-solving over negative characterizations are driving conversations about positive education. The Strength Switch With Lea Waters. Listen to our Live Happy Now podcast with Lea Waters, Ph.D., to learn about the benefits of strength-based parenting and two easy ways to start implementing it. Learning How to Learn Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., the Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning at McMaster University, professor of engineering at Oakland University and author of several books, including A Mind for Numbers and Mindshift, teaches an online course called “Learning How to Learn.” Ready to grow? Start with these guidelines: Think of learning as a lifestyle. Create your own process for acquiring knowledge and skills and ask questions. Work with your brain, not against it. When learning new things, give your brain time so new neural connections can be made. Rethink failure. Encountering difficulty and failure encourages brain plasticity. Be prepared to feel like an impostor, then get over it. Mastery is not a static end state, but a high level of ability to find ways to refine one’s knowledge and skills. Challenge yourself to ask, “What are you learning that keeps you inspired and hungry for more?” Additional Resources: International Positive Education Network Donors Choose Plasticity’s Hero Generation The Strength Switch Via Institute on Character Champlain College Tecmilenio University

Interrnational Positive Education Network

Lifestyle

Summit Kick-Starts Global Positive Education Transformation

Educators, administrators, students and anyone concerned about the inclusion of character and well-being principles in schools traveled from all around the globe to attend The World Positive Education Accelerator (WPEA): Second Festival of Positive Education + Appreciative Inquiry Summit last month in Fort Worth, Texas. Held in the Fort Worth Convention Center, more than 30 countries were represented with roughly 900 like-minded individuals dedicated to integrating more positive education in global educational systems. This conference’s unique approach went beyond topics of learning and achievement in math, science, social studies and language, sharing the latest in research on curricula that boost student well-being, resilience and “grit.” This focus aids the development of individuals who reach their full potential of learning and leading through a positive mindset and critical problem-solving. With a growing number of children struggling today to cope with challenges at school and at home—ranging from technology distractions and innovations to increasing teen depression, bullying and school violence—the need is urgent, participants say. “Essentially we’re redesigning what 21st century global education looks like,” says Sir Anthony Seldon, president of the International Positive Education Network (IPEN), a co-convener of the four-day conference with the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at Champlain College. “We want educators to walk away empowered with the tools, resources and connections to make real, lasting change.” Advocates for positive education, including Lea Waters, Ph.D., a psychology researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia, say that when we focus on our children’s strengths and have the right tools to teach character, we can see grades, life satisfaction, self-confidence and positive emotions improve. This gives our children the best chance to cope with the struggles that life may bring. One of things that has got to be in our close future is the creation of inexpensive ways of reliably and validly training many teachers who want to deliver positive education,”-Martin Seligman, Ph.D. Using David Cooperrider’s Appreciative Inquiry method (a whole-system approach to problem-solving), attendees had the opportunity to look for solutions from all angles, including strengths-based parenting, positive psychology practices, faculty and staff training, and lifting up surrounding institutions and communities. “We have this opportunity to create the best educational systems in the world,” David told the eager crowd. “My heart aches for where it is not happening.” Attendee Margarita Tarragona, Ph.D., a psychologist, coach, organizational consultant and author from Mexico, found the conference empowering. “I came for two reasons. I love positive psychology and am very involved in the movement, and I wanted to experience the full Appreciative Inquiry process for the first time,” she says. “It’s so interesting to me to observe the process that can bring so many people together and turn that energy and brain power into something concrete to create real change. “It was particularly moving to hear David Cooperrider say that of all the projects he’s involved in, he believes this is the most important and the most critical to our global future. What a wonderful inspiration to be a part of that,” she says. Keynote speakers included positive psychology powerhouses such as Martin Seligman, Angela Duckworth, Lea and Anthony. David led the summit portion of the conference with Lindsey Godwin, director of the Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at Champlain College. Attendees from Texas, California, Vermont, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, China, Mexico, Australia and beyond broke into smaller groups according to their strengths and interests to address summit topics such as teacher enrichment and training; what the future of learning will look like for all levels from early education to higher education; new science and research opportunities; national and international policy; and business as a force for positive education. Martin, a founding father of positive psychology, explained to the crowd that teaching character and well-being in schools can buffer against negativity, anger, anxiety and depression. He notes that more accountability and training is needed to help it take hold. “One of things that has got to be in our close future is the creation of inexpensive ways of reliably and validly training many teachers who want to deliver positive education,” he says. Lisa Sansom, an organizational development specialist from Ontario, Canada, shares the desire for more teacher training at all levels. “I would really like to see this flourish and grow and really come to life,” she says. She believes more leaders in the right positions need to make the right decisions. “The one thing we really need is a leadership champion. Someone who is positioned high enough to be able to say, ‘yes this is it, and start making it happen,’ kind of the way Anthony Seldon has in the U.K. ... We need someone to say, ‘this is great, let’s go.’” The global turnout and interest in positive education was encouraging to Lewis Forrest II, associate dean for university life at George Mason University. He believes there would be more interest in well-being and character in schools if more educators had access to the information. “I’ve gotten a few responses on social media from folks who asked, ‘Where are you, what are you doing?’” he says. “These are really excellent dedicated teachers and educators who just don’t know.” As educators and administrators start to see results, there will be more of a positive response, he says. “With anything that you learn, the critical piece is how you share it, explain it to folks and coach them on what is useful.” For more information or to get involved, go to IPEN and David Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at Champlain College.

Kirobo Mini can fit in the palm of your hand.

Lifestyle

Driving Happiness

While Knight Industries Two Thousand (KITT) may have been ahead of its time, car companies are turning to neuroscience and artificial intelligence technology to boost your positive emotions behind the wheel and beyond. Recently, Toyota Motor Corporation unveiled a palm-size companion robot to keep you company on and off the road. The Kirobo Mini, which is now available in Japan, is designed to read human emotions—like delight, pleasure, surprise or anger—from our facial expressions. Kirobo Mini will ask if you are sad or comment that you look happy today. If we drive too fast, it may tell us to slow down. Kirobo, which is the Japanese word for hope, eventually adapts to your personality and remembers conversations. According to Toyota, more than 5,000 Kirobo Minis have been sold, and the reception to these cuddly bots has been positive. Some have even accepted Kirobo Mini as part of the family. “We did receive some feedback that Kirobo Mini encouraged and increased conversation between couples who gradually had less conversation after their children had grown up and left home,” according to a spokesperson with Toyota. Researchers at Ford are also trying to enhance the driving experience by tapping in to our emotions. In a recent study, Ford teamed up with neuroscience and bio-emotion research company Sensum to see how driving compared to other peak excitement activities. Researchers found that participants driving in a Ford Focus RS loaded with artificial Intelligence emotion reading technology had 2.1 buzz moments during a typical commute. Only a ride on a roller coaster gave more moments of intense excitement. The 2018 Ford Mustang V8 GT. Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company. Emma Bergg of Ford Public Affairs says the driver-state research at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Aachen, Germany, is paving the way for smarter and safer cars. Working with EU-funded projects to bridge the gap between human interaction and autonomous driving, researchers at Ford hope to build in-car systems designed to detect our emotions, notice when our stress levels are too high or when we are too tired to drive. Our cars may even take control and save us from dangerous situations. Michael Knight would be proud. Ford’s “Buzz”-worthy Moments Number of times people hit peak levels of excitement: 3.0 On a roller coaster 2.1 Driving a performance car on a typical commute 1.7 On a shopping trip 1.5 Watching Game of Thrones or sports on TV 0 Salsa dancing, fine dining or a passionate kiss

Lifestyle

Find the Good: A Gritty Raccoon Gives Us All Hope

In our daily lives, it’s so easy to focus on what’s not right—burned toast at breakfast, the slow leak in your car’s back tire, that looming project deadline at work that defies progress. Positive psychologists say it’s our innate negativity bias—built in to help us ward off threats to life and limb—that makes it so easy to worry or stress about challenges large and small. Yet one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my five years building Live Happy—and many more before that—is that living a rich, happy and fulfilling life is about looking for, appreciating and savoring what’s good in our world and investing the time and effort to make those things even better. So, this month I launch my new blog, “Find the Good,” where I share a few high points from our readers, partners and recent news reports. The Critter Grit Award Goes to… The #mprraccoon! In case you missed it, this tenacious 2-year-old female raccoon scaled a St. Paul, Minnesota, high-rise building in June after maintenance workers tried to lure her from a ledge about 20 feet above the ground. Her death-defying 25-story climb to the top caught the attention of Minnesota Public Radio reporter Tim Nelson, who gave a name and a cause to the critter who would just not stop, except for brief adorable pauses with her whiskers squished up against office windows. The Minnesota publication mspmag.com collected the best tweets from her viral adventure, including this one that spoke for us all. And this very concerned Tweet from actress Debra Messing. Fortunately, all appeared to end well, with #mprraccoon enjoying a bowl of stinky cat food on top of the world and eventually being released into a nearby private residential property. Fighting Crime on the Streets of London You can’t make this stuff up. Would you believe Sherlock Holmes actor Benedict Cumberbatch and his Uber driver leapt to the defense of a food delivery bicyclist getting pummeled by four muggers? Just around the corner from Baker Street, even. It was “surreal,” according to the Uber driver in this U.K. news article. “They tried to hit him [Benedict] but he defended himself and pushed them away,” the driver recounted. “He wasn’t injured. Then I think they also recognized it was Benedict and ran away.” No bullying allowed on Benedict’s watch, which puts him firmly in our category of Happiness Hero. As Matthieu Ricard says in this excerpt from his new book, In Search of Wisdom, “Don’t blame yourself for not doing what is beyond your strength, but do reproach yourself for turning away when you can do something.” Mental Health Awareness I highly recommend this brave series on mental health from Live Happy columnist and best-selling Profit From the Positive author Margaret Greenberg. Even though May is mental health month, it’s clear from watching the news and depression statistics that these insights are valuable and needed every day. Here areParts I,II,III, IV, and V. Please comment or share and help end the stigma. It’s Lonely at the Top “Leaders are overwhelmed, distracted and desperate for answers,” says Amy Blankson, best-selling author of The Future of Happiness: Five Modern Strategies for Balancing Productivity and Well-Being in the Digital Era. If you’re one of those leaders, sign up now for Amy’s TechWell Retreat September 27–28 in Midway, Utah. Redesign your digital life to allow moments of peace and balance—Amy will show you how! We Will Rock You Was the mass celebration from the game-winning goal in the Mexico vs. Germany World Cup match enough to cause a mini man-made earthquake in Mexico City as reported on social media? While I’d like to think so, scientists are doubtful, according to livescience.com. It also warms my heart to see all the amazing team spirit throughout the World Cup, most notably fans from Senegal and Japan helping to clean up their sections of the stadium after matches. Keep looking for the good, and you’ll find it!

Lifestyle

How to Start and Keep a Journal

I’ve kept a journal since I was in third grade. I started with a diary that had a tiny lock and key. Back then I used to grade my days. “Today was terrible. My parents made me eat eggs. Someone at school said I look like Pippi Longstocking. Today is a D.” I moved on to notebooks of all different sizes and designs. For every entry, I filled page after page with my chicken-scratch handwriting until I felt better. Like a genie going back inside her bottle, opening a notebook and writing felt like an escape for me. A journal can be a friend, a secret-keeper, a form of meditation or a therapy session. Science also backs up the therapeutic and health benefits of keeping a journal. James Pennebaker, Ph.D., a psychologist and a leading expert on journaling, says expressive writing—putting words to our painful experiences—can strengthen immunity, decrease anxiety, lessen depression and improve relationships. His research shows that writing about emotional upheavals can even help us heal. I credit journaling combined with talk therapy for overcoming painful moments in my past, and the solace and power of writing has stuck with me as an adult. Now I grab my journal to recharge. I write until I feel a renewed sense of clarity and peace wash over me. Blank pages can unravel challenges and provide comfort. Writing is how I think. Experiencing all the benefits firsthand, I often recommend journaling to others. It’s typically met with, “I want to, but I wouldn’t know what to write.” If journaling doesn’t come naturally to you, but you’d like to reap its benefits, here are some ways to get started. Just Write Write whatever comes to your mind. Turn off the perfectionist and silence the 10th-grade English teacher who lives in your head. Keep it private and tell yourself your notebook is just for you. Then, start putting your thoughts on paper. Stream of consciousness writing can help you connect with who you truly are and what is going on with you at your core. Write to identify or solve a problem. Write to vent. Write to connect with yourself, hear your inner voice and make sure your life is in alignment with your values. Journal to Start a Gratitude Practice Simply writing down three things you are grateful for each day can shift your perspective and make you a happier person. It’s also simple to do. You’ll notice more of what you enjoy because you are training your brain to seek the positive. Your well-being is also likely to improve, as positive psychology founder Martin Seligman, Ph.D., has found in his research. Gratitude has a compound effect. Soon you will have a journal filled with positive thoughts. Write to Heal James encourages people to write about emotionally turbulent experiences because truth-telling heals. There is power in sharing your story. Put words to a painful time or event in your life and watch how the process of sharing your story—even to yourself—can have a transformative effect on your life. Writing can help you think with clarity by filtering out all the noise around you. Let Journaling Evolve With You I don’t plow through journals like I used to anymore. I semi-jokingly tell my husband he’s my journal now. (Poor guy.) With young kids, a husband and a career, I don’t have as much time to journal these days. I use one hardbound journal for an entire calendar year. I may use it for stream-of-consciousness writing when I need to, but now it is more of an everything journal. I use my journal to capture and savor gratitude. I jot down funny things my twin girls say. I use my journal to capture pearls of wisdom from books, experts, podcasts and magazines. I write favorite quotes. I even track my weight and fitness goals. Let your journal work with your life. Let your writing flow in a way that resonates with you. There are numerous ways to keep a journal. Experience how journaling can be life-changing for you.

Lifestyle

Live Happy Patriotic Playlist

No matter how you choose to spend your Fourth of July holiday—whether it’s a day at the beach or enjoying a barbecue with family or friends—a little patriotic music provides the perfect soundtrack for your celebration. With so many great patriotic songs out there, there is no such thing as a definitive patriotic playlist. But here are a dozen songs that capture the spirit of Independence Day and remind us of what a great country we live in. While all of these songs have a special connection to this holiday, the song “Bullet Holes in the Sky” by Mary Gauthier is particularly near and dear to our hearts here at Live Happy; it grew out of the SongwritingWith: Soldiers program developed to help military veterans and active duty service members tell their stories. So this Fourth of July, fire up this playlist for your holiday celebration, and feel free to add your favorites!

Practice

Be a Positive Coach

If you have played any sport in your life, you have most likely witnessed a red-faced coach hurling angry, saliva-laden directives (and sometimes even chairs) from the sidelines. Cue Bobby Knight. But what if a positive approach rather than a negative and intimidating tone could get more out of the athlete? Matthew Scholes, an advocate of using the tenets of positive psychology in youth sports, is using science-based research to build a better coaching system within youth sports in Australia. He has been researching, developing and implementing positive sports coaching with schools and professional sports teams in Australia and New Zealand since 2011. The idea behind positive sports coaching is to use positive feedback and praise that simultaneously improves athletic performance and boosts mental well-being. This approach will not only benefit the athlete, but the coach, too, leaving both mentally prepared for the stress of competitive sports. A Different Kind of Coaching “Positive Sports Coaching isn’t about just saying everything is good,” Matthew says. “It is about specific and real feedback that is balanced and focuses on developing the athlete’s strengths as well as their weaknesses. Coaches are encouraged to keep a record of specific things the young athletes do well and feed this back to the athletes.” For example, Billy’s soccer coach, instead of just yelling, “great play!” on the field, follows up with an explanation and further encouragement. “Billy, I noticed your excellent on-the-spot decision-making to pass to Jeff, who had a shot at scoring when you didn’t. It’s that kind of big-picture awareness and leadership that will help our team rise to the top in the tournament next week.” Part of Matthew’s work is explaining to coaches how much their words and actions matter. In some cases, coaches may be the most influential adult figure in a young person’s life, Matthew explains. With our built-in negativity bias, it is easy for coaches to focus on the negative aspects, such as a player missing a catch or a goal. Negativity carries more weight than positivity, leaving coaches blinded to all the good things that are happening. For an impressionable young athlete who hasn’t fully developed his emotional intelligence, the negative feedback can have a powerful and lasting impact and can send the wrong message. Matthew believes that when coaches focus on strengths instead of weaknesses, they are rewiring their brains to spot the good. Making Real Impact In a recent study using a positive intervention of only focusing on strengths conducted at the Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School in Southwest Australia, researchers found an increase in athlete engagement, greater athlete resilience and a better understanding of athletes’ abilities from the coaches. Some feedback from coaches included a noticeable improvement, especially with the weaker players, and perseverance in situations that would have previously resulted in failure. From that same study, Matthew also saw girls particularly benefited in the area of negative affect, or poor self-concept. It is his theory that girls have to endure more negative messages from the outside world than boys. For example, women are still underrepresented in sports and often face objectification over talent. When the girls experienced coaching on their strengths, they excelled with more confidence in how they view themselves. The Whole System Model In order for it all to work, there must be a whole system approach, or what David Cooperrider, Ph.D., refers to as an appreciative inquiry approach. According to Matthew, this must include not only the coaches and the students, but schools and parents as well to ensure positive outcomes and thriving individuals. “I am confident that coaching young people in a manner that is positive and developmental has significant benefits to the individual athlete—social, mental health and sporting performance—the coach (team performance, well-being and confidence) and to society with sport having the opportunity to impact the well-being of the next generation of young people.” Positive results have been preliminary so far, but Matthew hopes that the continued use of positive sports coaching will further lead to better grades, improved health and stronger relationships. He is expected to release more results at the 2019 International Positive Psychology Association’s Sixth World Congress.

Fun at Work with Scott Crabtree

Celebrate Character Day on September 26

10 Best Books for Good Mood Food

Kindness Sticks

Summit Kick-Starts Global Positive Education Transformation

Driving Happiness

Find the Good: A Gritty Raccoon Gives Us All Hope

How to Start and Keep a Journal

Live Happy Patriotic Playlist

Be a Positive Coach

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