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Who We Are

Who We Are LIVE HAPPY: MAKING YOUR WORLD A HAPPIER PLACE Live Happy takes you on a journey to find your authentic happiness in life, at work and at home through inspiring stories and hands-on tips rooted in the science of positive psychology. We are a digital magazine, website, podcast, line of gifts and apparel—but more than that, we are your home base for happiness. Our mission is to inspire and empower you to act to make your world a happier place. Happier people are healthier, more satisfied with life and their relationships, and more successful in their careers. Research shows that happier people even live longer. And happiness is a journey anyone can take, using the right tools. It starts with just one step.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIWQeMFncm8 WHAT WE DO Our award-winning content offers in-depth features and the latest news on mindfulness, health and wellness, gratitude and resilience—all delivered through fascinating stories about people, whether they be celebrities, authors or ordinary people with extraordinary lives. You’ll find your favorite, shareable features from the magazine, plus mood-boosting book and movie recommendations, lifestyle blogs, tech columns and practical advice. You’ll also find our podcasts and Live Happy store—all in one place. Want to share happiness in Spanish? Go to Live Happy en Espanol. LIVE HAPPY NOW Podcast Bringing you scientifically proven tips and ideas to live a happier and more meaningful life through interviews with positive psychology and well-being thought leaders. The Live Happy Now podcast brings you best-selling authors and happiness gurus that share their knowledge on topics such as wellness, gratitude, well-being and mindfulness. Interviews are conducted with people like Shawn Achor, Michelle Gielan, Dr. Christine Carter, Margaret Greenberg, Dr. Drew Ramsey, Gretchen Rubin, Barbara Fredrickson, Tal Ben-Shahar, Deepak Chopra, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Stacy Kaiser, Darin McMahon, Michelle McQuaid, Fred Luskin, Shani Robins, Kristin Neff, Dr. Rick Hanson, and many more. New episode every Tuesday! Live Happy Now is available wherever you listen to podcasts. LIVE HAPPY STORE Looking for a gift to delight a friend, teacher or neighbor? Or a T-shirt that expresses your radiant positivity? Visit the Live Happy Store today. International Positive Education Network Live Happy is a proud sponsor to the International Positive Education Network; Live Happy Co-Founders Jeff Olson and Deborah K. Heisz both sit on IPEN’s Advisory Board. Founded by leaders in the fields of positive psychology and education, IPEN seeks to expand the use of mindfulness- and strengths-based teaching in classrooms to increase student and teacher well-being around the globe. DEBORAH K. HEISZ CEO, Co-Founder And Editorial Director THE LIVE HAPPY TEAM As CEO, Co-Founder and Editorial Director of Live Happy LLC, Deborah K. Heisz is responsible for the management and development of the Live Happy business and creative operations. She joins the Live Happy team with more than nine years of experience leading and growing successful startups in the publishing industry and 20-plus years of management experience in a variety of fast-moving organizations. Deborah was the founding Editor in Chief of the current version of SUCCESS magazine (2008-2011). Also, as SVP of Publishing, in 2005 she successfully launched a thriving custom publishing business with several newsstand titles. She has also led the development of several multi-language titles, including placement on newsstands in Korea, Japan and countries in Europe. Deborah has a B.A. in English from Texas Tech University and an MBA from the University of Dallas. Her most significant asset is her expertise in starting and developing business initiatives. In prior roles, she has successfully led groups with responsibilities ranging from IT to Marketing to Product Development. What brings her the most happiness in the world is spending time in the great outdoors with her family and dogs. Her greatest source of joy and wonder is watching her three children learn, experience life and ask questions without filter. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT LIVE HAPPY Press ReleasesAwardsIn the NewsContact UsAdvertise With Us GET SOCIAL WITH US! We want to hear from you. Your needs, wants, opinions and puppy pics are important to us, and they make us very happy—so get in touch! You can find us on Facebook Twitter Pinterest Instagram

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Podcast

International Positive Education Network Conference Preview With Deborah K. Heisz

Whether you’re an educator or a parent, the concept of positive education is something that can change your life…as well as the life of your student or child. In these times, it’s more important than ever to understand the role that well-being plays in the lives of students, teachers, administrators and parents. This week, Live Happy CEO and Co-Founder Deborah K. Heisz joins us to talk about the upcoming International Positive Education Network’s 2020 Well-being in Education Virtual Conference. This event is being offered entirely online for the first time and it’s also free for anyone who wants to attend. Tune in to learn more! In this episode, you'll learn: What positive education is and why it matters. How to attend this free virtual event. What you can expect to learn. Links and Resources Website: https://www.ipen-network.com/ Facebook: @PositiveEducationNetwork Register for the FREE virtual conference happening from October 27-29 here. Don't miss an episode! Live Happy Now is available at the following places:

Lifestyle

Why Most Vacations Don’t Make You Happy and How to Fix That

Vacations are supposed to be good for the soul. But often the typical formula for “getting away from it all” doesn’t work. Most people were actually not happier after a vacation, researchers note in an Applied Research in Quality of Life journal article. The average vacation was not worth the trouble. But we got interested in whether it was the vacation or actions before and after that predicted the value of time away. We conducted our own research on the vacation ingredients that scientifically increase well-being. From that study we published in Harvard Business Review, we found that with the following four actions, you have a 97 percent chance of ensuring your vacations leave you with greater energy and happiness. BEFORE: Get excited about wild turkeys. You don’t have to have a lot of money or time to get the most out of a planned vacation or staycation. Our brains have trouble telling the difference between visualization and actual experience. Thus, if you want to get the benefits from a vacation even months early, starting dreaming about specifics now. The key is in the specificity. For example, we can’t wait to see wild turkeys each summer. We think about it for months leading up to our yearly vacation. It’s become a yearly tradition to relax on the back porch of our small rental home in Martha’s Vineyard on the night we arrive to wait for a roving band of wild turkeys to come through our yard. We usually spot the mom or dad turkey first, and then five to eight babies emerge from the underbrush. It’s a signal that summer— and our vacation—is in full swing. Whether you’re returning to an old stomping ground, going somewhere new or staying close to home, find a handful of things to get excited about ahead of time and visualize them: going with your mom for a walk around a lake near your childhood home, sipping grappa in Italy, binge-watching all of The Good Wife, or renting a convertible car for your drive down the coast. This “anticipatory savoring” can significantly increase happiness. If you’re taking your kids, spend time helping them to visualize the trip as well. Find happiness in the details. In our study, 74 percent of respondents consider the most stressful aspect of travel to be figuring out the details: travel uncertainty, transportation and being unfamiliar with the location. To overcome these obstacles, come up with a game plan, including hotels, flights and potential activities more than one month in advance. (If you need help, ask friends who have been to your destination, travel agents or local tour companies.). One month appears to be the key time to ensure higher levels of happiness from the trip; 90 percent of our happiest respondents had planned the details at least 30 days before leaving on their vacations. DURING: Extend your vacation. Happiness is a choice. So is a vacation. Our research-based advice is to take all the time off you’ve been given. According to an Expedia survey, each year Americans leave more than half a billion vacation days on the table. That’s four days of vacation per person! If you’re one of them, this is when we give you a serious talking-to (’cause we love you of course!). Take your vacation days. Every. Last. One. If you’re citing the all-to-common excuse, “I have too much to do and can’t leave,” let’s remember what happened the last time you cleared your to-do list. It filled back up again in no time! There is an infinite amount of work and chores, but we have a finite number of days to enjoy a vacation. Additionally, taking a vacation is good for your career! According to our work with Project: Time Off, people taking all their vacation time have a 6.5 percent higher chance of getting a raise or a promotion than their colleagues who leave 11 or more days of paid time off on the table. That study reminds us that staying at work does not mean getting ahead. AFTER: Celebrate and savor. As you remember your vacation, you can extend and renew the positive emotions from the trip by savoring your good memories. One of our favorite parts of our vacation often happens days or weeks after it is over. We organize our photos and gather our extended family around our living room to show them the highlights. For our vacation to Paris with little Leo last year, the slideshow ran a bit long because the trip was that good, but thankfully our family indulged us. (We fed them chocolate éclairs and wine to ease their pain!) Savoring, especially in a group setting with social support, is a way to maximize the benefits of positive experiences. Your brain gets a chance to relive them. Additionally, get-togethers like these promote social connection, which is the greatest predictor of long-term happiness. So round up a few friends, get together your best pictures and mementos and enjoy a night of wine, wild turkeys, grappa and scenic shots you took from the convertible! If you don’t have any vacations planned, take some time to remember a great trip from the past. Practice and acknowledge gratitude for your plans each day, starting a month before your time off. If you don’t pack your gratitude and positive mindset, no destination will make you happy. But if you look for the positives, you’ll find them everywhere you travel. This article originally appeared in the April 2016 edition of Live Happy magazine.

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Practice

Want to Be Happy? Find More Time to Play!

Being married to a happiness researcher has costs and benefits. Costs come from knowing the research and being fully aware when one or both of us is not living it. For instance, it’s hard to get away with luxuriating in cataloging all the reasons why you can’t be happy when we both know it’s a choice. Finding fault and deficit thinking in arguments are off-limits because both of us realize those behaviors are not helpful. Positive psychologists know all the tricks! And when we are at dinner parties meeting new people, they inevitably assume that two happiness researchers living under the same roof and raising a child together will result in the happiest kid on the planet. Therefore if Leo happens to be crying, they must think those researchers don’t know what they are talking about. (No pressure there!) But the benefits way outweigh the costs. We are intentional about crafting an environment at home that promotes well-being and joy. When people hold us up to a higher standard, they actually encourage us to act on our best intentions. And most importantly, since we go through experiences together, we are often more likely to see patterns that can help us create more happiness. That is exactly what happened when we went through our own happiness course this past fall. It might seem odd, but in October of 2014, we decided to be students in our own class. The previous summer we had teamed up with the Oprah Winfrey Network to develop an online course on happiness. When the course launched, we decided to enroll along with thousands of other students. We did the same positive, habit-building exercises and homework assignments as everyone else, including fostering gratitude by writing down three new and unique things we are grateful for each day for 21 days. About 14 days into the course, we noticed a new pattern. Almost all of our moments of gratitude revolved around imagination or play: Playing Play-Doh with Leo at home. Hide and go seek at the park and jumping out from behind trees. Building ramps for toy cars to jump over Duke the stuffed dog. Pretending to be a penguin at the aquarium. You get the picture. When we started to look at the kinds of things we were grateful for, they were often the same: We love to play! It’s something neither of us had fully realized in the midst of our fast-paced lives. The practice of gratitude acted like a roadmap for us, helping us see ways to consciously add more moments of play (with and withoutour son) to our day. The day after we realized how important play was to our lives, instead of grabbing lunch together to talk about our latest research study, we went to shoot hoops at the gym, which we normally never do. We had such a great time! We acted like kids playing during recess. (Important note from Michelle: I crushed Shawn at HORSE. Important note from Shawn: I crushed Michelle at HORSE.) One additional benefit to this new round of gratitudes is that our list became a “heads-up” of the type of moments to be more conscious of and savor as they are happening. If you know a certain experience is likely to be the high point of your day, you can make sure to be more present and aware of the joy you feel as it is happening. Once we noticed the pattern, we observed there were criteria for play: It did not fit our normal pattern of what we considered “productive,” we didn’t get paid for it, and it was novel. We love reading nonfiction, but we are so immersed in it at work, that for our downtime, we both turn toward the opposite: fun fiction. (Important note from Shawn: Team Jacob. Important note from Michelle: Team Edward.) Just like with work, we are trying to carve out time for play: a twice-a-week Latin fusion hip-hop dance class (Michelle), a new Batman video game (Shawn), and lots of park time and exploration for Leo. Time is a precious resource. Moments to recharge don’t take long, but they do take intention and a better understanding of what makes us happy as individuals. Happiness is a practice, not a destination, and if we take it too seriously, we miss it. And that makes us excited for an entire lifetime of exploration into the best ways to fuel long-term happiness. If you want happiness, get some play into your life. This article originally appeared in the February 2016 issue of Live Happy magazine.

Podcast

The Art of Acceptance With Scott Haas

Accepting the difficult events in our lives is a key part of our well-being. Acceptance allows us to cultivate a sense of calm that allows us to better deal with stress. As we deal with an increasingly uncertain world, how can learning more about acceptance help increase our happiness? This week, psychologist Scott Hass, author of Why Be Happy? The Japanese Way of Acceptance talks about how ukeireru, the Japanese principle of acceptance, can help each of us during troubled times. In this episode, you'll learn: How learning acceptance changes your response to situations. Ways to increase your practice of acceptance. How to practice acceptance as a family. Links and Resources Facebook: @ScottHaasWritesBooks Instagram: @scotthaaswritesbooks Twitter: @scotthaas27 Don't miss an episode! Live Happy Now is available at the following places:

Self-Care

7 Ways People-Pleasers Can Meet Their Own Needs

If you are a good-hearted person, it is natural to want to please others. As one who seriously considers the feelings of those around you, you likely engage in several selfless and kind behaviors that benefit your loved ones and strangers alike. Whether you bring cookies to your elderly neighbor, offer an empathetic ear to a distressed friend, or allow a harried mom to step in front of you in line at the grocery store, your attempts to contribute to others' happiness and well-being are noble and laudable. But sometimes, it is possible to take it too far. If your desire to please others is stronger than your need for self-care, your people-pleasing ways may negatively impact your well-being. If, for example, you felt pressured to spend all weekend helping a friend move—but as a result, missed an important work deadline on Monday—then your job performance may seriously suffer. Or, if you stayed up all night on the phone with an upset friend (who said you were the only one who understands her), you might not be able to concentrate on that important exam scheduled the next morning. When you go too far, allowing your own self-care to take a back seat to others' needs, you will likely become frustrated, exhausted and discouraged. And when you regularly disregard your own wants and needs to appease others, you may even experience chronic stress and other health problems. So, what can you do to address your own needs while showing kind consideration to others? How can you strike a healthy balance between selflessness and self-consideration? 1. Start to recognize your people-pleasing behaviors. Change is not possible without awareness. Pay attention to the choices you make to please others: If your colleague asks you to take on some of her tasks, do you do it because you don’t want to tell her “no”? If your mother asks you to come by for dinner after work—even though you just wanted to go home and relax—do you go anyway so you don’t let her down? Or, if the waitress gives you the wrong dish, do you eat it anyway so you don’t inconvenience her? If you find yourself appeasing others in this way, don’t judge yourself. Simply notice. Determine how often you make choices to please someone else despite what you really want to do and make a note of it. 2. Notice the consequences of your choices to people-please. When you dropped everything on your list to do something for someone else, what happened to the things you wanted to get done? How did you feel emotionally? When you said "yes" and really meant "no," how did that work out for you in the long run? Did you end up having to attend meetings you didn't want to go to? Were you exhausted because you didn’t get the rest you needed? 3. Ask yourself, “How willing am I to change?” Change is only possible if you are willing to embrace it. Would you like to adjust your people-pleasing behaviors so that you can take care of your own needs more? How might this impact your quality of life? Your desire for more control over your life must exceed your need to please others. 4. Increase your internal focus. If you are a people-pleaser, how others see you and act toward you strongly impacts your feelings and sense of self. With such a dominant external focus, it is likely that you are not in touch with your thoughts and emotions or your physical and spiritual needs. Committing to change involves increasing your internal awareness of these things and intentionally stopping and tuning into what you want. What were your plans for the day? Did you really want to be on that committee? 5. Catch yourself in the act of people-pleasing. As you become more aware of your motivations, try to catch yourself before you say “yes” and mean “no.” Notice if you are more concerned with what the other person is thinking than what you need. If so, redirect your focus to yourself and consider your needs. Don’t judge yourself and have compassion as you are learning to change a difficult habit. 6. Learn to live with not always pleasing others. This can be challenging. People-pleasing is all about having others like you, think well of you, and be pleased with you. To risk removing these sources of self-identity and self-esteem can seem like an impossible task. Reassure yourself of your worth and the importance of meeting your needs. Remind yourself that you want to find a better balance between your self-care and the needs of others. Then, be prepared to let the other person have their own feelings of disappointment or judgment - and resist the temptation to try to change or fix their feelings. 7. Learn to live with pleasing yourself and meeting your own needs. When you do this, you may find that you are not on a community board you didn’t want to be on, that you have some time to relax after work, or that you don’t have to eat a meal that you didn’t want in the first place. By taking your own wants and needs into consideration along with those of others, you will discover that your life has changed—for the better. There is nothing wrong with people-pleasing until it causes you to feel resentful, unhappy and out of control in your own life. As you likely already know, people-pleasing does not always produce the results you hope for. The recognition, approval and appreciation you long for are elusive even after you jump through countless hoops. Learning to listen to and respond to yourself, and appreciating the benefits of doing these things, can not only earn you the respect you long for, but also can give you the peace and self-confidence that you deserve.

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Practice

4 Stress-Busting Tips to Boost Your Happiness

Stress is and will always be part of our lives. But, as we enter another month of masks, stay-at-home orders, social unrest and uncertainty, our stress and anxiety levels being pushed to the max. According to the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Stress in America Report 2020, 46% of parents with children under age 18 report their stress levels related to the coronavirus pandemic are high and 83% of Americans believe the future of our nation is causing them a significant source of stress. Living this way is not only unsustainable, but it is also very bad for our mental and physical well-being. Research shows that when we properly manage our stress levels, we can prevent some really bad health issues, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and depression. So, if you are going a little stir crazy, here are a few tips to help relieve some of this newfound stress and get some peace of mind. 1. Practice Mindfulness While you and your family are stuck at home crawling all over each other, it may feel as if you have suddenly been transported into that trash compacter scene from Star Wars. Just to reassure you, the walls are not actually moving in on you and those feelings of suffocation are in your head. Practicing mindfulness can help clear out some of those anxieties and other brain clutter that adds extra stress to your life. Experts believe that a good time to try a relaxation technique is right after lunch. This is our rest and digest mode and it is the opposite of fight or flight. If possible, let your co-workers and family members know that you need 10 to 15 minutes for quiet reflection. If you need help calming your system, try a simple exercise of closing your eyes and breathing in for four seconds, holding your breath for seven seconds and then exhaling for eight seconds. Repeat this five times in a row and you’ll start to notice a sense of calm blanketing you. If you need some guidance on how to practice mindfulness, a few apps to check out are Calm, Smiling Mind, Mind Free and Headspace. Plus, if you are unemployed because of the pandemic, you can sign up for a Headspace subscription free for one year. 2. Make More Connections Even before we had social distancing due to the global pandemic, social isolation and loneliness was becoming a national epidemic. According to a 2018 survey from AARP, one out of every three adults over the age of 45 is lonely. While the current situation of stay-at-home orders hasn’t exacerbated the loneliness problem yet, the ties between social relationships and happiness are inextricably linked, and maintaining positive connections with others is associated with positive health outcomes. No matter if your connections are personal, professional, or both, strong relationships keep us happy. While you can’t physically reach out and touch someone right now, you can stay connected through technology. Try using FaceTime or Skype to call a loved one, a coworker or an old friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Talking to someone you trust and love will calm your fears and increase your happiness. Research shows that tight connections to other people is also good for our physical health because it helps lower those cortisol levels that lead to stress while boosting the immune system. If you need someone or a group to reach out to for support, self-care social media app Lyf offers its platform as a place to connect and share thoughts and experiences with other users, access to licensed psychologists 24-hours a day to answer any questions you may have about how you are feeling, or to just to vent your frustrations. If you are a frontline worker, Lyf is offering free, 60-minute support sessions with mental health experts during the COVID-19 crisis to help deal with issues of anxiety, fear, helplessness and anger. 3. Keep Your Body Moving Exercise is vital for physical health, but it is also important for maintaining mental health. So, being physically active not only keeps you healthier but happier too. In a study recently published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, researchers found a correlation between the frequent physical activity and happiness in people who exercised at least 5 days a week between 30 and 75 minutes. According to the APA, regular exercise helps the brain deal with stress and can be a great mood-booster to fight off the effects of anxiety and depression. In fact, some studies claim that 20 minutes of exercise a day can improve your mood for up to 12 hours. Even though you can’t visit the gym or a yoga class right now, there are still plenty of ways to stay fit even if you are stuck in the home. Virtual classes are readily available online or on apps and treadmills are a great substitute for outdoor running. 4. Eat a Healthy Diet Stress can have a huge impact on your eating habits by throwing off your metabolism and making you more susceptible to emotional eating. Health officials from the Cleveland Clinic advise to keep plenty of healthy snacks around to prevent overeating foods that aren’t good for you and to give the body maintain proper nutrition to help fight off stress. Healthy foods, including plenty of fruits and vegetables, will also stabilize your blood sugar which will keep your emotions in check too. Healthy food and comfort food don’t have to be mutually exclusive, according to Chef Gerard Viverito, The Sustainable Chef. Instead of filling up your cart with junk food, he offers a few sustainable solutions that are pleasing to the palette. If meat prices are too high in your area, Gerard recommends eating more fish as well as becoming more familiar with how to prepare it. If you want to control snack attacks, try fiber-rich foods from the ground that fill you up faster. If you stuck at home and looking for family-fun activities, Gerard suggests making food fun by planting “a garden with kid-approved brain foods such as strawberries, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach and broccoli.” Now, the Bright Side As we continue to navigate these troubled and stressful times, it’s important to keep a positive mindset as much as we can. Positivity will put is in a better position to fight off the negative effects of stress and anxiety. Being stuck inside and having limited connections with the outside world may not be all bad. Home services and products review site Reviews.org recently surveyed 500 Americans to determine the impact COVID-19 and social distancing has had on our personal lives and found a few positives side effects of social distancing. According to their findings, 54% of Americans say they feel closer to friends and family, 50% feel like they have more pride in their community and 47% say they have learned a new skill or hobby. It just goes to show that even in the darkest of times, people are hopeful, innovative and resilient.

Podcast

Turning Social Isolation Into a Creative Outlet With Martha Alderson

Tapping into your creativity is a proven way to increase your personal well-being. It can put you in a positive mood, give you a sense of purpose, promote problem solving and reduce stress and anxiety. But sometimes, we get so busy with our lives that we lose touch with our creative side. This week’s guest is an expert in tapping into creativity. Martha Alderson is an author who also works with bestselling authors, Hollywood directors, artists and performers all over the world to tap into their creativity. Now, you can try this at home! Martha’s new book, Boundless Creativity: A Spiritual Workbook for Overcoming Self-Doubt, Emotional Traps and Other Creative Blocks, can walk you through the steps back to discovering your creative self. In this episode, you'll learn: What the Universal Story is and how it relates to you. The spiritual value of connecting with your creativity. How working on creativity as a family can help build communication and solve problems. Links and Resources Facebook: @PlotWhisperer Instagram: @MarthaSAlderson LinkedIn: @MarthaAlderson Twitter: @PlotWhisperer YouTube: marthalderson Have you heard? Now you can start each day with the Live Happy Daily Happiness Briefing. This two-minute dose of happiness can be enabled as an Alexa skill just by clicking here. Then, start your weekday by saying, “Alexa, give me my daily happiness briefing!” Don't miss an episode! Live Happy Now is available at the following places:

Self-Care

The Language of Flowers

Flowers have long been an important part of human culture. We’ve used their alluring blooms to beautify our homes and outdoors; captured their essence in the written word, clothing, design and perfumes; and showcased them in romance, rituals and special events. As symbolic as flowers remain in our lives, there is increasing evidence that their very presence has both immediate and long-term effects on our happiness and overall satisfaction with life. Famed American botanist and horticulturist Luther Burbank was well-aware of this symbiotic relationship between people and flowers, as evidenced by his quote: “Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.” Research findings concur with what Luther knew all along. A behavioral study led by Rutgers University researcher Jeannette Haviland-Jones shows that not only do flowers make us happier than we know, they also evoke strong positive effects on our emotional well-being. Just as flowers stimulate insects to perform pollination via their color, nectaries and scent, they also activate positive emotional feelings in people. Flowers nurture our happiness, and in turn, we cultivate them in our gardens and help nurture their growth. In addition, a report issued by the George Morris Centre in Ontario confirms in a literature review that there are significant benefits derived from flowers and other ornamental plants, including decreased anxiety, improved life satisfaction and overall well-being. Whether you enjoy your flowers in a vase or in the garden, the power they have on our emotional health and moods goes far beyond what was once believed. It certainly gives new meaning to the familiar phrase “flower‑power.” Flowers have a language all their own that transcends the limits of time. Through the ages their language and meanings have adapted to countless cultures. Here are a few translations for today: AMARYLLIS: Pride, splendid beauty, determination. BIRD OF PARADISE: Freedom, joyfulness, faithfulness. CAMELLIA: Admiration, gratitude, perfection. DAFFODIL: New beginnings; “The sun is always shining when I’m with you.” DAYLILY: forgetting worries. GLADIOLUS: Strength of character, moral integrity, love at first sight. LARKSPUR/DELPHINIUM: beautiful spirit, open heart, big-hearted. PEONY: Happy marriage, good fortune, compassion. ROSE: As a group they symbolize love and passion, but each color evokes its own specific meaning. Red is enduring passion; white is innocence and purity; yellow expresses friendship and joy; pink is for gratitude, perfect happiness and appreciation; orange is for enthusiasm and desire. SUNFLOWER: adoration, longevity, happiness. Gardening Tips For Spring Spring is the best time to get your garden ready for the growing season ahead. Here are a few tips for a healthier and more beautiful garden. • Start by checking the pH of your soil with a soil test kit, available at garden centers and home-improvement stores. Plants grown in the proper soil pH are healthier, more productive, and more resistant to disease and insects. • Plant in odd numbers and create drifts of color and texture for a more balanced and harmonious look. • Apply a 2- to 3-inch layer of organic mulch around the base of plants to help moderate soil temperatures, maintain soil moisture, deter weeds and increase the population of beneficial soil microorganisms. This article originally appeared in the April 2014 edition of Live Happy magazine.

Podcast

The Secrets of Wellness With Dr. Jeffrey Rediger

This is a time when all of us are thinking about healing and recovery. We have a lot of questions about wellness, and this episode’s guest offers unique insight into healing and well-being. Dr. Jeffrey Rediger is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and medical director of McLean Hospital Southeast adult psychiatric programs. He’s a board-certified psychiatrist with a master’s in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and his new book, CURED: The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing, provides a fascinating look into well-being and how changing our beliefs about ourselves can change our outcomes. In this episode, you'll learn: What the four pillars of healing are and why they’re so critical. How to improve your immune system. The importance of reducing inflammation in your body. Links and Resources Facebook: @drjeffreyrediger Twitter: @jeffrey_rediger Don't miss an episode! Live Happy Now is available at the following places:

Who We Are

International Positive Education Network Conference Preview With Deborah K. Heisz

Why Most Vacations Don’t Make You Happy and How to Fix That

Want to Be Happy? Find More Time to Play!

The Art of Acceptance With Scott Haas

7 Ways People-Pleasers Can Meet Their Own Needs

4 Stress-Busting Tips to Boost Your Happiness

Turning Social Isolation Into a Creative Outlet With Martha Alderson

The Language of Flowers

The Secrets of Wellness With Dr. Jeffrey Rediger

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