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Live Happy's Tips for Happy Healthy Summer

9 Ways to Stay Healthy and Happy This Summer

Summer is synonymous with happiness. How can you not be happy basking in the sunshine, relaxing on the beach, celebrating with a cookout, playing with your kids or lounging poolside? And while it all sounds heavenly, sometimes summer is spent figuring out how to entertain the kiddos from dawn to dusk so they don’t drive you wacko. If you really want a happy, healthy summer—one where you can bask in its long days without the kids driving you crazy—try these nine tips. (We recommend reading this in your hammock.) 1. Plan “me” time When life gets crazy, (when is it not?) the first thing that usually goes to the wayside is time just for you. Take turns with your spouse and make dates with yourself. Watch the kiddos while your spouse gets a little solitude, and then let your spouse give you that precious time, too. Hang out in a coffee shop, read a good book, meditate, take a long bike ride or catch an afternoon matinee—do something that allows you to think, reflect, relax or just unplug. 2. Make healthy eating fun Browse farmers markets and get some gorgeous seasonal produce. Teach your kids about the health benefits of real foods by experimenting with clean-eating recipes to make delicious, colorful meals and snacks. Learn the three easy steps to healthier eating. 3. Fill your calendar with joy You can have a lot of control and influence over how happy your summer is if you proactively plan weekends with your absolute favorite things to do, like hosting a cookout for your street, planning a weekend getaway or scheduling an outdoor adventure. Not only do you get the joy that comes from anticipation, but you also get a fun experience and a wonderful memory! (It’s a trio of happiness.) 4. Investigate your favorite exercise The key to exercising regularly isn’t about finding the time—it’s about finding an exercise you love. Because if you love it, you will do it. Summer is the ideal time to try out some new activities. Paddle-boarding anyone? Golf? (Skip the cart.) Take your kids on a family hike. Sign up to jog your first 5K. Go in search of an exercise to fall in love with, and you just might get hooked. 5. Remind yourself why sleep is wonderful Make your bedroom a place of serenity and calm by cleaning out any clutter that could be clogging you mentally. Get your favorite sheets and comforter. Open a window if it’s cool enough for gentle breezes. Fully embrace sleep as one of life’s great pleasures. 6. Know what recharges you When you’re feeling run down and frazzled, what restores you? What fills you up? Make a list of the top three activities that replenish your mind and body and then carve out time to do them. You’ll love life more when you feel full and mentally clear, instead of frazzled and depleted. 7. Seek a change of scenery Go on a vacation, drive to your neighboring town or just try a new restaurant. Changing up your normal environment can be uplifting and offer a new perspective. Read our 5 tips for an energy-boosting vacation. 8. Keep a journal Journaling helps with self-awareness, mental clarity and preserving memories, but keep the right journal for you. It could be a one-sentence journal about your day or maybe a travel journal where you record your summer adventures. You may even consider keeping a gratitude journal, where you jot down what you appreciate about your day. If it’s more your speed, use your journal to doodle or brainstorm your next big idea. Read more about journaling as a five-minute misery cure. 9. Go deeper with conversation If you’re having a dinner party, as you set the table, think about how you’d like to direct the conversation with your guests. Sometimes, with a little planning, you can cultivate meaningful conversations instead of surface chitchat. Bonus tip: Don’t start cleaning up when people are done eating, as that signals everyone that dinner is over. Sit and just enjoy your conversations—it’s good for your health and longevity! Make this your best summer yet by aligning it closer to what you value most. Happiness will follow. Click here to read about how to have a happy family roadtrip this summer. Sandra Bienkowski worked as the national columns editor for SUCCESS magazine for three years, and is widely published in print and on the web. See more about Sandra at The Media Concierge.

B Corps are changing the way we do business

News & Trends

B the Change

Do you know the saying “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”? Well, a growing number of businesses are doing just that.Business as a force for goodBusinesses have a tremendous impact on our lives, as owners, employees, consumers and community members, and now B Corps are using that power to solve social and environmental problems.The B Corp designation is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk. Today, 1,281 Certified B Corps from 41 countries and over 121 industries are working together toward a single unifying goal: to redefine success in business.Getting the B grade to redefine successA business interested in becoming a B Corp goes through an assessment process that measures the social and environmental performance of everything it does, including accountability and transparency. If the company scores well, then it’s eligible to obtain the B Corp certification from B Lab, the supporting nonprofit organization.All shapes and sizesB corps come in all shapes in sizes, from small firms with sole proprietors to global brands like Ben & Jerry’s. Rob Michalak, Ben & Jerry’s global director of social mission, led the company’s effort to obtain its B Corp certification. “At first, the whole idea of assessment can be intimidating, but then people realize the benefit of the tool,” he says.The certification process has helped the company affirm what it’s doing well and provided insight into opportunities for improvement. So far, Ben & Jerry’s management has benefited the most from the guidance provided by the assessment process. With its deep social mission, the company is committed to supporting the B Corp movement. “There is true power in movements—much stronger than any individual company,” Rob says.Aligned ValuesMany companies join because there is strong alignment between a company’s established values and that of the B Corp movement. That was the case for Founding B Corp member King Arthur Flour, an employee-owned business. King Arthur Flour Chief of Staff Carey Underwood says the existing employee engagement, management transparency and employee-owned culture all contributed to the company’s high social scores during the assessment.Sustainable, Inside and outFor Patagonia, taking care of the planet has always been a driving value, so the B Corp designation was a natural fit, says Elissa Loughman, the company’s manager of corporate responsibility.The company knows that examining its own business practices and the way it uses resources are essential to being a responsible company. The outdoor clothing company uses organic cotton, makes fleece jackets from recycled plastic bottles and traces all the down used in their products back to the geese farms to ensure humane animal practices. Patagonia also uses wool from sheep raised sustainably in the Patagonia region of South America.Patagonia is also a founding member of 1% for the Planet, through which companies donate 1 percent of sales to environmental nonprofits.What Members AppreciateBeing part of a community and movement with shared goals has its benefits. Because B Corp certification is so rigorous, it validates and values the good work member companies do and helps them identify opportunities to improve. Members benefit from a culture of collaboration and exchange that even includes the signing of a “Declaration of Interdependence.”Additionally, for companies like Cabot Creamery, the first dairy farmer cooperative to become a B Corp, building brand awareness has been very helpful. Cabot Creamery Director of Marketing Amy Levine says “being a member has helped educate and communicate to consumers how a co-op is a beneficial business model” for the broader community and their high-quality products. The company appreciates that the assessment recognizes its acts of gratitude and volunteerism.Just Getting StartedThough it’s growing quickly, the B Corp movement is just getting started. B Corps range across all types of businesses and industries, from food to finance, from clothes to consulting and from consumer products to waste management.“All these companies are united by one common goal: to be best for the world,” says Katie Kerr, B Lab’s director of communications. Certification helps companies differentiate themselves and improve, helps consumers align their purchases with their values and helps people find good places to work. Building the brand and movement go hand in hand—both increase well-being for all.Are you ready (consumers and businesses) to “B the change”? If so, check out bcorporation.net, watch the “We Have a Dream” short video, begin an assessment and find a B Corp to do business with.Contributor Brian Kaminer is the founder of Talgra, a certified B Corp and consulting firm, and the creator of Invest With Values, an education website for people looking to align their money and values.

Self-Care

Color Yourself Happy

Here’s a new twist on stress reduction. More adults are turning off phones and tablets, putting credit scores, diets and gym workouts out of their minds, and picking up crayons and coloring books for their relaxation and self-expression. Not your 5-year-old's coloring books A new top seller on Amazon is simply titled Adult Coloring Book and is full of intricate "stress relieving patterns" from geometric shapes to fleur de lis. Selling more than 1 million copies and helping launch the coloring craze is 2013's Secret Garden, by Johanna Basford, whose pen-and-ink illustrations come to life as you discover tiny creatures and complete her scenes. Become mesmerized by the patterns "Chances are last time you spent an hour or so coloring in you didn't have a mortgage and you weren't worried about a nagging boss or the financial crisis!" Johanna says. "Coloring in seems to help people think about a time when life was simpler and more carefree." Adult colorists can't wait for her next book, The Lost Ocean: An Underwater Adventure & Coloring Book, on sale Oct. 27. Jim Gold is a veteran journalist who splits his time between Seattle and the Bay Area.

Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology Fans Gather for Conference

Positive psychology scholars, students and practitioners will review the field's latest research and science-based applications at the Fourth World Congress of the International Positive Psychology Association on June 25-28, in Florida. Biggest names in the field Martin Seligman, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania professor known as the father of positive psychology, and Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., Harvard University happiness professor, will open the conference at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Lake Buena Vista, with talks about the cutting edge in research and teaching. Other featured presenters among dozens invited include Rollin McCraty, Ph.D., research director at the HeartMath Institute in Boulder Creek, California, on heart-brain dynamics, and Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., University of North Carolina professor and author of Love 2.0, on "Positivity Resonates." A range of discussions Conference session topics range from eudaimonic well‐being to the effects and global reach of positive psychology. "You will be able to tap into the intellectual energy of a thriving global community," says congress chair Kim Cameron, Ph.D., a University of Michigan professor. The conference offers networking events such as special-interest group lunches and receptions, he says. You can click here to peruse the programor register online. The conference fee is $800 for professionals, $325 for students. Discounts are available for International Positive Psychology Association members. Live Happy in action If you come, look for Live Happy COO Deborah Heisz and Science Editor Paula Felps; they will be speaking on two separate panels. We will also have a Happiness Wall and a Live Happy Booth. See you there! Jim Gold is a veteran journalist who splits his time between Seattle and the Bay Area.

Self-Care

5 Strategies to Make You More Productive

Whether we love or hate our jobs, the amount of work most of us have to do each day has reached unsustainable levels. We start a typical workday anxious about how we will get it all done, who we might let down and which important tasks we will sacrifice—again—so we can keep our heads above water. As we grab our first cups of coffee, we check our e-mail in-boxes on our handheld devices, scanning to see who has added a new task to our to-do list. The stress builds as we read e-mail after e-mail, each containing a request that we know can’t be dealt with quickly. We mark these e-mails as unread and save them for . . . “later.” We mentally add them to the piles of work left undone the night before (when we left our offices much too late). More e-mails to answer, more phone calls to return, more paperwork to fill out. And everything needs our immediate attention. Attention deficit In fact, too many things need our attention before we can even get to the tasks that really matter—and too many things matter. We frequently work all day long—at the office and then at home, taking care of our families, cleaning up, paying bills—sometimes only stopping to sleep. There simply isn’t enough time, but so much always needs to be done. Work with your biology, not against it The key to achieving fantastic levels of effectiveness is to work with our biology. We may all be capable of impressive feats of comprehension, motivation, emotional control, problem solving, creativity and decision-making when our biological systems are functioning optimally. But we can be terrible at those very same things when our biological systems are suboptimal. The amount of exercise and sleep we get and the food we eat can greatly influence these mental functions in the short term—even within hours. The mental functions we engage in just prior to tackling a task can also have a powerful effect on whether we accomplish that task. Follow the science Research findings from the fields of psychology and neuroscience are revealing a great deal about when and how we can set up periods of highly effective mental functioning. In my book, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work DoneI share in detail five deceptively simple strategies that I have found are the most successful in helping busy people create the conditions for at least two hours of incredible productivity each day: 1. Recognize your decision points Once you start a task, you run largely on autopilot, which makes it hard to change course. Maximize the power of those moments in between tasks—that’s when you can choose what to take on next, and can therefore decide to tackle what matters most. 2. Manage your mental energy Tasks that need a lot of self-control or focused attention can be depleting, and tasks that make you highly emotional can throw you off your game. Schedule tasks based on their processing demand and recovery time. 3. Stop fighting distractions Learn to direct your attention. Your attention systems are designed to wander and refresh, not to focus indefinitely. Trying to fight that is like trying to fight the ocean tides. Understanding how your brain works will help you get back on track quickly and effectively when you get distracted. 4. Leverage your mind–body connection Move your body and eat in ways that set you up for success in the short term. (You can eat and physically do whatever you want on your downtime.) 5. Make your workspace work for you Learn what environmental factors help you be on top of your game—and how to adjust your environment accordingly. Once you know what distracts you or what primes your brain to be in creating or risk-taking modes, you can adjust your environment for productivity. Reap the rewards These strategies, derived from neuroscience and psychology, may sound simple; some may even seem like common sense. But we rarely employ them. Understanding the science behind them helps us know what’s worth acting on and how to do so within the constraints we have. We can all learn to deploy them regularly and consciously with powerful results. While I believe that you can accomplish great things under the right conditions, I’m not suggesting you’ll be able to get all your work done in just two awesome hours. I do think, however, that when you are mentally effective, you can accomplish whatever matters most to you at that moment, with pride in your work and inspiration to do more. Working in tandem with our biology—setting up the conditions for a couple of hours of peak productivity—allows us not only to focus on the tasks that are most important to us and our success but also to restore some sanity and balance to our lives.

Arianna Huffington: Balanced Media Mogul

People

Arianna Huffington is Redefining Success

Arianna Huffington is passionate about success. And while success has been a focal point throughout her life, she sees it much differently now than she did even a few years ago. Today, her view of success is tied closely to happy living: “Well-being is now going to be in the center of my life, not on the edges.”Speaking at the International Symposium of Contemplative Studies in Boston in November, Arianna shares how she has accomplished the far-reaching goals she set for herself and did it in a way that helped define many of the major topics of our lifetime: women’s roles in the workplace and the world, the changing nature of political leadership and 21st-century innovations in media. Now, she has turned her attention to living a good and happy life.Playing the game of life“We have, if we’re lucky, about 30,000 days to play the game of life,” Arianna says in a recent interview. “How we play it will be determined by what we value. A huge part of that is our relationship with time. So for me, a well-lived life is one where there is ample time for the people in my life who truly matter, time to pause and wonder at the world, and time to delight in the mysteries of the universe, as well as the everyday occurrences and small miracles that fill our lives.”In her 2014 best-selling book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, she asks us to consider redefining success beyond the timeworn standards of money and power: “To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a third metric, a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving.”The value of failingArianna credits her mother with instilling optimism and resilience. “My mother taught us that failure is not the opposite of success, it is the stepping stone to success.”She lives that life philosophy firsthand. After graduating from Cambridge, she wrote a successful book, The Female Woman. But 36 publishers rejected her second book, and a seven-year relationship ended shortly after that.“By about rejection 25, you would have thought I might have said, ‘Hey, you know, there’s something wrong here. Maybe I should be looking at a different career.’ ” Instead she walked into a bank in London where she was living at the time and asked for a loan. “Even though I didn’t have any assets, the banker—whose name was Ian Bell—gave me a loan. It changed my life, because it meant I could keep things together for another 13 rejections and finally, an acceptance.Getting up one more time“In fairy tales there are helpful animals that come out of nowhere to help the hero or heroine through a dark and difficult time, often helping them find a way out of the forest. Well, in life, too, there are helpful animals disguised as human beings, as bank managers like Ian Bell, to whom I still send a Christmas card every year. So, very often, the difference between success and failure is perseverance. It’s how long we can keep going until success happens. It’s getting up one more time than we fall down.”Arianna moved to New York, where she continued writing books and magazine articles. After weathering ups and downs in love, career and even politics, Arianna co-founded The Huffington Post in 2005.The site was not an immediate success; it faced a storm of negative reviews, including one particularly harsh but memorable criticism from LA Weekly’s Nikki Finke, who called it “the movie equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate rolled into one.”Yet Arianna refused to be diverted by the criticism. Today, she says that backlash gave her the incentive to persevere. The truth is, we are always going toget bad reviews, she says. The answer is to rely on our personal resilience and continue our journey. In her case, the critics may remain, but the site has gained respect, credibility and worldwide recognition.The most powerful blog in the worldIn 2012, The Huffington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for a 10-part series on wounded veterans, becoming the first commercially run digital site in the United States to win the prize. It also has been ranked No. 1 on the Most Popular Political Sites by eBizMBA Rank, and The Observer, a British newspaper, named it the most powerful blog in the world.“At some point, I learned not to dread failure,” she says. “I strongly believe that we are not put on this earth just to accumulate victories and trophies and avoid failures but rather to be whittled and sand-papered down until what’s left is who we truly are.“My advice to those facing critics or challenging times is to refrain from adding our own self-criticism into the mix. This means dealing with the voice I call the obnoxious roommate living in our head, the voice that feeds on putting us down and strengthening our insecurities and doubts.”Refocusing attentionArianna now uses her media platform to showcase her happiness discoveries. The Huffington Post regularly includes news on happiness and how to achieve it. It’s a journey she embarked on after receiving a serious wake-up call in 2007.Exhausted from the relentless hustle of running a booming media enterprise, Arianna collapsed while at her computer in her home office. As her head hit the desk, she injured her eye, broke her cheekbone and ultimately realized she needed to find a new approach to her hectic life. She returned to the meditation and yoga exercises her mother had shown her as a child. She says now, “I wish they had just told me, ‘You have civilization disease.’ ”That’s how she sees it today, she explained at the Boston symposium: If you are driven to focus only on wealth and power, you, too, might have civilization disease. “Our society is made of highly educated good people making bad decisions. It’s not that they’re not smart, it’s that they’re not wise. We all have that wisdom in us,” she says. “I would never again congratulate someone for working 24/7. It’s like coming to work drunk.”Arianna is using her resources—such as books, speaking engagements and her media company—to help others learn how to adopt a lifestyle that encompasses well-being and wonder, wisdom and giving. She sees mindfulness as an important element in redefining success, in slowing down or even stopping the busyness of our lives, if only for a few important moments to begin each day.“The fact that there is now so much scientific exploration that builds on ancient wisdom is cause for great optimism,” she says. “It doesn’t matter why we start on this journey…at some point we’ll all realize that we’re bigger than our jobs.“However great your job is, you are more marvelous! Getting in touch with that magnificence is part of your journey.”Jan Stanley is a writer, coach and speaker who has worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop leaders and with many people to help them find meaning and joy in work and life.

News & Trends

The Happiness Booth

Step into a booth these days and you may either confess to a machine how happy you are, or it may tell you.Therapy in a boothIn a University of Southern California therapist's office, a computer named Elliediagnoses post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Patients sit in a private booth facing Ellie, and the computer makes its (her?) judgments based not on what you say but on your tone, and every detail of your facial expressions, which she captures with her camera eye."Contrary to popular belief, depressed people smile as many times as non-depressed people," psychologist Albert "Skip" Rizzo told NPR. "But their smiles are less robust and of less duration. It's almost like polite smiles rather than real, robust, coming from your inner-soul type of a smile."He developed Ellie with computer scientist Louis-Philippe Morency for the military as soldiers sometimes find it hard to talk to human therapists.Meanwhile in Dubai ...Halfway around the world, officials in Dubai, United Arab Emirates' largest city, are installing "Happiness Kiosks" at popular malls where shoppers are encouraged to air their happiness, satisfaction, complaints and suggestions about civic services, the Khaleej Times reports. It's all part of an initiative to make Dubai the happiest city on Earth, officials say.Each kiosk will be staffed with two government workers to help visitors record suggestions and complaints and forward them to a municipality call center for follow up, the newspaper reported.Making people happyIn October, "Happiness Meters" were activated at 14 Dubai Municipality offices so customers could rate services and record their happiness and satisfaction on websites, apps or in person, the official Emirates News Agency said."Today the world is transforming very fast and people's expectations too are changing rapidly," says Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE prime minister and Dubai ruler. "The ultimate goal of all our initiatives is to make people happy and make their lives simpler."Jim Gold is a veteran journalist who splits his time between Seattle and the Bay Area.

Giving

Cool to be KIND

When Daniel Lubetzky founded KIND Snacks in 2004 he wanted to create a profitable company that sold good-for-you snack bars made with whole foods and no preservatives. He also wanted to help build a more compassionate world. He’s been successful on both fronts. The company has sold more than a billion snack bars and clusters while the KIND Movement has inspired kind acts that have touched more than a million people. Today, the movement donates $10,000 every month to a community cause, like the Women’s Debate Institute in Baltimore, which is dedicated to closing the gender gap in competitive debating; a New York program that rescues leftover food from restaurants and catering companies and redistributes it to people in need; and Sweet Cases, a California-based project that wants to provide duffel bags or suitcases to kids in foster care so they don’t need to carry their belongings, such as a treasured stuffed animal, in plastic trash bags when they move from home to home. Now Daniel is sharing his principles in a new book, Do the Kind Thing: Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately.Whether you’re founding a company or working for one, Daniel offers ways to find meaning in your work. We asked Daniel if he could give Live Happy readers a snack-sized summary of his advice. Here’s what he told us. You need to know what gives you purpose before you can translate it into business practice. Your purpose could be to make others happy. To take care of others. To keep this planet clean. It could be a big global problem, or one that affects your community. You may not have identified what force within drives you. This is why introspection is key. Talking with yourself often and deeply is not always an easy task but there are no shortcuts to understanding what makes you tick. You must take the time to ask yourself questions. Your answer most likely will not come overnight. And it may evolve as you gain other experiences. But that is why it is so important that you consciously invest the time to listen to your inner self along the way. Knowing what makes you happy is the first step to actually being happy. Shelley Levitt is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, and editor-at-large for Live Happy magazine.

The Life-Changing Power of Cleaning Out Your Closet

Giving

The Life-Changing Magic of Cleaning Your Closet

A personal shopper at Bloomingdale’s once told me your closet should be "like the walls of an art gallery: with lots of empty white space." I’ve always longed for that kind of order, but instead my closets are a jam-packed jumble: shoes piled on top of purses, garment bar sagging under the weight of hundreds of overloaded hangers. Trying to extract my black silk pumps is like attempting to get to the veggie burgers in an overpacked freezer—one wrong move, and you’re pummeled with falling objects (yes, those of us who have messy closets tend to have chaotic freezers, too). Happiness is a clean closet A slim new best-selling volume offers hope. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing was written by Marie Kondo, a 30-year-old organizational guru who’s a superstar in Japan, with a three-month waiting list for her services. Her book has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide with a promise that goes far beyond well-spaced hangers. Get your house in order, Marie says, and you will be free to “pour your time and passion into what brings you the most joy, your mission in life.” Here, in six steps, is what Marie and her followers call the “KonMarimethod" to decluttering your closet: 1. Empty your wardrobe—every dresser drawer and closet—in one place. That massive pile on your bed or floor will give you a clear-eyed view of just how much you own. 2. Pick up each piece of clothing and ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?” If it doesn’t, put it in the discard pile. This simple criterion doesn’t allow for the guilt of having overpaid for a garment, the excuse that you’ve never worn it or pondering whether it might come back into style. That’s why handling each dress, handbag and sweater is necessary. “When you touch a piece of clothing, your body reacts,” Marie writes. 3. Do your clutter clearing in solitude and in silence. “Tidying is a dialog with oneself,” Marie writes. “The work of carefully considering each object I own to see whether it sparks joy inside me is like conversing with myself through the medium of my possessions.” Noise makes it harder to hear this internal dialog; if you feel you need some background music to relax, choose the kind of ambient music you’d hear in a spa. 4. Express gratitude for their service to the items that are getting tossed. This is especially important with pieces you’re finding difficult to place in the discard pile even though they don’t spark joy. Ask yourself why you have the item in the first place. Maybe it’s the cashmere tunic you’ve never worn that you thought looked great when you tried it on in Macy’s. If that’s the case, “it has fulfilled the function of giving you a thrill when you bought it,” Marie says. Then, consider why you’ve never worn the tunic. Is it because at home you realized the style isn’t flattering, after all? Now you’re free to say, “Thank you for teaching me what doesn’t suit me” as you let it go. 5. Resist the temptation to downgrade items to something you’ll just wear around the house. Pilled cardigans, stained T-shirts, out-of-date jeans—it’s easy to demote these items to loungewear. But, Marie says, that merely delays parting with clothes that don’t resonate with joy. “To me,” she says, “it doesn’t seem right to keep clothes we don’t enjoy for relaxing around the house. This time at home is still a precious part of living. Its value should not change just because nobody sees us.” Marie says when she completes a consultation, her client’s wardrobe has been reduced by at least half. I can’t claim that kind of success, yet—I’m still making my way through my piles (itself a violation of the KonMari method, which advocates doing all your tidying at once). But I’ve taken a half-dozen shopping bags filled with dormant and, for me, “unjoyful,” clothing to a thrift shop that supports a local relief agency. I’m committed, at my own pace, to tidying up. The payoff is huge because, as Marie writes, “being surrounded only by things that spark joy makes us happy.” Shelley Levitt is an Editor-at-Large for Live Happy magazine.

News & Trends

Happier Students Make the Grade

If you want your kids to get good grades in school, a Harvard researcher says, make sure they're happy.It helps, too, if you keep teachers happy, British researchers say.Happy students tend to get better grades, says Christina Hinton, Ed.D., a Harvard Graduate School of Education neuroscientist and lecturer. She says her study also found what makes students happy: school culture and relationships that students form with their teachers and peers.Happiness doesn't cause students to earn higher grades, Christina told the Deseret News. "Some students could be unhappy and still do well," she says. On average, "if you're happy you're more likely to do well."Christina collaborated with the K-12 St. Andrew's Episcopal School, near Washington, D.C., where students took surveys about happiness and motivation. She compared result with data on students' grade point averages.Among key findings:Happiness is positively associated with intrinsic motivation (a personal drive to learn) for all students, and also with extrinsic motivation (outside sources like rewards, praise, or avoiding punishment) for students in grades K–3.Happiness and standardized test scores did not seem to be related.Happiness is positively associated with GPA for students in grades 4–12.Teacher well-being also has a positive effect, helping send exam grades up 8 percent, according to a 2014 study from the Work Foundation at Lancaster University in England."Unlike other factors, such as the social class of students, the rate of pupil absence and the number of children with special educational needs, teacher health and well-being may be more amenable to intervention and change," researchers said."If schools want to support student well-being and achievement, they should take seriously nurturing positive relationships among teachers and students."Jim Gold is a veteran journalist who splits his time between Seattle and the Bay Area.

9 Ways to Stay Healthy and Happy This Summer

B the Change

Color Yourself Happy

Positive Psychology Fans Gather for Conference

5 Strategies to Make You More Productive

Arianna Huffington is Redefining Success

The Happiness Booth

Cool to be KIND

The Life-Changing Magic of Cleaning Your Closet

Happier Students Make the Grade

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