Within the positive psychology community many have a love-hate relationship with happiness. By that, I mean that there are some positive psychologists who're concerned that the word happiness is too vague and means too many things to too many different people. Some of these academics...
Just pause and think for a minute on the heading and sub-heading of this blog posting...
Now here's a really interesting article from Forbes...
According to a recent survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM_ã_s Institute for Business Value, CEOs identify _ã–creativity_ã as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future. The link may initially not be intuitive, but spawning creativity in the workforce comes back to corporate social responsibility. While corporate responsibility is often used in reference to the organization_ã_s interaction with outside communities, it also touches upon how members of the organization are actually treated and valued. How they are treated determines both self-perception and performance within the workplace and is correlated with life happiness in general.
Writers, business leaders and psychologists have long hypothesized about the link between work environments and creativity, and the challenges in harnessing natural human creativity to optimize performance. One scientist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, explains the optimal state of mind, when creativity is at its highest, as _ã–flow._ã Flow is when our minds and bodies are stretched to their limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something worthwhile and difficult.
The link between happiness and creative _ã–flow_ã is explained in a Scientific American article that chronicles the results of a study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. The study found that _ã–With positive mood, you actually get more access to things you would normally ignore_ã_ Instead of looking through a porthole, you have a landscape or panoramic view of the world._ã In other words, the results suggest that happiness makes people more receptive to information of all kinds, and therefore results in greater creative thought processes. (Note: it can also lead to greater distraction, so read the article).
Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. The study is the first to link positive well-being to higher telomerase, an enzyme important...
referencing an article by Christopher Peterson for Psychology Today I learned something interesting the other day in my positive psychology class. I was talking about oxytocin - AKA the cuddle hormone - and its social benefits. Oxytocin is stimulated by human touch, and I believe research...
by Christopher Peterson for Psychology Today The premise of positive psychology is simple but important: the absence of distress and disorder is not the same thing as happiness and fulfillment. Can a similar premise be proposed with respect to physical well-being, namely that the absence of...
Forbes magazine writes aobut 7 steps to happiness at work...
Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal Can money buy happiness? Apparently it can--if that money is spent on someone else. New research shows that people around the world gain emotional benefits from using their financial resources to benefit others. The research, which...
The "Nun Study" as it's often known is one of the most famous positive psychology research projects. In short, it explores the links between positive expression of emotions and/or happiness and longevity and Alzheimer's Disease. Basically, it found that...
by Michael Austin for Psychology Today Happiness is impossible, if we're engrossed by self-love. Published on October 26, 2010 Over the past couple of years, I've spent some time studying virtues and virtue-based ethical theories. This is, amazingly, part of my job as a moral philosopher!...
