A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Flickr Images 1. Comparing yourself to others. Comparison has been called the thief of joy and for good reason — every minute you spend wishing you were someone else is a minute of your own life wasted. Comparing yourself to others also misses the whole point of your life — to be you, [...]
Pixabay Images So many of us have been raised to believe we can’t show any weaknesses; so many of us have learned to hide any and all of our shortcomings believing that if they were known to and seen by others we’d be judged negatively. Yet we all have them (i.e., weaknesses and [...]
Flickr Images In the 1990s, a psychologist named Martin Seligman led the positive psychology movement, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the centre of psychology research and theory. It continued a trend that began in the 1960s with humanistic and existential psychology, which emphasized the importance of reaching one’s innate [...]
Flikr Images We all know what a Danish pastry is — that delightful caloric bomb of glazed breakfast deliciousness. But what about a Danish classroom cake? And moreover, how can this help teach empathy? In the Danish education system empathy is considered as important as teaching math and literature, and it is woven [...]
Pixabay Images Meditation is just one strand of new “positive education” methods starting to build momentum and gravitas in schools. The key idea is to teach good practices such as mindfulness and gratitude that will promote resilience and, it is thought, help children lead healthier psychological lives. Until recently, these might have been [...]
Pixabay Images On a recent sodden weekend walk, I tried to cheer myself up by thinking: it’s not so bad. Not the slugs or the sky or the rain making its way down a gap between neck and waterproof. But I couldn’t do it. Losing heart, I turned back. Glump, glump, glump through the [...]
Wikihow One way to be happier is to increase the quality of our friendships. Whether you are a sociable person or a loner, friendships are important. One of the easiest ways to remain engaged and interested at school, at work or in life is to enjoy the company of the people that we are [...]
Photo: Digital Vision Be happy. Do you get confused by that. I mean, happiness. You’re told to be happy no matter what. Everywhere you find advice on happiness. Books promising to deliver true happiness. Blog posts telling you do this and you’ll be happy. Friends and family telling you to add happiness on [...]
Natasha Devon, sacked last week as a mental health champion for young people. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex We live with an epidemic of anxiety. In 1980, 4% of Americans suffered a mental disorder associated with anxiety. Today half do. The trends in Britain are similar. A third of Britons will experience anxiety disorder at some [...]
Credit: Bill Kuffrey/public domain Cheating to get ahead is likely to reduce your level of happiness. That's according to a new study by University of California, Riverside sociology professor Jan E. Stets. The study, titled "Happiness and Identities," was published in the journal Social Science Research. In the study, Stets examined happiness in a morally challenging [...]
