"Happiness, meet Science"

In June, I wrote about the "Three Good Things" journal, which I had read about in a Chicago Tribune article titled "Happiness, Meet Science." And then I was reminded of it on a webinar on positive emotions by Janet Edmunson. The nightly accounting takes me just a few minutes, and I've found it to be helpful, even on days when I have to think hard about finding three good things to record.

One of the things I like about Ms. Edmunson is her references to positive psychology research to explain why different techniques are effective. In her latest webinar, she mentioned a website called randomactsofkindness.org while she was explaining that giving kindness to others improves our own well-being.

Here's a 3 minute video from that site, about research being done at the Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley. Even the music makes me feel better!



Another website mentioned during the webinar was 29gifts.org - started by a woman with MS, who has gotten physically and emotionally better when a friend urged her to start focusing on others. An interview on the Today show from a few years ago tells the story, which is a great reminder of how powerfully our positive or negative emotions can affect our physical health.