The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body and new neural pathways in your brain to support more frequent experience of what we call Positive Emotions. When you “Act Happy” you train your mind/body/heart to find Happiness, Calm, and … Read more
I. ACT HAPPY WEEK, DAY 5: WHAT’S THE ONE THING? In 2018 I was guest on the Leadership Hacks Podcast with my esteemed colleague, Jill Windelspecht, a fellow executive coach and organization consultant. Jill invited me to bring my best hack (shortcut/workaround) to the conversation, so I showed up with the most basic tool in my box: Breathing. … Read more
I. ACT HAPPY WEEK, DAY 2: FROM JIM’S KITCHEN, HAPPINESS How do you feed your soul? Do you grab pre-packaged Pleasure from the freezer, microwave it, and eat on the run; or do you cook up your Joy from scratch using organic, locally sourced ingredients? Perhaps you have a saucepan of Gratitude constantly simmering on a … Read more
ACT HAPPY WEEK, DAY 1: WHERE ARE YOU NOW? I’m always excited about the third week of March. Act Happy Week has been a thing since 2004, embracing International Day of Happiness on March 20. We SOOO need Act Happy Week this year, so I hope you’ll join me. Every day this week I will offer you a new tool … Read more
It’s been a wet winter here, so our yard is a reeking mud marsh dotted with swampy pools deep enough that we’ve attracted nomadic geese. We are in COVID-19 lockdown (Day 7). Our internet is spotty and overloaded, and my nine-year-old iMac chose today to fully embrace dementia. Our sump pump is blocked. A skunk … Read more
Doctors ask us to keep two meters apart to reduce transmission of COVID-19. But don’t let physical distance lead to emotional disconnection. We need each other more than ever right now. Whether you are passing people in a hallway, sitting a safe space away, or speaking via video or phone, Smile. When you smile on … Read more
I remember when my children were younger and we were trying to get past the childhood disease phase, we’d send the boys to hang out with friends who had chicken pox, hoping they’d get infected. Emotions are more contagious than viruses. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of having a roomful of people shift within moments … Read more
There’s a moment in the movie Frozen 2 when Queen Elsa, haunted by a mysterious voice, decides to shift from ignoring it (out of fear) to pursuing it (out of curiosity). The song, Into the Unknown (watch it here), follows her transition from “I won’t” to admitting, “there’s a part of me that wants to go, … Read more
Pandemic and all, this is still annual Act Happy Week. Watch for five 60-second exercises, starting today. Because even if panic is the emotion of the day, you get to choose. The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body … Read more
The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body that drive Positive Emotions. Here is today’s exercise: Day 5: Hang Out With Happy People I remember when my children were younger and we were trying to get past the childhood … Read more