A few years ago, as we were about to try an Italian wine during a guided tour in Italy, the tour guide taught us how to clink glasses over drinks. Most of us, when we tap the other person's glass, look at the glass to make sure we are tapping…
As any regular reader here knows, I’ve written a lot about how to make changes stick – break down your goals into small pieces and work on one at a time for the 21 days it takes to create a habit. As I have explained, we have a limited amount…
I’ve written before about things I learned from Daniel Kahneman’s wonderfully interesting book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow". In a section on availability bias, Kahneman shared useful information for couples. Availability bias is the way we judge situations by relying on immediate examples that come mind. For example, as Kahneman points…
After I republished my post Kindness & the Common Good in my monthly newsletter, a reader sent me this note I want to share with you: Thank you for this email (newsletter)! I have a constant, inner conversation with myself where I try to be mindful of the point of…
This is a guest post by Ryan Snow. Screens are everywhere. You can’t make a call or even make your coffee without looking at a screen. After reading Kevin Kelly’s book, The Inevitable, where he writes about the future of screening, I decided to examine my own use of screens.…
In the past, I wrote about Being Present in a Smartphone World. On a related note, I read a piece in the New York Times where they reported on these survey results, which might not be very shocking: We check our phone an average of 47 times a day. Eighty-two…
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, David Brooks wrote about Pope Francis’ New Year’s Eve commentary that the people who have the most influence on society are “normal folks,” and their everyday gestures of kindness make them “artisans of the common good”. The pope used driving, of…
I bought my first iPhone in 2011. I never had a Blackberry, a Palm Pilot, or anything similar—so that iPhone 3G was my first foray into the world of smartphones. I've upgraded it twice since, and now use an iPhone 6. I love my iPhone—just as so many people do.…
I have been a long-time student of the power of our thoughts. That's part of why I enjoyed Waking Up by Sam Harris, a book that focuses a great deal on the power of our thoughts. Before cell phones, when we saw someone walking down the street talking to himself,…
I’ve written many times about what I call Proactive Positivity, actions you can take to help yourself to be happier, such as: expressing gratitude, smiling, helping others, exercising, spending time with people you like, looking for silver linings, being present, seeing the glass as half full, celebrating your progress, laughing,…
One thing that bothers most people, is the experience of not remembering why you just walked from one place to another—for example, walking from one room to another in your house, or from one part of your workplace to another. As we get older, we begin to worry if that…
During the time of year when the weather cooperates, I love eating breakfast in my backyard. For many years, I did so while reading the morning newspaper. A couple of years ago, I decided to stop reading while I was eating. I wrote them about that here. But, I allowed…