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Try Our One-Month Pathway to Happiness Program

A growing body of evidence shows that people can increase their happiness by engaging in positive activities like expressing gratitude, practicing mindfulness, and being kind and generous toward other people. Engaging in activities like these helps us...

Published Tue, Dec 14 2021 4:18 AM by Greater Good Articles

How Small Moments of Empathy Affect Your Life

Empathy is one of many skills that help us build better relationships. When we resonate with people’s feelings, consider their perspective, or feel compassion for them, we are more likely to be generous and altruistic, and less likely to be prejudiced...

Published Tue, Aug 31 2021 4:05 AM by Greater Good Articles

How Generosity Shows Up in the Nervous System

Generosity not only feels good—to the giver and receiver—it has a host of other benefits for children, including promoting healthy friendships. But what makes kids generous, and can we as parents help encourage them? A recent study explored how different...

Published Tue, Jun 29 2021 8:00 AM by Greater Good Articles

Can the Pandemic Push U.S. Public Health in a Positive Direction?

After the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S., it took the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than 15 weeks to create a public website tracking the disease—and even then, it contained significant discrepancies when compared...

Published Tue, Jun 01 2021 3:37 AM by Greater Good Articles

Nine Tips for Being a Male Ally at Work

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our work lives, particularly for women. As of January 2021, over 2.3 million women had left the workforce in the U.S. during the pandemic, leaving only 57% of women working or looking for work—the lowest rate since...

Published Wed, May 19 2021 5:13 AM by Greater Good Articles

How to Turn a Toxic Conflict Into a Good One

We’ve all been there: Locked in a heated argument, blood pressure rising, fixated on our next point rather than actually listening to what the other person has to say. Even after it ends, it doesn’t really end—we keep ruminating on it for hours, days...

Published Fri, Apr 30 2021 6:56 AM by Greater Good Articles

If You Want to Be Happy, Try to Make Someone Else Happy

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he assured Americans of their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This idea seems to lead many Americans to chase after new gadgets and hedonistic pleasures. But what if that...

Published Wed, May 12 2021 4:58 AM by Greater Good Articles

What Estranged Families Can Teach Us About the Political Divide

This article was originally published on the Behavioral Scientist. Read the original article. My brother and I will never agree on anything political. I won’t accept that Hillary is evil, no matter how many videos he sends me, and he won’t accept that...

Published Fri, May 14 2021 7:16 AM by Greater Good Articles

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater

It doesn’t feel all that festive to talk about cheating around Thanksgiving. But as kids head into their finals, I think it is appropriate to understand how and why we are raising a generation of cheaters. We’ve created such a fixed-mindset...

Published Fri, Nov 20 2009 10:45 AM by Half Full: Science for Raising Happy Kids

Filed under: Growth & fixed mindsets, growth mind-set, fixed mindset, Carol Dweck, Success, achievement, Cheating

Why Midlife Is So Hard—Especially Now

The way my mom imagined it, midlife was going to be great: counting down days until retirement, spending winters in Florida and checking off destinations on her bucket list. But it hasn’t turned out that way. Instead of more time spent in Florida, she...

Published Mon, Jul 03 2023 5:39 AM by Greater Good Articles

How Exploring My Father’s Life Helped Me Understand My Own

On a quiet afternoon while sitting in my office at Stanford, I got an unexpected phone call from my daughter that changed my understanding of both my life and my field of study. This was no small deal. I was in my 60s, with enough years behind me—one...

Published Mon, Jan 31 2022 4:57 AM by Greater Good Articles

World Happiness Report Reveals More Sadness and More Kindness During COVID-19

When bad things happen—wars, pandemics, shootings—the optimists of the world tend to turn their attention to all the goodness that still exists: the heroic fighters, the frontline workers, the givers and the helpers. But are we just deluding ourselves...

Published Mon, Mar 28 2022 5:41 AM by Greater Good Articles

Six Ways to Break Your Creative Blocks

My coaching client Eileen has long had a dream of having her own consulting business. She has everything she needs: the technical skills to create an online presence, industry connections, social media followers, and substantive expertise in her field...

Published Tue, Jul 26 2022 5:21 AM by Greater Good Articles

How to Manage Expectations to Maximize Happiness

Have you ever looked forward to a concert, beach vacation, or party only to find yourself not enjoying it as much as you thought you would? You may be suffering from overly high expectations, says psychologist Robb Rutledge of Yale University. Rutledge...

Published Tue, Jul 12 2022 9:47 AM by Greater Good Articles

Can Self-Compassion Increase Resilience in the Face of Discrimination?

What helps individual African Americans stay resilient in the face of racism? Veronica Womack of Northwestern University and her colleagues put one technique to the test: self-compassion, which is the ability to speak warmly and kindly to yourself even...

Published Tue, Jan 11 2022 5:25 AM by Greater Good Articles

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