Patience on the Path to Happiness Work Hard and Treat Yourself with Kindness They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Cliché or not, these words are wise. They are also easy to forget. Yet they apply to your happiness journey just as much […]
In My Defenselessness My Safety Lies How Defensiveness and Unhappiness Go Hand in Hand A good idea, community, or spirituality speaks for itself and doesn’t need defending. If criticism isn’t true, those falsehoods will be borne out over time. If criticism is well founded, the ideas need improvement and can incorporate the criticism, or they […]
Spirituality, Drugs, and Meditation The Power and Limits of Different Ways to Change our State of Being State Changes are Common Think about the last dream you remember. It was probably pretty weird. You existed, yet it was a sort of altered state of being. Or you might have felt a runner’s high after intense […]
The Death of a Rockstar Life Lessons from the Island Jungles of Brazil I had just quit a band when I flew down to Brazil. I had dedicated the last four years of my life to this band—it was my full time job, my passion, my hobby, my travel. Even though I held many identities, […]
How do you Define Success? Redefining Success in Relationships Many people think that a romantic relationship is only successful if it ends well—which is usually defined as marriage “til death do us part.” This is a recipe for unhappiness, and it does not recognize the complex reality of two humans relating to each other over […]
Do Something Ridiculous And Bring Others Along for the Ride Saturday night was awesome. Five friends came over to my house and threw whatever would float into my roommate’s old truck. The supply list included: A section of fence A kayak An exercise ball Two five gallon jugs One five gallon cooler A kickboard A […]
Can 100-Hour Work Weeks Make You Happy? Reflections On Elon Musk, Working Too Hard, and Happiness If other people are putting in 40 hour work weeks and you’re putting in 100 hour work weeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing you know that… you will achieve in 4 months what it takes them […]
Love Life: The Monthly Check-In One Happy Trick for Healthy Relationships About eight months ago my girlfriend and I adopted a new practice we simply call “The Check-In.” Every month (around the 15th) we set aside an hour to check-in around how our relationship is going. We discuss what we love and what’s been bothering us, about […]
More on the Write Way to Happiness One Dude’s Journaling Practice My friends know that I’m a huge fan of journaling. I consider it an essential practice for my emotional well-being. Regular DailyHap readers will also remember that certain kinds of journaling—especially about emotional or traumatic events, real or imagined—have been scientifically demonstrated to increase happiness. So […]
Saying No is Saying Yes And Saying Yes Can Make You a Lot Happier When you say “no” to one thing, you say “yes” to something else. A simple, obvious, and underemployed statement. When you say “no” to going out and drinking, you say “yes” to reading the book you’ve been wanting to read, or getting up […]
Optimism is the Rational Choice The Science Behind Positive Thinking When it comes to happiness, the value of optimism is pretty obvious. If you have a positive outlook on life, you are, by definition, more happy. At least in the moment. But that sort of self-referential logic is a little incomplete, and it ignores the […]
How Can We Evolve Education? Using the Collective Intelligence to Overcome Systemic Challenges It is clear that the US education system is limited. Most schools systems have not been upgraded to match the globally connected, technologically savvy, smartphone and social media enabled information age, in their curriculums, mindsets, or systems. Most schools don’t emphasize creativity […]