a daily blog on well-being and how to feel better by Mark Barger Elliott…

Arthur Brooks, who writes a popular happiness column for the New York Times, and teaches an online class called “Managing Happiness,” talks about how we can feel happier just by smiling. As evidence he points to the neurologist Duchenne who in the 1860s identified muscles just to the side of our eyes called the orbicularis…

My 7 year old nephew bought a mood ring yesterday in a toy store on a family vacation. In the 1970s they were a popular form of jewelry that changed colors as liquid crystals close to our skin sensed fluctuations in our body temperature and moved to catch the light in different ways. Each changing…

I was walking through the zoo in DC with my daughter when she mentioned how an otter will often choose a favorite rock when it’s a child and keep it with them. They use the rock to break open mollusks, clams, and even to play. They store them in a pouch under their forearms. As…

Mary Oliver is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and in her poem “The Truro Bear” has a wonderful line – … the seed has been planted, and when has happiness ever required much evidence to begin… Happiness, like all emotions, begins in our minds. Neurologist Lisa Feldman Barrett observes that our brains predict how we…

Studies show between 80-95% of our decisions are based on emotions. We feel inspired and sign up for a class. We feel frustrated and write an aggressive email. We are smitten and buy a handbag. Reason plays a minimal role in our decisions and therefore, if we think about it, our lives. Cheryl Strauss Einhorn…

My wife’s grandmother always took the worst apple in the bowl and asked others, in particular guests, to take the best one. She would pick one that was bruised or discolored and encourage others to take the shiny, perfect one. This drove my wife’s father crazy. He would say, “if you take the best apple…