Note: This is part of a series of blog posts I’ve been doing about adopting a more positive mindset. You can find the others in my list of blog posts. What do Zorro and mindful eating have in common? No, this isn’t a trick question. But it’s certainly not something I thought about until I read The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. That’s when I found out that one of his strategies for creating happiness is by using the Zorro Circle. What is the Zorro Circle? Even though I didn’t grow up with the original Zorro, I was a big fan of the more recent The Mask of Zorro. (The fact that Antonio Banderas played the new Zorro didn’t hurt.) And in both old and new versions, Zorro had to go through si
Note: This is part of a series of blog posts I've been doing about adopting a more positive mindset. You can find the others in the list of blog posts. Have you felt any stress lately? I'm going to guess that you answered yes, because stress is part of all our lives. (But if you said no, let me know how you did it!) Whether it's about your relationships, health, finances, job, etc., there's always something. That's why I was eager to read suggestions on reframing stress in Shawn Achor's book Big Potential. He calls it practicing Mental Aikido, and he offers a number of tips for starting this practice. But first, let's take a moment to consider why this is important. Negative impacts of viewi
Note: This is part of a series of blog posts I've been doing about adopting a more positive mindset. You can find the others in the list of blog posts. Have you ever had a situation where your perspective on something changed, and suddenly a whole new world opened up? It’s a very strange feeling, but it can be very freeing to realize you’re not as constrained as you thought you were. But until I read The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, it never occurred to me that you could deliberately change your perspective. I thought it just happened. An example of my changed perspective I’ll give you a personal example. Back when I was 13, Mom had me go see a therapist because of my weight. (The iro
Do you ever wonder why some people come back from adversity even stronger than before? I certainly have. I’ve often puzzled about why people in similar circumstances have radically different responses, with some falling even further, while others rise above the challenge. I didn’t understand why, though, until I read the chapter on “Falling Up” in Shawn Achor’s book The Happiness Advantage. That was good to know. But more importantly, the chapter also explained how you can learn to come back stronger. Why is there a difference? When you’ve faced a failure or adversity, do you feel overwhelmed or hopeless? Do you want to curl up and binge-watch a favorite show or disappear into a novel – or t
