A wonderful book and on-line resource for parents and non-parents alike is called The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. The so-called project that Rubin undertook was to see if and how she […]
Continue reading...The Importance of Taking Ourselves Lightly
“I feel an earnest and humble desire, and shall till I die, to increase the stock of harmless cheerfulness.” -Charles Dickens “Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.” -Proverbs The holiday season can bring families closer together but it can also tear them apart. […]
Continue reading...Research on Doing a Good Deed Can Help Families
Research now shows that even watching someone else do a good deed makes us feel better. The study is reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Scientists call this effect “mood elevation”, meaning that it makes our moods cheerier, but now we know that it also makes the observer even more likely to do […]
Continue reading...Inspirational Books for Children & Teens About Giving
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson No matter what the age of your children, there are many wonderful books that can inspire you and your family to find ways to give back in your community. One of the gentle souls who taught children (and adults) about […]
Continue reading...Happy Families Serve Others
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” -Theodore Roosevelt “Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.” […]
Continue reading...Learning to Laugh Together

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy, we are happy because we laugh.” -William James One of my mentors and teachers was the late Annette Goodheart, a psychotherapist, teacher, and laughter coach extraordinaire. I met Annette in 1979 when husband Don and I first settled in Santa Barbara. Annette had just begun her private practice at […]
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