- It’s a Cookbook
It’s a Philosophy
It’s a Resource
March 12, 2024
On a quest to achieve richer fulfillment in your life? While happiness may be relative, there are actions you can take every day to keep your mind positive and your body at its best. Here are 12 happiness activities to exercise daily, excerpted and adapted with permission from the book The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky. 1. Express gratitude Bolsters self-esteem; encourages moral behavior; diminishes feelings of anger and bitterness. Strategies: Keep a gratitude journal. Express gratitude directly to someone else, either in person or by writing a letter that you can send or keep. 2. Cultivate optimism Prompts […]
August 16, 2023
Did you know that food can actually play a role in your mood and happiness levels? So many people live with restricting many foods or feelings of guilt or shame surrounding eating. Others may not get the nutrition they need to fuel the pleasure centers in the brain (think serotonin production), keeping mood stable. The brain uses a full 20% of the calories you take in so fueling it is absolutely critical. Foods that contain compounds like zinc, selenium, B6 and B12, magnesium, omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidants have proven links to brain health and even mood, which […]
April 13, 2021
By Lisa Truesday A trip to the library changed Luann Alemao’s life—and the small city of Cedar Falls, Iowa—forever. While browsing the new-book shelf a few years ago, Alemao found The Blue Zones (National Geographic, 2012) by Dan Buettner, a New York Times best seller showcasing five locations in the world with the highest percentage of people living well into their 100s. Alemao, a former Family and Consumer Sciences educator, remembers feeling more than a little amazed. “I thought, wow, this is everything I used to teach, like food and nutrition, marriage and family and consumer education, plus all the […]
September 5, 2017
Happiness is not about wishful thinking, good luck, or avoiding negative thoughts. In fact, the only path to true happiness requires seeing challenges as opportunities and discovering emotional strength during times of struggle. In other words, it’s about resilience. Resilience is a quality most of us want to possess. The big issue is that no one knows how to access it in their day-to-day life. We understand that it’s important, that it’s crucial even, but it seems like an ephemeral thing that you either have or you don’t. How we actually attain the skills to become resilient has been left […]