Optimist's, according to research tend to be healthier, are more active, eat more fruits and vegetables and spend more time actively with others. So who wouldn't want to be one? The question is, can optimism be learned, and if so, wouldn't that be a great New Year's resolution?

Martin...

I have learned that each new day is just another day on my spiritual journey
Even a holiday
I know how to look around at any moment and allow the sheer aliveness of it to move me and remind me of the beauty and privilege of being alive.

Take a walk, you'll be glad you did!
You have a natural and very effective antidepressant right inside your body!
The soothing body chemicals that nature embedded into our DNA, to help us to regulate our moods, don't get a chance to work their daily magic if we...

Can guided imagery really make you less depressed, less anxious and improve your general outlook on life? Apparently the answer is YES. Research on guided imagery in chemotherapy patients, has consistently shown that it can reduce their length of stay in hospitals, lessen somatic symptoms such as vomiting and...

It has long been understood in the vernacular of the addictions field that an addict, whose life has become "unmanageable" through excessive use of drugs and alcohol may be trying to drown emotional and psychological pain. However, while initially, addicts may feel they have found a way to manage...

What we think about all day really matters to our health and outlook. Positive thoughts may do more for us than we may realize. Consider this: Harvard studies prove that negative thoughts actually cause us to maintain elevated levels of stress hormones, while positive thoughts fill our bodies with...

It is such a sad story. Once again, a major political figure, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is taken away in handcuffs for alleged sexual crimes. And then the usual comments follow. From some, indignation: "This could not be the important and intelligent man I know; I refuse to believe it." From others,...

Charlie Sheen is now sober, that is he has tested free of drugs. But his behavior is raising eyebrows because it is increasingly apparent that whatever the hair or blood tests say, he does not appear to be emotionally sober. Physical sobriety can take around 72 hours to achieve. Emotional...

In 1980, when the term adult child of alcoholic, ACOA was coined, ACOAs literally came out of the woodwork, testifying in droves to confusion, resentment and hurt that the child within them still hung onto. They reported feeling, at times, like "children walking around in the bodies of grown ups"....

Almost every species of animal engages in some form of play. Play helps all species, animal and human alike, to learn the adaptive behaviors that increase their chances of survival. But play can help us to "survive" emotionally and psychologically as well. Play performs a few important functions.

• It...

Not everyone finds the holidays easy. Holidays are a time when we affirm family ties, bonds of friendship and love of life. But for those whose family rituals may have been interrupted by painful family dynamics, holidays can also bring back an emotional cocktail of warmth, excitement, hope,...

Is it possible that Hollywood is growing a conscience? Hollywood who, for some time now, has been exporting some of America's worst values, seems to be sending out something that is entertaining and does what good theater is meant to do, cause us to self reflect. This month I am...

The oldest living survivor of the Nazi Camps, Alice Herz-Summer will celebrate her 106th birthday.She credits music and optimism for saving her life and the life of her son.

In 1943, at 39 Alice was ordered to leave Prague. Alice, her husband and their 6 year...

Part of "Recovery Month" Series

In the 1960s, when my Dad got treatment, we all thought that once the alcoholic got sober, the rest of us in the family would sort of get better automatically. Normalcy would be restored and we could all go on with our lives as...

My high school motto was "Great in '68". My colleague on the board of The National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA), Peter Palanca's, was "Fine in "69". As kids living in homes where addiction was a living, breathing green eyed monster, we weren't so great and we...

Play is defined by researchers as an activity that encourages positive emotions and allows people to complete high-order relational goals, such as getting to know each other, learning about each other or engaging in a mutual interest together, at a higher rate than expected . Play is accompanied by smiling...

I don't accept telephone solicitations. Ever. It's not that I have anything against being generous or kind, I am simply preserving my quite. Other than my children, I don't talk on the phone at night after 8:00 pm. Again, I need to unwind. I make every effort to shut out...

The key question isn't "What fosters creativity?" But it is why in God's name isn't everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not...

There also exists a sleeping sickness of the soul. Its most dangerous aspect is that one is unaware of its coming. That is why you have to be careful ... You should realize that your soul suffers if you live superficially. People need times in which to concentrate, when they...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month so yesterday, on the Today Show, Joey Pantoliano talked about his own struggles with mental dis-ease as he likes to call it, "mental illness seems so permanent, not like the temporary state of moving in and out of depression that I actually expereince".