Happiness Interview: Agapi Stassinopoulos

Through a mutual friend, I e-met Agapi Stassinopoulos. She has a new book that's just hitting the bookstores: "Unbinding the Heart." She grapples with the question of how...

As a result of my happiness project, I've become a sleep zealot. It's just so obvious to me -- from reading the research and from personal experience -- that getting enough sleep is a key to a happier life.

I've noticed something, however. I noticed this in myself, before...

Cruising around Pinterest (my new toy), I came across this list of Henry Miller's 11 work commandments, posted by Sadie Skeels. I'm astounded by how absolutely apt these commandments are for my own writing practices.

For instance, #10. I struggle with this problem all the time. And #2....

As a student of human nature, one of my favorite exercises is to try to divide people into two camps. For instance, I've managed to identify splits like abstainers vs. moderators and under-buyers vs. over-buyers.

Walking to the gym today, I found myself thinking about a

The most challenging aspect of being a writer? Writing. When I find myself struggling to be productive or creative, I remind myself of these nine tips.

1. Write every day. Staying inside a project keeps me engaged, keeps my mind working, and keeps ideas flowing. Also, I find, perhaps surprisingly,...

Every Wednesday is List Day or Tip Day.

I've just started trying to come up with a list of the bare minimum of things we should do every day to be happy and healthy.

This list doesn't include major challenges, like "Quit smoking." Obviously, quitting smoking is very important for...

My children make me happy for many reasons, of course. But it strikes me that one reason they make me happy is they encourage me to engage more deeply with the physical world.

Left to my own instincts, I'd drift absentmindedly through the apartment, reading, writing and eating cereal...

One of my key realizations about happiness, and a point oddly under-emphasized by positive psychologists, given its emphasis in popular culture, is that outer order contributes to inner calm. More than it should.

After all, in the context of a happy life, a messy desk or house is a...

Forty to 45 percent of Americans make New Year's resolutions, and I know I always do. I'm more inclined to make resolutions than ever, in fact, because if my happiness project has convinced me of anything, it has convinced me that resolutions -- made right -- can make...

December is the month of gift-giving, and my birthday falls in December, so I get practically all my gifts during this month.

Often when I read, I'm struck by a particular passage without understanding why it has caught my attention, then over time, its significance becomes clear. I've read...

It's holiday time, and that means waiting in line: at the grocery store, at the airport, at shops, everywhere. I'm an impatient person, and standing in a slow-moving line is one of those very small, maddening aspects of life that drives me crazy. As often happens, however, when I learned...

Every Wednesday is "Tip Day," or "List Day."

As audacious as it may seem to contradict venerable figures such as John Stuart Mill, Flaubert, or Sartre, I disagree with some of their views about the nature of happiness.

Flaubert: "To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are...

One of my favorite "secrets of adulthood" is, "Just because something is fun for other people doesn't mean it's fun for me, and vice versa." This sounds simple, but it actually was a huge breakthrough for me. So many things that other people consider "fun" are not fun for...

Every Wednesday is "Tip Day," or "List Day."

In my study of happiness, I've labored to identify its fundamental principles. Because I get a tremendous kick out of the numbered lists that pop up throughout Buddhism (the Triple Refuge, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Noble Truths, the eight...

Self-knowledge is crucial to happiness, but it's challenging to know yourself. Sometimes, I find, I can gain insight by asking myself questions that make me take stock of my interests and values.

For that reason, I asked myself, "Who are my patron saints? Of my Happiness Project, in particular, and...

I've been thinking a lot about my eating habits lately -- probably because the holiday season is so full of temptation. Here are some guidelines that I've been trying to follow, whether eating in or eating out, with various degrees of fidelity.

1. Wear snug-fitting clothes.

2. Buy food in...

In crime-fighting, the "broken windows theory" holds that signs of vandalism and petty crime foster more crime and anti-social behavior; fix problems like broken windows, graffiti, or trash when they're small, and people will behave better and remain in their neighborhoods.

This theory is controversial, but whether or not it's...

I have a lot of trouble remembering people's names. (My husband, on other hand, is freakily good at remembering names and faces -- a very handy virtue in a spouse.)

Also, I often have trouble remembering why someone looks familiar. Several years ago, while at crowded birthday party for...

November is National Novel Writing Month. I've never participated in the official month, but I did follow the excellent system proposed by Chris Baty in his book No Plot? No Problem! to write a novel in a month. I'm a big believer in creativity boot camp as...

For many people, the holidays are a joyous time; other people dread them. If you anticipate that you might have to spend time with difficult relatives, here are some strategies for keeping family dinners pleasant:

1. Before you walk into the situation, spend a few minutes thinking about how you...