Resources
Articles
Happiness Manifested: how positive emotions can reinforce healthy lifestyle changes, Carolina Scientific, p.38-39 .
Oxytocin, Mayo Clinic Newsletter, May 2014
NYTimes Opinon article, Hello Stranger, Sunday, April 27th. Different approach from Fredrickson, but apparently, the same result.
Books
DAN ARIELY
Dan Ariely teaches Marketing, Behavioral Psychology and Ethics. He is a professor in the Duke's Fuqua School of Business with joint appointments in other departments and schools. This is how he describes himself in his own words: " I do research in behavioral economics and try to describe it in plain language. These findings have enriched my life, and my hope is that they will do the same for you." So far he is the author of three books - see below. Dan has also given a series of TED talks, and regularly contributes to the Wall Street Journal's Q&A "Ask Ariely" column - to which you can subscribe. He posts the Q&A weekly to his personal website. Another way to enjoy Dan's exhuberant teaching style and provocative research is to enroll in one of his free courses on Coursera. 
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Predictably Irrational was his first book. Here he shares all kinds of interesting stories and experiments that give an insight into the irrational nature of our rationality. The following is the description of Dan's first book from the Amazon.com page: "Why do our headaches persist after we take a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a fifty-cent aspirin? Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save twenty-five cents on a can of soup? When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we're making smart, rational choices. But are we? In this newly revised and expanded edition of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller, Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. From drinking coffee to losing weight, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, we consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable—making us predictably irrational." 
The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely
Amazon.com gives the following description of Dan's second book. “Dan Ariely is a genius at understanding human behavior: no economist does a better job of uncovering and explaining the hidden reasons for the weird ways we act.” — James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds Behavioral economist and New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely returns to offer a much-needed take on the irrational decisions that influence our dating lives, our workplace experiences, and our temptation to cheat in any and all areas. Fans of Freakonomics, Survival of the Sickest, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and The Tipping Point will find many thought-provoking insights in The Upside of Irrationality. 
The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, by Dan Ariely
Here is the Amazon.com blurb on Dan's latest book: Dan Ariely, behavioral economist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational, examines the contradictory forces that drive us to cheat and keep us honest, in this groundbreaking look at the way we behave: The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. From ticket-fixing in our police departments to test-score scandals in our schools, from our elected leaders’ extra-marital affairs to the Ponzi schemes undermining our economy, cheating and dishonesty are ubiquitous parts of our national news cycle—and inescapable parts of the human condition. Drawing on original experiments and research, in the vein of Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, and Survival of the Sickest, Ariely reveals—honestly—what motivates these irrational, but entirely human, behaviors. 
Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychology professor at Claremont Graduate University whose research focuses on what makes people's lives' meaningful. He coined the term "Flow" because this was the word many of those he interviewed used to describe their experience. Here is his TED talk in which he explains how he came to study this. The talk also contains a summary of what it takes to reach a state of flow. 
Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl This is a short and incredibly powerful book. Viktor Frankl was a survivor of Auschwitz and other Nazi labor camps. He chronicles his experiences as a vehicle to narrate the power of man's quest for meaning. This powerful TED talk from 1972 conveys the significance of the book. Click HERE for some quotes from the book. 
Positivity, by Barbara L. Fredrickson
This is Fredrickson's first book. Our class, Love 2.0, builds upon the research she shares in this book. Here is Amazon.com's blurb: "World renowned researcher Dr. Barbara Fredrickson gives you the lab-tested tools necessary to create a healthier, more vibrant, and flourishing life through a process she calls "the upward spiral." You’ll discover: •What positivity is, and why it needs to be heartfelt to be effective • The ten sometimes surprising forms of positivity • Why positivity is more important than happiness • How positivity can enhance relationships, work, and health, and how it relieves depression, broadens minds, and builds lives • The top-notch research that backs the 3-to-1 "positivity ratio" as a key tipping point • That your own sources of positivity are unique and how to tap into them • How to calculate your current positivity ratio, track it, and improve it With Positivity, you’ll learn to see new possibilities, bounce back from setbacks, connect with others, and become the best version of yourself." 
The Art of Loving, by Erich Fromm
This classic was published almost sixty years ago. Fromm posits that love - in its many forms - is the practice of creative union. The actual practice transcends both thoughts and words. He thinks of love as an "interpersonal creative capacity" that requires self-knowledge, self-love, discipline and maturity, rather than merely an emotional feeling. Erich Fromm's words call us to recognize what is really important in our lives, and to fortify ourselves with the long and on-going work that is involved - and which is its own reward. The book is available for free download HERE. You can read many of Erich Fromm's quotations HERE and HERE. 
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by Jonathan Haidt This is a wonderful, short book full of solid research on how people are - with a view to giving a full picture of the elements and obstacles involved in crafting a meaningfully happy life. I have used this book to teach the OLLI course "What You Do Matters: Modern Science's Affirmation of Ancient Wisdom." 
Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
This is an entertaining guide to the landmark research first published by Kahneman and Tversky beginning in 1973. Kahneman introduces the reader to pioneering research in cognitive psychology, describing many experiments that help distinguish our sense of rationality (what he calls "System 2") from our hidden underlying mind ("System 1"). System 1 is fast, but not necessarily rational. System 2 is slow, but constitutes that of which we are aware. The book has won a plethora of awards. Here is the Amazon.com blurb: Major New York Times bestseller; Winner of the National Academy of Sciences; Best Book Award in 2012; Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 2011; A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011; TitleOne of The Economist’s 2011; Books of the Year One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011; 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient. In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic. 
Self-Love -- The Heart of Healing, by Joseph A. Magno
Here is the book description that is posted on the Amazon page: Self-Love is an original and insightful study of a much-maligned concept that may in fact hold the key to well being. Author Joseph Magno explores the positive aspects of self-love as well as the destructive consequences that can result when it is lacking. Building on the perspective that human beings are inherently loving by nature, Magno argues that self-love is causally and reciprocally linked to selflessly loving others. By contrast, fear, selfishness, suffering, and even the abuse of others may arise from a dearth of self-love. Magno further maintains that self-love in the sense of self-acceptance provides the essential link between physical and psychological health. Putting theory into practice, Magno also demonstrates how the principles he describes may be applied to recover self-love and ultimately restore wholeness and well being. Self-Love offers a philosophy of holistic health that will be an important resource for psychologists, social workers, health care professionals or anyone seeking physical, psychological, or spiritual renewal. 
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size, by Tor Norretranders
As noted in the TED Talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (noted above), our conscious awareness is limited to roughly 120 bits per second. Tor Norretranders refers to a Springer-Verlag textbook, Human Physiology that limits this to 40 bits per second. Considering that our eyes alone can send about ten million bits per second to the brain, it becomes clear that what we think we know is like a grain of sand compared to what our brains are deciding to tell us. It is this situation that challenges our notion of free will. Can Love 2.0 be an avenue to transcend our predicament? Are we curious enough to try? Here is the blurb from Amazon.com: "As John Casti wrote, "Finally, a book that really does explain consciousness." This groundbreaking work by Denmark's leading science writer draws on psychology, evolutionary biology, information theory, and other disciplines to argue its revolutionary point: that consciousness represents only an infinitesimal fraction of our ability to process information. Although we are unaware of it, our brains sift through and discard billions of pieces of data in order to allow us to understand the world around us. In fact, most of what we call thought is actually the unconscious discarding of information. What our consciousness rejects constitutes the most valuable part of ourselves, the "Me" that the "I" draws on for most of our actions--fluent speech, riding a bicycle, anything involving expertise. No wonder that, in this age of information, so many of us feel empty and dissatisfied. As engaging as it is insightful, this important book encourages us to rely more on what our instincts and our senses tell us so that we can better appreciate the richness of human life." 
Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight
This is a fascinating book that chronicles a major brain stroke and the eight-year recovery from the inside out, as told by a Harvard neuro-researcher - based on her own experience! Reading this helps one understand the freedom we have to choose our thoughts - and the powerful influence our choices have on what we become. Alternatively, view her TED Talk - available with subtitles in 46 languages! Here is the Amazon description of this book: On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover. For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone. |
Memorable TED Talks
Why Believe in Others is a four-minute clip from May 1972 of Viktor Frankl speaking to a group of youth.
What passion!
By comparison, how contained is his voice in Man's Search for Meaning!
How powerful his words!
Click HERE for some quotes from his book.
What passion!
By comparison, how contained is his voice in Man's Search for Meaning!
How powerful his words!
Click HERE for some quotes from his book.
Flow, The Secret to Happiness is a 2004 TED Talk by Mihaly Csikzsentmihalyi - available with subtitles in 28 languages!
Flow may describe a different route to the existential union that we often speak of as love.
Flow may describe a different route to the existential union that we often speak of as love.
My Stroke of Insight
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor shares her own experience of a massive brain stroke and 8-year process of recovery.
She was witness to the destruction and rebuilding of her own conscious mind, and re-learned the words to describe it.
She found that she could chose who she wanted to become. She shares with us the way our brains work that makes this the every day reality for all of us.
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor shares her own experience of a massive brain stroke and 8-year process of recovery.
She was witness to the destruction and rebuilding of her own conscious mind, and re-learned the words to describe it.
She found that she could chose who she wanted to become. She shares with us the way our brains work that makes this the every day reality for all of us.
TED Radio Hour
See links under the Class Blog.
Barbara Frederickson
Barbara Fredrickson has a web site HERE specifically for Love 2.
On Amazon.com you can see a list of her books by clicking HERE.
She has numerous videos on YouTube and TEDx talks. Two are shown below. Searching on YouTube for Barbara Fredrickson will give links to many of her other videos.
On Amazon.com you can see a list of her books by clicking HERE.
She has numerous videos on YouTube and TEDx talks. Two are shown below. Searching on YouTube for Barbara Fredrickson will give links to many of her other videos.
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