The founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, took a group of severely depressed people. He asked them to do one activity per day that took them less than two minutes per day. In 15 days 94% of participants improved to moderately or even mildly depressed. What a great success! What was the activity? To write down three positive things per day. Click here to see Dr. Seligman speak about it himself! It did not need to be something the person did – some sort of success. It could be anything positive. In the Happiness 101 class it has been wonderful to hear the success stories. Many “students” have found that they start noticing the positives all around them – not just when they sit down to write their list, but throughout the day. Give it a try. Share YOUR list with us here.

Here’s mine for this week:
Utah – it has been a wonderful place to live
The hair on my right arm (keeps me warm in the winter months)
Walnuts (rich in happiness inducing Omega 3s)
The soldiers who guard my freedom daily
My friend B.S. (no, really! That’s his initials, I swear)
The biological mechanism that allows me to understand what it is I am seeing
My cat’s voice (he greets me home every day)
The little plastic frog my mom gave me
Whoopi cushions (they have given us many laughs and released happy chemicals)
The Hollywood walk of fame
Sea shells (they can help you hear and smell the beach even when you’re in Utah)
The gift of loneliness (it is to being social as hunger is to food)
The letter P (how could we tell _eo_le we are ha_ _y?)
Ancient Rome (how might civilization today look different had it never been?)
Mark Twain (love his dry wit)
Pluto (thankful it’s doing the job of the coldest planet so Earth doesn’t have to do it)
Phlebotomists (you’ll thank them one day)
Sonja Lyubomirsky (author of The How of Happiness)
Martin Seligman
The song “Shout” (makes me at LEASE wiggle my toes (if not outright dance) every time)