Short Cuts to Happiness: Life-Changing Lessons from My Barber

The Nobel Prize–winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman demonstrated in research that, compared to other activities, parents do not generally enjoy spending time with their children. One of the reasons for this is that parents are distracted by other activities or people, and when their attention is divided they find the experience strenuous and drain

We should learn to pick our battles better—sometimes it’s appropriate and right to get angry or upset, but sometimes, usually in fact, it’s just not worth it.”

There is a lot of research in psychology on substituting emotions—replacing anger with empathy or stress with excitement. For example, psychologist Joe Tomaka helped students with documented test anxiety to see an exam as challenging—rather than threatening—and as a result they became calmer, more creative, and performed better. Substituting a word

psychologist Pablo Briñol on how our body posture affects our mental attitudes. For example, sitting down with our back erect and chest out can positively affect our self-confidence. Other research demonstrates how a slouched posture is both a cause and an effect of sadness, fatigue, and anxiety, whereas an upright stance makes us feel more positiv

Life changes, and when life changes the rules change, and when the rules change we need to write a new rule book. Today, be mindful: Maybe your life has changed, and only you haven’t?

Maria Montessori, who advised parents not to do things for children that they can do for themselves. Put differently, do for the children as little as possible and as much as necessary. If my child can tie her laces without help, then unless I’m extremely pressed for time, I have to let her do it on her own. If my child can prepare a whole meal, or

There is much research on what psychologists call equity theory, which shows that most people have the need to reciprocate what they get from others; in fact, most of us feel discomfort when we’re unable to give back something of equal value. This applies to material things, like a gift or money, as well as to nonmaterial things like kindness or tr

The preeminent psychologist John Gottman explains that compliments are vital to flourishing relationships—between couples, among parents and their children, and in organizations. Compliments not only contribute to the relationship when things are going well, making good times better, they also make the relationship more resilient, better able to ha

Montessori’s idea is a variation of a famous philosophical principle called Occam’s razor. William of Occam, a fourteenth-century English philosopher, argued that in coming up with a theory, we have to make things as simple as possible and as complex as necessary.