I have been working on some research on happiness this week, in preparation for my conversation with SONYA PHILIP. If you know Sonya, then you know how brilliantly creative she is and how it seems so fitting to be discussing HAPPINESS with her. I cannot wait to share our conversation in the coming weeks. There is a lot to be found on happiness, and a lot of it is super pretty. And pretty can be useful, but is generally only gently effective. If you want to get down with the sexy hard science of HAPPY, look no further than the GREATER GOOD SCIENCE CENTER at CAL BERKELEY. The GGSC takes a research approach to discovering what makes us happy, content,...
I first met ELENA on an unusually windy day in Oakland. I was working an event for my business Zelma Rose and had reached the inevitable point of any retail day where I had grown weary. Weary being short for wishing I hadn't worn such pretty looking shoes and really wanting to sit down for a minute. My work had caught Elena's eye and I watched her walk across the gusty open square to take a closer look. She approached with a warm immediate smile that made me forget everything that had happened before that moment. What I knew was, Elena made me happy to be there. And Elena has this effect on nearly everyone she meets. Authentic, brilliant, honest, and kind...
On the second floor of SFMoMA within Open Ended: Painting and Sculpture, 1900 to Now, lives a Jackson Pollock painting titled, Guardians of the Secret. Completed in 1943, Guardians was part of Pollock's first solo exhibition. Much has been written about this work, mostly pointing out its Native American influence and Jungian archetype themes. Pollock is said to have brought his Jungian analyst to the show opening, which of course makes Pollock even that much more intriguing to me. Upon completion of graduate school, I gifted my mentor a small framed postcard of the painting. To me, the images evoke a tale of the therapeutic relationship. The analytic couch appearing in the center, the male and female representations of the patient at either...
I first received the book, Atlas Obscura as a gift from my husband, aka The Dude, when I started the These Three Things the project. It was a welcome reference for the early days, which were spent absorbing as many things as possible in order to reflect on and share three separate learnings at the end of each day. The book always brought a smile to my face and has become a fun little exercise in spontaneity in my house. Open to a random page and read it aloud. Always a new wondrous place to discover. I love knowing these places exist out there in the world. It makes me feel small and insignificant in a way that is welcome these days. ...
In the interest of keeping the conversation going about the differences between treatment, help, and support (listen to JOY episode 50 to be in the know), I thought I would share an article from Well + Good contributing writer Vivian Nunez. Vivian is a freelance writer focusing on topics in health and wellness. She's a wonderful writer, asks great questions, and collects treatment based suggestions and analysis from experts in the field of mental health, health, and wellness. I find her articles to be friendly, but also accurate, as she quotes sources who offer suggestions and ideas from the clinical realm. In other words she's not looking to influencers for tips and tricks on how to solve you latest mental health crisis....
