SMOOTH ROCKS AND PLASTIC RINGS (SVP, voir plus bas pour la version Française) Why do we always seem to come home from vacation with a pocketful of smooth rocks or seashells we picked up at the beach or cheap plastic rings we bought at an amusement park? I don’t know about you but I have [...]
Category Archives: Happiness
Can I do more?
CAN I DO MORE? (SVP, Voir plus bas pour la version Française) Can I do more? This question is a trap if I ever heard one. Can I do more to help my parents? Can I do a better job on this assignment? Can I eat better? These types of questions are endless and the [...]
Inspirational people
The kind of story that moves me the most is one where a person triumphs over adversity and manages to maintain a healthy positive attitude. (Chèrs lecteurs Francophone, voir plus bas pour une belle histoire inspirante, écrite en Français). There is enough horror and evil out there to make us all miserable. But we are [...]
I’m dying for some chips
I’m dying for some chips! (Published on-line: La Vie en Tranches. Journal Métro, February 23, 2015) Man, don’t we all get the occasional hankering for some salt? A nice pile of crunchy chips will do the trick! Go to your cupboard, grab a bag, plop down in front of the TV, and munch away in a [...]
Boredom has its rewards
Boredom has its rewards (SVP, voir plus bas pour la version Française) There’s a funny thing about the activities that give us the most pleasure; we never would have found them if we weren’t bored at some point. If you think about the things you really enjoy – a sport like tennis or golf or [...]
The self-confidence two-step
Every once in a while, as a client gets up to leave, I get asked a ‘simple’ question, “How does one develop self-confidence?” Well, let me just ask the next client to wait ten hours while I attempt an answer.” The truth is that almost everything I work on with clients is designed to boost [...]
Betting on happiness
This is mental health awareness week. It is a week when we focus on general well-being in all of us as opposed to discussing illnesses as we do during mental illness week in October. In that spirit I wrote the following article for today’s edition of Métro. Betting on happiness (Source: Le bonheur à tout [...]
Complaining, venting and whining
Despite my annual objective of writing one post per week, I have failed miserably. I still hope to do so but who am I kidding at this point? The plan was to post my column every two weeks and use the in-between weeks to make general comments about life that don’t fit into the newspaper [...]
Job satisfaction
I’ve done many things over the years. Being a psychologist – or anything for that matter – is rarely unidimensional. Beyond what people assume (i.e., directly treating individuals) are activities like teaching and supervision, liaising with universities, evaluating clinical programs, interviewing potential candidates, contributing to policy development, etc. I must admit I’d rather put a [...]
Pure love
Not too long ago I was speaking with a man who was struggling with the fact that his son’s delayed development could be a sign of autism. He was distraught at the implications for what it could mean to the future happiness and welfare of someone he loved so profoundly. It is still too [...]
