20. July 2010 by John Schinnerer.

I spent my day Sunday creating an uplifting, elevating, and inspiring video which shares a bit that studies have shown about happiness, success and life satisfaction.

I was all pumped up after finishing this video last night. And I showed it to my wife.

After watching it, she turns to me and says, ‘In that case, SHOULDN’T you be happier?!’

Ouch, called on  my own stuff. However, the idea is not an absolute happiness. The idea is relative happiness.

We all start from different places in terms of our genetic set point for happiness. It just so happens that my set point was at a 1 or a 2 on a 10 point scale when I began my journey. So the fact that I’m now at a 6 or 7 is a massive improvement. On top of the fact that we have four children which makes the journey a little more volatile as at times it feels like you are only as happy as your least happy child (line from TV show The Middle). So we all need daily reminders like this in our lives!

Please take a look and let me know your thoughts. Please leave a comment below if it resonates with you.

Cheers,

John

Inspirational, Joyous, Elevating, Positive Video to Act as Great Daily Reminder of What is Truly Important.

The goal of life is happiness. Strive for happiness despite the inevitable vicissitudes of life!

Posted in San Ramon CA, Positive emotions and job search, Executive coach, Optimal Human Functioning, Emotion & productivity, Positive expectations, Gratitude, Curiosity, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Self-compassion, Alamo CA, Real Men Real Emotion, Pursuing Purpose, Self-help book, Happiness and Income, Men's feelings, De-escalating anger, Awe & Elevation, San Francisco Bay Area, Well-being, Hope, Mindfulness, Staying calm, Tips to help anxiety, Happiness, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Anxiety, Emotional IQ, Dr. John Schinnerer, Creativity, Life coach, Depression, Parenting, Men's emotions, The human brain, Relationships, Resiliency, Alexithymia, Managing Sadness, Emotional mind, Managing Anxiety, Anger Management, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

1. July 2010 by John Schinnerer.

I’m kicking off the launch of my new video blog at drjohnsblog.wordpress.com. And to make the announcement fun for all, I thought I’d offer a FREE copy of my book Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought.

It’s all about how to quiet the voices in your head, turn down the volume on negative emotions and turn up the volume on positive emotions, click here for instant access!

So if you want a free PDF version of some of the latest proven tools to manage your mind, the latest methods to increase your happiness via positive psychology, the greatest tips to manage your anger, check it out! Click here for a fantastic freebie!

Enjoy!

John

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17. June 2010 by John Schinnerer.

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.
 
My passion is looking for scientifically proven tools to:
 
1)    Turn down the volume on negative emotions (e.g., anger, fear, sadness) and
2)    Turn up the volume on positive emotions (e.g., contentment, joy, love, curiosity, amusement, interest, relaxation, pride)
 
Only in the past few years has the field of psychology recognized
 
1)    The significance of positive emotions
2)    That we can teach sustainable happiness and meaning in life
3)    Why it is critical that we learn to turn up the volume on the positive.
Over the past 100 years, psychology typically asked ‘what’s wrong with you?’ Or ‘What’s your underlying problem?’ This is a mechanistic approach similar to how you would approach a car that is not running properly. What is broken? Identify the broken part. Replace the old part with a new part. We aren’t as simple and straightforward as a car, however.
 
 
In my experience as a speaker, an author, a psychologist, a coach, a person with depression, and a person with social anxiety, I have come to the conclusion that we’re all a bit crazy. And that’s okay. It’s our idiosyncrasies and oddities that make us human and loveable. Besides, I’m not shooting for ‘normal’ and hopefully you aren’t either. I’m aiming for something way beyond normal. I am aiming for purpose, passion, meaning.
 
My goal is to change the emotional landscape for men. I want to change how men view their emotions, to help them understand that emotions are a normal part of life. We all have them. Emotions are not feminine. They are human.
 
And, here’s the most important part. Emotions are manageable. Once we learn to manage them, we become extremely powerful because we are coming from a place of authenticity and passion. Then our message resonates with others at a very deep level. And so we begin to change the world one person at a time – a ripple effect if you will.
 
So let me ask you this…
 
What are you doing now that you are passionate about?
What gets you excited to get out of bed in the morning?
What would you enjoy doing even if you weren’t paid to do it?
What are you really good at that also energizes you?
 
In this day and age, there are no questions which are more important. Research has shown that only a mere 10% of people in the United States are leading thriving, happy, meaningful lives. Think of how much better the country would be if we brought that number up to 20%. We’d have higher productivity, more creativity and innovation, greater employee engagement, better parenting, and a happier place to live.
 
The best news is that research is now being done at top universities around the world to discover exercises that can help us to sustain positive emotions such as happiness, contentment and love. Research has shown that, no matter how old we are, we can change our behaviors, thoughts and feelings. Studies are coming out daily demonstrating ways to discover meaning and passion and strengths.  So let me share some of the wisdom that is coming out lately on happiness and purpose.
 
How do you foster positive emotions?
 
Part of sustaining positive emotions is attitude; part of it is practicing exercises that have been shown to have a positive and lasting impact on your mood.
 
How do you go about changing your attitude to one that is more positive?
 
When you come right down to it, the secret of having it all is loving it all.
Unconditional love is the intentional conscious decision to look for the best in people, other living creatures and any part of nature. Albert Einstein had a brilliant quote, ‘The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe.’ Other people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. By noticing the good in others that surrounds us daily, we can lift up not only ourselves but others as well.
 
1.) Seek Out the Good in Others: Actively look for good traits and noble deeds in other people. Only use positive and supportive language. When you compliment other people, be specific about the behavior you are praising. For example, rather than saying “Nice work,” you might say, “Hey, you did a fantastic job closing the sale with Ace Hardware!” Remind those around you of their unique talents on a daily basis.
 
2.) Become More Aware of Your Internal Tapes: Watch the internal conversations that take place in your head. Challenge every negative thought that you have. Let go of your negative judgments about others AS WELL as yourself. Judgments are deadly. Judgments create negative emotions such as guilt and shame and tear down self-esteem. Judgments are unfair. You can never be aware of the circumstances that have led another person to a particular point in their life. So you are never in a position to judge their actions and decisions.
 
3.) Self-compassion: Go easier on yourself. Forgive yourself for your mistakes and shortcomings. Picture yourself as a small child. Now picture yourself parenting yourself. Forgive yourself as you would like to have been forgiven as a child. Mistakes are merely learning opportunities. Fail your way to success!
 
4.) Recognize Strengths: Few people have an idea what their strengths are.
Discover your strengths. What do you do well? What are your talents? Once you begin using your strengths every day at work, you will increase the degree to which you are engaged at work. Being engaged in work is similar to being in the ‘zone’ for athletes – you are more satisfied, time flies, creativity flows, and your talents are maximized.
 
Exercises To Help Foster Positive Emotions
 
To begin: Think about what you excel at. Think about the activities where you lose track of your ‘self’. Become more aware of these areas.
 
1.)  Discover Your Dreams:
 
Ask yourself…
 
 What makes me ‘really’ happy? (Go outside of your comfort zone!)
 Why is it important to me?
 How will it serve other people?
 When do I want it to happen?
 What is the first teeny, tiny step I need to take to make it happen?
 
2.) Blessings Exercise:
 
Every night write down 3 things that went well for you that day, even if you have had an awful day. You can still find 3 things that went well. Write them down and then write why they went well. This is a very simple exercise that has been proven to improve your mood on a long-term basis. It is an easy yet powerful way to shift your thinking from focusing on the negative to becoming aware of the positive in your life.
 
The benefits of cultivating more positive emotions are vast: a longer life span, greater success at work, higher quality of relationships, and increased productivity, just to name a few. So get comfortable in your discomfort. Take a chance. Step outside your comfort zone. You’ll be happy you did!
To book Dr. John for a speaking engagement, coaching or training, call now. (925) 944-3440. Or visit the website at http://www.GuideToSelf.com.
 
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
 
About the Author

Dr. John Schinnerer holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology from U.C. Berkeley. Dr. Schinnerer has been an executive, speaker and psychologist for over 12 years. Dr. John Schinnerer is Founder of Guide To Self, a company that coaches executives to well-being and success. Dr. Schinnerer wrote the award-winning, “Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought,” which is available at Amazon.com. His blog, Shrunken Mind, was recently recognized as #1 in positive psychology on the web by PostRank (http://drjohnblog.guidetoself.com) and as one of the Top 100 blogs on the web by The Daily Reviewer. Dr. John Schinnerer hosted over 200 episodes of Guide To Self Radio, a daily prime time radio show, in the SF Bay Area.   Dr. Schinnerer’s areas of expertise range from positive psychology, to emotional awareness, to anger management, to executive coaching. His offices are in Danville, California.
 

Posted in Emotion & productivity, Employee engagement, Executive coach, Danville CA, National speakers, Hope, Curiosity, Science of love, Meaning-making, Optimal Human Functioning, Values and ethics, Men's feelings, Real Men Real Emotion, De-escalating anger, Well-being, Self-compassion, Awe & Elevation, San Francisco Bay Area, Resiliency, Relationships, Anxiety, Staying calm, Customer Engagement, Emotional IQ, Dr. John Schinnerer, Business & psych, Managing stress, Measuring emotions, Happiness, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Managing Sadness, Alexithymia, Men's emotions, Anger Management, Emotional management, Depression, Parenting, Emotional mind, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

2. June 2010 by John Schinnerer.

By John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Almost everyone includes happiness, well-being and success at the top when it comes to lifetime goals. Everyone wants well-being, but few know how to develop it. Recently, Deepak Chopra, a Senior Scientist at the Gallup Organization, presented results of a fantastic new study that reveals the commonalities among people who are in the top 10% of well-being, success and happiness. The study looked at individuals across the globe to eliminate any cross cultural confusion. Findings indicate that the more satisfied you are in each of these key areas, the better your life will be.

Five Secrets to Incredible Well-Being

1. Accomplishment 
    
a. Career. To what extent do you love your work? Does your job give you the
opportunity to use your strengths on a daily basis? A mere 20% of the workforce
reports being happy with their job. To increase your career well-being, identify
what your strengths are using a tool such as the Realise-2 or Gallup’s Strengths
Finder. Then, mindfully, do a task each day which relies on one of your top
strengths. Also, start to use a vocabulary of strengths (instead of weaknesses)
within your workplace.     
b. Financial. While money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness, it does help. It is
particularly helpful to eliminate the chronic stress of debt. Living debt free
is helpful in increasing your financial well-being. If you are not currently
debt free, make it a goal to become so. The other piece to financial well-being
is the understanding that spending your money on experiences (e.g., movies,
skiing, amusement park) is more satisfying than spending money on material goods
(e.g., new TV, sofa, clothes, etc.).

Posted in Emotion & productivity, International Wellbeing Study, Danville CA, National speakers, Resiliency, Hope, Employee engagement, Executive coach, Well-being, Executive leadership, San Francisco Bay Area, Awe & Elevation, Optimal Human Functioning, Alamo CA, Organizational psychology, Men's emotions, Guide to Self, Emotional IQ, Life coach, Dr. John Schinnerer, Business & psych, Managing stress, Organizational change initiatives, Anxiety, Managing Sadness, Alexithymia, Anger Management, Managing Anxiety, Happiness, Emotional management, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

26. May 2010 by John Schinnerer.

This is an small cut from a conversation between Martin Seligman and the Dalai Lama. It took place in Sydney, Australia in December 2009…

‘So people said to me you want to work on happiness? And I said ‘no, not exactly’—happiness has become over the centuries something that has very different meanings for different people and was scientifically unwieldy. And so we break into four different disciplines in positive psychology.

So the first is about happiness, it’s the study of positive emotion and so for example people interested in this look at the most catastrophic thoughts that people say when bad events happen, and how to find a realistic perspective on catastrophic thoughts. So we teach people to argue against the catastrophic and to see good possibilities; so one field is positive emotion.

The second field is meaning. Human beings ineluctably want to be part of something bigger than they are, to belong to and serve something bigger than they are. So we asked people to identify their highest strengths, their highest virtues… humour, fairness, kindness and to learn to use them more particularly in difficult tasks and to use them to be part of something larger than they are.

The third discipline that people in positive psychology work on is positive relationships, how to get along better with people. And so for example there have actually been discoveries that I didn’t know ten years ago in this area in which, if you tell me something in traditional marital therapy, what you do is you teach people to argue better with each other. So you’re trying to change insufferable marriages into being barely tolerable! But in positive psychology we teach people to celebrate together rather when something good happens. If you tell me something enormously good that happened to you the technique not of being destructive about it but of getting you to relive it and to elaborate it. So, the third discipline is positive relationships.

And the fourth discipline is positive accomplishment—mastery, competence, achievement—and so we look for example of high grit, people who never give up, people with high self control and we ask ‘how do you build that?’

So those are the four things that positive psychologists do and work on. If you teach people early in life techniques of positive emotion, of engagement, of meaning, of good relationships, of accomplishment, can you prevent many of the ills of life; depression, anxiety, anger.’

-       Martin Seligman

If you want more on this topic, visit this link:   http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2009/2766891.htm 

Have a wonderful week!

John Schinnerer Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.

Danville CA

If you interested in a twelve week course on the latest in cultivating positive emotions, please send me an email at Info@GuideToSelf.com. I am looking at developing a weekly, web-based coaching course where you can view hour long presentations inthe convenience of your own home for $47 per week. Compared to the rate clients pay me hourly, this is a huge savings.

Posted in National speakers, Emotion & learning, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Science of love, Curiosity, Assertiveness, Hope, Gratitude, International Wellbeing Study, Corporate Culture, San Francisco Bay Area, Well-being, Values and ethics, Executive leadership, Awe & Elevation, Self-compassion, Executive coach, Meaning-making, Optimal Human Functioning, Mindfulness, Altruism, Dr. John Schinnerer, Creativity, Life coach, Guide to Self, Measuring emotions, Managing stress, Forgiveness, Business & psych, Realistic optimism, Happiness, Morals and values, The human brain, Organizational psychology, Relationships, Resiliency, Men's emotions, Anger Management, Emotional mind, Emotional management, Managing Anxiety, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »