What Will Your 2021 Soundtrack Be? President Biden and Vice President Harris this week released a 46-song playlist articulating empowering themes for their administration. …

I Am in Awe of You…of Us As we prepare for an unusual holiday season, many of us blaze ahead toward wrapping up school semesters and year-end work projects, craving at least some form of a break to catch our breath. …

Positivity Recharge Last week, I suggested a positivity experiment to seven friends spread out all over the country — different professions, political parties, levels of optimism. The experiment: “For seven days, in a group text, let’s post one thing we are excited about each day. …

Savoring Artifacts of Mattering What does it mean to matter? Isaac Prilleltensky is a community psychologist and author of the book, The Laughing Guide to Well-Being. Prilleltensky distinguishes between happiness (fleeting and momentary sparks) and well-being (life satisfaction over time). …

A Jolt of Positivity (and Awe) A few months ago, my friend gifted me a box decorated with a blue, pink, and gold map of the world. Before I moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan mid-pandemic, I filled the box with stuff I love. Artsy cards from friends with encouraging notes…

Fresh St(art) Yesterday, I walked to a nearby exercise park, eager to clear my Zoom-addled head with a two-mile run. I joined the few joggers already circling the track, injecting myself into a gap, trying not to crowd anyone. Careening around a bend, I stutter-stepped, encountering a person running the…

The “Eustress” Zone: Cultivating Change Through Discomfort I had never heard the term “eustress” until I read The Mindful Athlete, a book by sports psychology expert, George Mumford. Mumford distinguishes among stress, distress (which many of us are feeling right now), and eustress. “Persistent, unresolved, and cumulative” stress becomes distress…

Let’s Illuminate the Cracks and Let the Light Flood In Canadian poet and singer, Leonard Cohen, wrote a lyric in his song, Anthem, “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Obviously, there is no easy cure for the ongoing…

Let’s Earn Our Title Scrolling through photographs on my phone, I paused at a shot I captured of words on the carpet outside my room at Hotel Emblem in San Francisco a year ago: “Protagonist, hero, muse. Earn your title.” I looked up the meaning of each word. Protagonist: A…