Last night I had the honor of helping facilitate the World Premiere of “The Wright Stuff on Happiness” along with Dylan Wright and Hannah Zuraff and the Families First Learning Lab staff. Hannah posted a short video clip of the event on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6995246199964413952/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(ugcPost%3A6995246199159095297%2C6995248345623527425)&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A(6995248345623527425%2Curn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A6995246199159095297)

After watching the video last night, I experienced an unplanned two-hour bout of insomnia wherein I replayed all the ways in which my behavior at the event (singing as a part of a group name that tune trivia contest) was embarrassing and regrettable. The good news is that I’ve studied insomnia and negative cognitions in the night enough to know that the middle of the night is a particularly easy time to exaggerate and negatively evaluate oneself. I (mostly) pushed out the cognitions with some mindfulness meditation, three good things, and music from David Bowie’s “Changes” (which had randomly or unconsciously gotten stuck in my brain).

This morning I’m presenting on the Art and Science of Happiness with the University of Montana’s Osher Center for Lifelong Learning. One core message from last night woven into today is that that we’re not striving toward unreflective toxic positivity, but instead, we’re working toward an awakened eudaimonic happiness, in the Aristitotean sense of living a balanced and meaningful life.

Here are the ppts for today’s talk:

I’m looking forward to spending time with the good folks and folx of MOLLI

Happy Monday!