We live in a world that needs our help.
— James Pawelski, Director of Education and Senior Scholar at the Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, just before asking for a moment of silence for the victims of the terrorist act in Norway.
From July 23rd through July 26th, the International Positive Psychology Association’s second congress took place in Philadelphia. Two years ago, during a particularly miserable time in my life, my best friend, Professor Joel Morgovsky, suggested we go to the first congress together.
I wasn’t in the mood.
But I went, and I was sitting in talk after talk and workshop after workshop; mostly they were interesting, but please, when do we get to go home?
Then I heard Barbara Fredrickson speak. There are a few transformative lectures I have been to in my life. This was one of them.