The Science Behind It's All Good Here®

It's All Good Here® is built on the concept that what we focus on, grows. If we focus on the good things in our lives, our positive attitude will get stronger and the quality of our lives will get better. In the same manner, if we focus on the bad things, our negative attitude will gain strength and the quality of our lives will get worse.

Shawn Achor has won over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University where he taught classes on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard. He has become one of the world's leading experts on the connection between happiness and success and has written a book, The Happiness Advantage. In it his research shows that when people are in a "positive brain" state they are 31% more productive, 3 times more creative, 37% more successful at sales, and among doctors, 19% faster and more accurate in medical diagnoses, than if they are in "a negative, neutral or stressed brain" state. We've provided tools for you to use at It's All Good Here® to help you get into a more positive mindset to gain the type of benefits Achor describes.

In the groundbreaking book, The How of Happiness, Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky, one of the world's leading experts on happiness research, from the University of California, Riverside, provides practical recommendations and a robust program for lasting happiness that can take us well beyond our baseline mood. Through her years of leading-edge research she has identified that up to 40% of our happiness is within our control through our power to change how we act and how we think. It's All Good Here® provides engaging challenges that are designed to help make it easier to change some of the ways we act and think. We do this by helping you train your brain to get into the habit of being more grateful, to focus on what you have versus what you don't, and to incorporate such practices as random acts of kindness into your life.

At the same time, real life has it's ups and downs, and we recognize bad things happen, and that we have negative thoughts and feelings. And that's okay - not only okay, it's normal. Todd Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener's book, The Upside of Your Dark Side explains how negative emotions can be part of a healthy emotional life, in moderation. It's normal to feel sad or disappointed or angry sometimes, and our negative experiences can even motivate us to achieve great things. Think of how many "underdog" success stories start with a negative experience of failure or inadequacy - but end with the hero proving her critics wrong and coming out on top. It's All Good Here® has a section where you can safely vent your negative emotions through an engaging journaling process, which can help you feel better and gain insights from your negative emotions.

The tools we use at It's All Good Here® are rooted in contemporary neuroscience and positive psychology. Neuroscientists, like Richard Davidson from University of Wisconsin - Madison, have proven that people who intentionally cultivate experiences that put them in a positive mindset actually create activation of the left prefrontal cortex, making them more resilient. Within It's All Good Here® there are tools that help you intentionally cultivate these types of experiences so that it becomes easier for you to deal with life's daily difficulties, and to bounce back more rapidly from greater challenges and hardships.

Bronnie Ware is an Australian palliative care nurse who provides care to patients at the end of their lives. Her blog about conversations with dying patients has become a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. She says that one of the top five regrets that people have at the end of their lives is, "I wish that I had let myself be happier." This is a surprisingly common one. "Many people did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness."

Choosing happiness is not always that easy, which is why we could all use some tips and tools to help make positivity more of a habit in our lives. It's All Good Here® brings together the practical wisdom that is found in the research to a fun and easy to use social network and resource. It was designed to help you create and enjoy your best and happiest life!