Both David Burns (bestselling author of “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy” and Abraham Low (founder of Recovery, Inc.) teach techniques to analyze negative thoughts (or identify distorted thinking — what psychologists call “cognitive distortions”) so to be able to disarm and defeat them. This is one of the major precepts of cognitive behavioral therapy. Since Low’s...

There is no word in the English language I despise more than “relapse,” because by the time I use it, I have suffered months of agonizing depression that involves the typical of symptoms you check off at a psychiatrist’s office: overwhelming guilt, fantasizing about death, no energy, lots of tears, trouble sleeping, eating too much...

Research by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee indicates that most change efforts—like New Year’s resolutions—fail after the initial implementation or honeymoon phase. Self-discipline isn’t enough to make positive changes stick. In their book, “The Power of Full Engagement,” Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz propose that we create rituals to help support our resolutions...

According to a Franklin Covey Survey, 35 percent of those who make New Year’s resolutions break them by the end of January. Only 23 percent of everyone who makes a resolution do the victory dance at next year’s holiday party. What happens to the 77 percent of us who joined the gym but never went?...

The holidays are a frenzied time when what little patience you had for an annoying person or task is chucked out the window with the fruitcake you got from Uncle Ted. That’s why it might be best to avoid all human beings and stick with your pet because a volume of research says pets can...