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In The Underbelly Of Pain, Lick Your Wounds and Thrive

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. I was living the dream. I was floating through my days, moving between the multiple houses and the multiple cars without a care in the world. My husband loved me, my kids thought I was an awesome mom and loved that I could shower them with everything they needed. I had a rockin' wardrobe and one hell of a travel schedule.  My body was perfect, my lifestyle was perfect, my family was perfect. My everything was perfect. Until it wasn’t. The marriage dissolved. The cars, houses and flashy clothes were history. I couldn’t provide for my…

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3.74 Degrees of Separation – Social Media and the Algorithm of the Human Heart

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. I'm no Kevin Bacon, but I just found a batch of research that says the degrees of separation between me and the rest of the world are decreasing. And it's no surprise that social media has a lot to do with it. Take Facebook, for instance: Mark Zuckerberg and co. say that I’m only 3.74 degrees away from any other user on the social network. That’s less than 4 connections separating me from President Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, or even you. Small world, huh? And the numbers get even more mind-blowing the more you think about…

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Confessions of a Reformed Trophy Wife + 10 Lessons for Moving Forward

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Once upon a time, in a not so far away land, there lived a wife. A trophy wife to be exact. She was living the "dream," with every single one of her "wants" more than fulfilled. Loving, affluent husband? Check. Two beautiful children? Check. Vacation homes? Double check. Travel, jewelry, fashion sprees? Check, check, check. Busy social calendar? Check to the nth degree. How do I know all this? Because that trophy wife was me, living my personal Disney fantasy. That is, until the music stopped. The façade fell down. My marriage failed. The economic recession…

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Sponsored: A Passionista’s Approach to Life

We all want to live a life filled with passion, right? What if YOU could live your passion and prosper within it? Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to live? Just for a moment consider approaching life from a Passionista's Perspective.... "Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... it will stir... and open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us...passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments." - Joss Whedon Passionistas CHOOSE to discover life and live it filled with their heartfelt…

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Trying Helps, But Doing is What Matters + 5 Tips to “Do” Happiness

We've all heard it a million times: "Actions speak louder than words." Action is dynamic. It moves and morphs with life. And yet at times we fall back onto "trying" to make something happen as opposed to proactively doing something about the trying. Have you been using a lot of “couldas”,” wouldas”, “shouldas”, maybes, tries and mights lately? It’s time to ditch the conditional-speak. Thinking in this frame of mind puts us in a bind. Why try when you could simply do? Why would when you can? By allowing our lives to be framed in maybes, we’re giving away all…

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Sponsored: Love is a Power Tool + Other Fun Tips for Happier Parenting

Love can single-handedly mend a broken day, establish an exciting new relationship, or reinforce a happy, internal bond with ourselves. Love is an omnipotent tool that has the uncanny ability to improve any sticky situation we find ourselves in. Love is a power tool we should all have in our happiness toolboxes. But just like that power drill or band saw, it also comes with some safety protocol. When you use your love power tool, you take on the responsibility of treating the world with kindness, compassion and respect. Use your love power tool responsibly, forging, fixing and strengthening relationships…

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Sponsored: Strategies for the Very Serious Business of Happiness

Often, we think of our professional lives as defining of our success as a human being. This is apparent at any social gathering where what we do as a career becomes the center of conversation. Indeed, what we "do" as a profession is important to our economic sustainability. However, the real question, the one that speaks to the heart of the matter of our sustainable wellbeing is: how happy are we in what we do regardless of what our “business” might be? In my coaching practice, workshops and on Harvesting Happiness Talk Radio, I emphasize the need to show up for…

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Sponsored: Inhabiting Life + Tips for A Transformational Experience

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about this quote from poet Christian Wilman: "Let us remember... that in the end, we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both." Christian isn’t just talking about poems and prose here. What he’s trying to say is that art, creativity and things that inspire thought help us engage with our lives so that we treat our existence with more care, respect…

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Growth through Writing… Empower Yourself!

Since man formed his first vocabulary, family and tribal news was carried from tribe to tribe, village to village by a storyteller. They would be welcomed in each cave, hut, or council house as an honored guest and nights would be spent around the fire listening to the latest news from family members living afar. Famine, a good harvest, movement of wild herds, warring tribes, births, deaths, alliances, all were carried by the professional storyteller. After a few days passed the news had been told and the storyteller, rested and refreshed, would move to the next tribe or settlement. While…

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Harvesting Happiness: Can a Person Be Happy All the Time?

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Does a person have to be happy all the time? Can you expect there to be no negative experiences in your life? There will inevitably be negative events and experiences in life. It’s just the way things are - and things can happen in life that we never expected. The loss of a loved one, the end of a marriage, a move to anew cityor country… the list of possibilities is endless. One person’s negative experience could be someone else’s positive. It also depends on how situations are dealt with. Optimism contributes to a healthier, happier…

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Harvesting Happiness: Can You Create Happiness by Doing Nothing?

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. How many decisions do you make in a day? From fast food, to text meetings to tweets that blow up our phone we are inundated with media. Compounding that, we live in a world full of choices – more so than any other time in history. From our hairspray to our hamburgers, it seems that the more we seek the more choices we have. Choices can empower us and choices can overwhelm us. In our instant gratification society, where the choices come fast and furious, where do we begin in making the choices that impact our daily…

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Harvesting Happiness: Does Achievement Guarantee Happiness?

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Are high-achievers happier than the rest of the population? Is there a relationship between goal achievement and happiness? Curiously, there are people who have achieved great things in life but aren’t necessarily happy. Conversely, there are those who have achieved very little by today’s standards yet seem to be quite content. This is a question worthy of contemplation. An ever broader question pertains to the concept of one’s purpose beyond the concept of goal achievement. If we feel we have a purpose in life, are we happier? If our existence serves others, do we experience a…

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Harvesting Happiness: Getting Yourself Unstuck to Find Your Happiness

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Are you stuck? Are you waiting for the right things to happen so that you can finally be happy? For many people, happiness is an enigma. Happy comes and goes, yet it is not something that is a constant in life. Yet it is possible for happiness to be one of the most dependable elements of your life. When we get trapped in the little boxes we create for ourselves, we find ourselves feeling miserable, lost and alone. Maybe we think we need a new job. Maybe we think we need a new partner or more…

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Harvesting Happiness: Focusing On Now

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Focusing on now means that you focus on what is happening in the present. You can't change what happened yesterday and you don't know what tomorrow will bring so focus on what is happening right now. Focusing on now means that you focus on what is happening in the present. You can’t change what happened yesterday and you don’t know what tomorrow will bring so focus on what is happening right now. Remember too that you can’t fix what happened yesterday and you can’t fix anything that may happen tomorrow. It’s all about now- you can…

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Harvesting Happiness: Making Wishes Come True

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Before you think of Cinderella and the three fairy godmothers, I want you to think about how many times you think about what you want or what you wish for. I want, I wish, and only if are some of the phrases we use to describe an ambiguous point in our future when we will have what we think we need to be happy. In the present moment, we are left feeling unfulfilled. We are living with a sense of longing for a brighter future. We are hoping to change our current situation so that we can finally,…

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Harvesting Happiness: Secrets to a Happy Life

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Here are a couple of self-reflection questions and secrets to a happy life. Ask: If I had one day left, would I forgive the person who hurt me most? Could I do so without demanding any form of punishment? Who are the people in your life who deserve your forgiveness? You will be surprised how wonderful you feel when you forgive – you may feel free. Miracles happen every day, when we least expect them. Have the belief that they can happen for you. Your value isn’t determined by the amount of money you make or the…

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Harvesting Happiness: Choosing to Be Happy Despite External Circumstances

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Every day when we turn on the news, we see a world that seems filled with sadness, poverty, loss and grief. We ask ourselves, over and over again, how can we live amidst such difficulty and pain? The task of bringing relief to the suffering often seems insurmountable. The truth is that our hearts ache for those who suffer no matter where in the world they are or for what reason the suffering exists. Yet, as much as we want to offer support and assistance, there doesn’t seem to be enough that we can do to…

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Harvesting Happiness: Can We Create a Happy Life for Ourselves?

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Can we create a happy life for ourselves? The key word here is “create.”  Do we cultivate a happy life when we choose to live a life of creativity and passion? Does the secret to our ultimate happiness lie in the mere choosing of it? You see, everyone is creative.  When we expand our definition of creativity to include far more than the fine arts, we come to realize that all life is art, and we can apply our unlimited creativity and individual expression in any direction we choose. At this particular point in history, we…

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Harvesting Happiness: What is Your Happiness?

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Happiness starts with you. It is all about your attitude toward life and the situations you face in daily living. You have to look at what you have accomplished in a day, a week, a month, etc. - not what you haven’t accomplished. If you are having trouble finding happiness in your day and it seems like your attitude is shifting to negative things, here are a few tips for you: Try to change the way you look at things by looking at the bright side. Focus on solutions, not the problems. Listen to music that…

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