Live Long and Prosper

Interesting little side note in a NYT article today about "one-day university" programs, one of which features a psychologist:

To some, the thrust of positive psychology is misguided; people are no more able to change their level of happiness than their height. But while Mr. Achor agrees that each individual has a genetically programmed base line mood, he also says that people are able to shift that base line through a variety of tactics. So he talked about research with depressed patients that showed exercise was more successful in preventing relapses than medication; a study with nuns that demonstrated the life-extending benefits of keeping a journal that records positive experiences; and a study of monks that indicates how meditation increased insight-producing gamma waves in the brain.

Gotta remember that part; gotta make an effort to note and record the good stuff. I'll live longer!