About

Born and raised in New York City until I was nine years old, I was quite a happy, confident kid. Looking back, this was a product of my family, a close knit community and a lot of friends. Then, my parents moved us to Long Island and everything changed. Suburbia was quite a culture shock and it was arguably my first real challenge in life. Living on Long Island deeply impacted me and I spent many years with low self esteem and a lack of confidence after the move. Still, I managed to be a mostly happy child. 

 

Fast forward many years to 2018. That year unfortunately marked the beginning of a period of even deeper turmoil and a series of very challenging events in my life. The first was the unexpected death of my beloved Dad, a loss for which I was completely unprepared. My relationship ended the following year and things had not been going well on the work front for some time. After four years of difficulty, something had to give. So when information about a course to become a certified happiness trainer serendipitously came into my email, it felt like something of a life raft.

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The course was taught by Marci Shimoff, one of the world’s happiness experts. (You may also know Marci from the Chicken Soup for the Soul books). As part of the training, we learned a series of “happiness habits” that employ mental, physical and spiritual practices. These habits had a profound impact on my life and enabled me to emerge from the darkness and finally begin to live again.

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Before I began happiness training, I didn’t necessarily think I’d turn the work into a business. Yet, when I saw my own results, it became clear that this work could have a very real and positive impact for people during what are for many, difficult times. The good news is, we can raise our happiness levels with regular practice. Leading brain researcher, Richard Davidson, of the University of Wisconsin says, “Based on what we now know about the plasticity of the brain, we can think of things like happiness and compassion as skills that are no different from learning to play an instrument or tennis. It IS possible to train our brains to be happy.” So empower yourself towards happiness and let the training begin!