Wagaliciousness Begins Here!

Have you ever heard the phrase “delicious anticipation?” This is one of those times when two words make magic when they get together, because they so perfectly describe something wonderful.

Delicious anticipation – what is it, why do you want it, and how do you get it?

Delicious anticipation was the excitement you had imagining what was in those holiday gifts with ribbons and bright paper and your name on them. Delicious anticipation is the butterflies you feel as you dress for a date with someone you love. Delicious anticipation is the fun you have planning a big vacation. Delicious anticipation is seeing your ideal home in your imagination and knowing that it will be yours one day. Delicious anticipation is you tuning in to your dreams and enjoying the movie of them as it plays inside your head.

Delicious anticipation is when your imagination meets your unfolding life. It’s second nature to some people, and for others it needs to be cultivated and practiced. There’s no right or wr...

Today, let’s talk about hugs. Are you a hugger? I am. Whenever I feel a connection to someone my default is to want to hug them. Not everyone’s a hugger, though, so occasionally the hug impulse has to be squelched.

Why do humans hug? Have you ever wondered about that? Turns out, hugging is addictive behavior. Hugging is also crucial to infants, helping them survive, and hugging is one of the best ways to lower stress in your body.

Hugs feel good. Hugs are good. But how do they constitute “addictive behavior” in humans? Because the act of being in a hug, whether initiating or accepting it, releases dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, which are the natural feel-good chemicals in our bodies. Physical touch, hugs included, triggers the release of endorphins, our bodies’ natural painkillers.

Turns out, we love hugging and being hugged because we love the way it makes us feel. We have an addiction to our own “happy drugs” and hugs satisfy the need to feel accepted, included, and loved. If ...

‘Tis the season that those of us in the northern hemisphere bundle up. And those of us with dogs, especially the small and relatively hairless ones, bundle their dogs up, too. If that’s you today, you have unwittingly celebrated today’s fun holiday – it’s Dress Up Your Pet Day.

I’m not ashamed to admit it – for most of my life I would have scoffed at this holiday, so if you’re rolling your eyes, it’s ok. I have had Siberian Huskies all my adult life, and they’re a breed that needs no bundling up in cold weather. Mother Nature literally designed them to be comfy in arctic conditions. I’ve never bought a coat or sweater for my dogs, and the only time any of them have worn booties is when they were loaned to a friend to run on his sled dog team for the winter. So no, I’m not someone who dresses up her dogs, except maybe at Halloween for a quick photo op.

That is, until I got my current Siberian, Kacey. It was during the pandemic lockdown that she moved from my friend Lisa’s house to min...

Last week a dear friend asked me a question, and I’m going to ask you the same one: do you make New Year’s resolutions?

My answer is no. I’ve been on this planet long enough to have experienced my pattern of good intentions and so-so results when trying to make life changes in the middle of winter, my least-favorite season. What’s your answer?

No matter which side you’re on, Team Resolution or Team Go With the Flow, you’re in good company. About half of Americans make resolutions at the changing of the year, and the rest of us don’t. For those who do, only about 10% will succeed at their stated goal, and the other 90% will tap out this week or next.

Yes, most people who make resolutions give themselves two weeks or less before throwing in the towel. Turns out, the idea of change is much more fun than the reality of instituting that change. When you understand how habits form and are reinforced inside your brain’s architecture, this wave of mass January failure makes perfect sense.

Oh, we human beings cherish endings and beginnings. From baby showers to funerals, housewarmings to homecomings, and of course to the hoopla around the changing of the year, the celebrations for the milestones in our lives show us just how important these events are.

But why?

Many of the traditions around endings and beginnings have been in place for hundreds of years, maybe even thousands of years, and in some cases far more than thousands of years. Around 100,000 years ago humans started intentionally burying their dead. In the century or so BCE, the Romans started celebrating birthdays, though usually only men’s birthdays and then only the big milestones, like 50 and 60 years. In the Renaissance period, families with wealth and nobility began celebrating birthdays amongst themselves. The concept of children’s birthday parties developed in Germany in the 1800’s and the brave new world of consumer products had a fresh itch to scratch. The origins of tonight’s changing-of-the-year fe...

Happy Act Happy Week! And if you’re not happy and you know it, it’s OK to not be able to give an Oscar-winning performance. In this week’s newsletter I’ll help you find your way back to happy with a few mental wellbeing tools you can use any time, in the privacy of your own head. Or you can just watch funny cat videos - whatever works for you is good.

Have you ever thought about our amazing range of emotions and how quickly they can switch up, based on what’s happening around us? Research at UC Berkley identified 27 distinctly different emotional states of mind, and also showed that they are interconnected, allowing us to slide easily and quickly between them. What are the 27 emotions they identified through a research study with over 800 participants? Here you go: admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, re...