How To Be Happy: Tips From A Positive Psychology Professor
How can mindfulness and the hero’s journey help make us happier? A professor of Positive Psychology discusses proven strategies for happiness, thriving, and resilience to hardship with tips and exercises he teaches students at The University of New Mexico in one of the most popular courses offered at UNM.
Dr. Bruce Smith has researched, taught classes and written workbooks in Positive Psychology for more than two decades. In this episode, he walks us through some of the proven strategies for developing resilience to hard times and discusses how students were impacted by the pandemic. Learn more about him and his work in resilience, the hero’s journey, and mindfulness interventions here.
UNM will host the Western Positive Psychology Association’s 8th annual conference March 22-24th.
About Our Guest(s)
Bruce W. Smith
Bruce W. Smith is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of New Mexico. He has several research interests including the study of resilience and thriving, the development of interventions to increase happiness and well-being in the context of stress, and the potential for stories that embody the “hero’s journey” as a framework for using the human struggle with adversity to become more resilient.
Smith has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in top journals about these topics. For nearly 20 years, Smith has taught Positive Psychology at UNM, a popular course that has been shown to increase student happiness and well-being. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Asbury College, a Master of Divinity from Duke University, a Master of Psychology from Arizona State University, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Arizona State University.
Hosted by UCAM’s Carly Bowling
Long-time listener, first-time podcaster, Carly Bowling, is a university communication representative in The University of New Mexico’s University Communication and Marketing team (UCAM). She is thrilled to help shed light on the outstanding research work being done at UNM, New Mexico’s only R1 university. In addition to producing IPNRS, she contributes stories and videos to the UNM Newsroom, the University’s official communications platform.
Bowling is a graduate of the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism (’19). Her background includes multimedia journalism, documentary filmmaking, photography and writing. She is passionate about science communication and making academic topics and research accessible and interesting to people from all backgrounds and she hopes you’ll consider subscribing to the show!