Active Happiness is a project of three family members:
Sandra Neil Wallace (left), her husband Rich Wallace, and Rich?s sister Lynda Wallace?
We decided to launch Active Happiness after years of ?being asked how we could be so happy despite:
- getting divorced
- being a single parent or a step-parent
- the?suffering and loss of loved ones
- leaving high-profile jobs and living on less
It?s true that we?ve each had some difficult life experiences, yet we?ve remained more than just okay ? we?re happy. ?We each come at happiness in our own way, but all three of us believe that it isn?t mostly about what happens to us, but about the choices we actively make, day in and day out. ?So we launched Active Happiness to start a conversation about making those choices ? a place to share what works for us, what?s been shown to work for others, what works for you, and the struggles we all have along the way. We hope you?ll join the conversation.
Active Happiness Authors
Lynda Wallace
?I don?t want to do this anymore.?
To this day, I don?t know if I said it out loud.
I was in a management meeting the moment I knew for sure that my heart was no longer in my job. But would I really leave after twenty years, and in the middle of a recession? ?That decision was made for me several weeks later when I was laid off in a massive downsizing. ?I took a job at another company, but I was marking time, and I left after a year.? I knew what I wanted to do.? And this is it.
I?ve long been fascinated by the research on happiness and well-being done by psychologists, neuroscientists, and behavorial economists. ?And now I?m focusing on developing ways we can all use the insights inspired by this research to live more fulfilling lives.? It?s is big change from life as it was, but I?m loving every minute of it.
I live in New Jersey with my delightful daughter Evie and our dog Gingersnap. ?I adopted Evie from China when she was a baby, and no matter what else I ever do in my life, that will always remain the best decision I ever made.
A long-time Johnson & Johnson executive, Lynda Wallace was responsible for the company?s acquisition of several innovative medical technology companies as well as the rapid growth of a $1B global portfolio of iconic consumer brands including Band-Aids, Neosporin, and Purell. ?She is also a founder of the Abangoh Children?s Project, a foundation that supports the care of orphaned children in Cameroon. ?
Lynda holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and ?is now a student of Positive Psychology, the science of human happiness and well-being. ?She is studying the science and application of Positive Psychology with Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, and completing her Positive Psychology Coach training with Dr. Robert Biswas Diener.
Sandra Neil Wallace
I really did discover that fame can?t make you happy. Sure, I wasn?t a rock star, but a million people watched me host the X Games on ESPN back in the ?90s.
Being on the road all year, though, left little time to cultivate relationships. So I made a radical move of my own?I did a 180 and left. Then I married Rich, moved to the country, became a stepmom to preteen boys, and started writing novels?something I?d always dreamed of.
Courageous? Maybe. But then I come from a long line of courageous women. My mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all survived Yugoslavia?s starvation camps for ethnic Germans after the second world war.
Flash forward to my life a decade after leaving television, and I can honestly say that I?m much happier now than when I traveled the world searching for the perfect 30-second sound-bite.?Rich and I have a good life, and we?ve made our own small sacrifices in order to do this: like selling my car, moving to a smaller house in New Hampshire, and cooking most of our meals. Recently, I caught up with an old colleague from ESPN who asked me, ?Can you really can be happier living with less?? The answer is a resounding yes!
Before writing novels, Sandra Neil Wallace spent fifteen years anchoring the news and hosting ESPN telecasts. She became the first woman to host a hockey broadcast on network TV. Sandra was named an exceptional new voice in children?s literature by The Horn Book magazine. Her first novel, Little Joe, won?national and regional acclaim and is curriculum for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sandra?often writes stories of survival and the choices we make in critical situations. Hundreds of her articles have appeared in publications such as Men?s Health, Taste For Life and Highlights for Children. Her first sports novel, Muckers, will be published by Random House in 2013. More about her novels can be found on her author website and?facebook page.
Rich Wallace
I
think I?ve always been happy at my core, even on the rare occasions
when external things might have been temporarily sour. Little things
bring me tremendous joy?eating oranges, walking downtown to go to an
obscure foreign movie, staring at the ocean, hiking in the woods with
the dog, getting a tea with Sandra at a coffee house, making rice and
beans, watching an open mic performance down on Main Street, texting
with my sons. I really cherish the small moments, like being out at dawn
to run in the woods. Fitness and nutrition are very important to me,
and those topics have been a focus of my writing for adults.
Rich Wallace has had a lengthy career as a writer and editor. His many award-winning books for children and teenagers include Wrestling Sturbridge, which the American Library Association named one of the top youth sports books of the 20th century, and the more recent Sports Camp. He served as senior editor of Highlights for Children magazine, and continues to write the much-loved feature ?The Timbertoes? for that publication. He is a contributing editor to the health and fitness magazines Taste for Life and Remedies. Rich and his wife ? novelist Sandra Neil Wallace ? live in a cool college town in New Hampshire. You can find more about his writing at his author website.
Don?t miss any of the Active Happiness coming your way. Take ten seconds and sign up for our?Free Weekly Email Newsletter.?You?ll be glad you did!
Source: http://womensphilanthropy.typepad.com/stephaniedoty/2012/09/about-us-active-happiness.html
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