a little dose of happy is, at its core, a mission, a mindset, and a movement.
We believe everyone has a right to happiness, so our mission is to spread happiness worldwide.
Happiness starts with individuals developing a positive mindset to be resilient through adversity. We believe people can cultivate this mindset through little doses of happy.
We advise people to ask themselves the question, “What makes me happy today?” so that they become more cognitively aware of the positive in their daily lives.
Our acronym for a little dose of happy, aldohappy, serves two roles. First, the letters represent the nine (+1 bonus) elements in our formula for happiness and provide a structured format for thinking about happiness.
aldohappy (pronounced “all do happy”) is also our philosophy. We believe that people achieve and maintain happiness by actively doing happy. We hope that a little dose of happy becomes a movement of people doing happy for themselves, their family and friends, and their local communities. Let’s all do happy 🙂
a little dose of happy was created in 2018 when we were struggling to find happiness in our daily lives. It has evolved from an idea to a simple website to our current blog and Do Happy® App. We hope you will join the a little dose of happy community and that our app always brings you a little dose of happy.
How Our Blog Gets Made
Everything on our blog is researched, verified, and edited by a person. Every factual claim is checked against a source we retrieved. Sources are named in the sentence rather than buried behind a link, so you can find them again even if their URLs stop working. When the research is unsettled, we say where the uncertainty sits instead of rounding it into something tidier.
We also use AI as a research and drafting partner, and we would rather tell you that plainly than let you wonder.
How all of it works, including where AI fits and where it does not, is laid out here: How I Research and Write.
Open to Feedback and New Resources
We value the input of our readers and the broader community. We are always open to feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism that can help us improve our content and better serve our audience. Additionally, we actively seek out new resources, studies, and tools that can further support our readers.
If you come across any relevant information or resources that you believe could benefit our community, please don’t hesitate to share them with us at hello@aldohappy.com.
Disclaimer
While we put great effort into providing valuable information, our content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional advice. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please seek immediate assistance from a qualified healthcare provider or contact emergency services.
We believe in transparency with our community. Some of the links you’ll find on our site are affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through them – at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Rest assured that we only recommend products we genuinely believe in, and this helps support our work in bringing you reliable, helpful content.
About the Founders
We are two physicians who started a little dose of happy in 2018, when we were having a hard time finding happiness in our own daily lives. We write about what the research shows and what has worked for us. We will not tell you what to do. We will tell you what we found, where we found it, and what happened when we tried it.
Manda Lai, MD, MBA — Co-Founder and Chief Visionary Officer
Manda writes the blog. She is a board-certified anesthesiologist and a proud alumna of the University of Michigan, having spent thirteen years there earning her BS/BBA and MD/MBA and completing her residency.
She is the first physician in her family, which is part of why she is so particular about showing her work. Nobody handed her a map. She worked it out as she went, and she would rather leave one behind than let anyone else start from nothing.
She takes the things that matter completely seriously and everything else not seriously at all. She finds happiness in her garden, in birding and traveling, behind a camera, in music, and anywhere near water. The blues of water and sky became the color palette of a little dose of happy. If you meet her, she will want your name first and then, before long, your story.
Brett Mollard, MD — Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Brett is a board-certified radiologist whose educational background includes the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and the University of California, San Francisco.
He is, by nature, a teacher. He has won teaching awards at every stage of his career, including at his current position, where he was not eligible for one, so they made an exception. He will not tell you that himself. He would rather be sitting with someone, helping them work something out.
He believes the world can be a better place and should be, and he wants to spend his efforts helping people enjoy their lives. For his personal enjoyment, he hikes, travels, and cooks, and is always happy to learn something new. Wildlife photography has become his favorite way to spend a day, and he likes having a movie or podcast on when he’s at home.