Authentic Happiness Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

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So many self-help books, questionnaires, and popular psychology books talk about what’s wrong with our lives and how to make the bad bits better. Martin E. P. Seligman asks us to look instead at what’s good, and learn to turn good into excellent, making this a book on mental wellness, rather than mental illness. It’s a refreshing change. Wouldn’t you rather feel more happy instead of less miserable? But this isn’t just a question of looking at half-filled cups when they might be half-empty. Simple questionnaires (with more complicated versions online) invite the reader to find their own strengths so we can play to them. And then, in a nice twist on the “So this is who you are” approach, we’re asked to identify which strengths feel natural to us, which feel enlivening. We might be good at leading but feel drained every time we have to lead, making leadership a strength, but not a signature strength. Those final, happy, signature powers become the key to enlivening everyday life. But first, are you happy? Not just smiling today, but waking up happy, contented, hopeful, optimistic. And what things will make us happy? The author has looked through many cultures to find those things common to most. Again, there’s a twist--he’s not looking for features valued in all; just in most, because there area always exceptions--that’s why they’re called exceptions. Religion becomes something of worth, though the author’s own “religious” beliefs, expounded in a final chapter, might not agree with his readers’. The answer’s not in the details but in the approach. Raise happy children. Turn your job into something you enjoy (without necessarily changing jobs). Find your strengths and enjoy who you are instead of trying to turn into someone else. And enjoy this book. I did. Disclosure: My sister-in-law lent me a copy of this book then I went out and bought my own.

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Authentic Happiness Written by the former president of the American Psychological Association, and author of over a dozen books including the popular "Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life", this title is one of the better selling happiness books out there. First off, this book was a little harder read for me than most happiness books- I have the paperback book which has small print, perhaps that was a factor. I'm also partial to shorter, just-give-me-the-facts happiness books, such as "Finding Happiness in a Frustrating World"- so that might also explain why I plodded my way through pages at times. But having said that, there's IS lot of gems in here for happiness searchers like myself. While this is the kind of book I could write a really long review about, I think I'll just discuss what I consider to be the best bits for those looking for ways to become happier- which I think is why most people would buy this book. Soooo..... 1) the book provides the reader with a "happiness formula", which is H = S + C + V. This works out to happiness = your genetic Set point + intervening Circumstances + factors under you Voluntary control. So, since your can't do much about changing your genetics, when it comes to becoming happier, that leaves room for improvement in the areas of circumstances and voluntary activities. 2) the book suggests that if you want to lastingly raise your level of happiness by changing the external circumstances of your life, you should: live in a wealthy democracy, get married, avoid negative events and negative emotion, acquire a rich social network, and get religion. Conversely, you needn't bother to do the following: make more money, stay healthy, get as much education as possible, or try to change your race or move to a sunnier climate. However even if you could alter all of these things, it would not do much for you as this stuff accounts for only a small part of your happiness. On to Voluntary efforts... 3) This is where most of the book spends a substantial part of its efforts showing you how to be happier, and there's a lot of "meat" to sink your teeth into, with sections on how to obtain more satisfaction with your past, what consitutes happiness about the future, and happiness in the present. Also, the book spend much time talking about how happiness can be cultivated by identifying and nurturing our traits, such as humor, optimism, generosity or kindness. Readers who have read other happiness books, such as those by Jim Johnson or Sonja Lyubomirsky, will already be well familiar with the idea that the best way to increase your happiness is through intentional or voluntary activities. It makes a lot of sense, as you can't change your genetics, and circumstances are either out of your control, or make very little contributions to your happiness. Like this book, I agree that using intentional activities is the route to go when it comes to raising lasting happiness levels- and this book will help you out with that a lot. Happy trails!

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almost all of common peoples think that key word "emotion" and "stress" is defined as "bad" conditon, "bad" mood, and other negative feelings. so, when peoples hear about those key words, the will think it's not happy. the condition which full of tears and depressed individu. so they think that psychology only talk about "sadness", "tears", and others negative emotion.how can we happy is we just read about sad and sad and sad...?so psychology is not ideal for happy people? this book helps us to open our eyes, and make our narrow minded being wider. psychology is NOT all about sad, tears,..etc. but psychology also talk about happiness, smiling, laughing, excitement, etc... emotion is not only negative feeling, but also positive emotion. stress is not always bad. there's distress and eustress.cool !! so let's learn about positive psychology with Martin Seligman. and be optimist in this life ..! by: A.Zahra Faculty Of Psychology Gadjah Mada University DIY - Indonesia