Authentic Happiness

I have been preparing a talk for ward conference on the topic of "living after the manner of happiness". Happiness is the object and design of our existence and will be happy if we will follow the natural laws that happiness is predicated on. It is more in our control and less random than we may think. One of the main hindrances to our happiness is doing so many "good" things that we do not have time for the essential ones. I have been reading a book called Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman as well. This is a book that was suggested by Steven Snyder. A few interesting quotes out of his book...

"For every hundred journal articles on sadness- there is one on happiness"

" We have invented a myriad of shortcuts to feeling good- drugs, chocolate, loveless sex, shopping and television are all examples. The belief that we can rely on shortcuts to happiness, joy rapture, comfort and ecstasy, rather than be entitled to those feelings by the exercise of personal strengths and virtues, leads to a legion of people who in the middle of great wealth are starving spiritually. Positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression and as we age, to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die.

The positive feelings that arise from the exercise of strengths and virtues rather than from shortcuts is authentic."

"Optimistic people tend to interpret their troubles as transient, controllable and specific to one situation. Pessimistic people, in contrast, believe that their troubles last forever, undermine everything they do and are uncontrollable.

In studies sited in this book- Optimists have been found to live 19-30% longer than optimists- and I am sure they have much more fun in the process...

"Why were the adults who faced world war II the 'greatest generation'? Not because they were made of different stuff than we are, but because they faced a time of trouble that evoked the ancient strengths within."

"I do not believe that you should devote overly much effort to correcting your weaknesses. Rather, I believe that the highest success in living and the deepest emotional satisfaction comes from building and using your signature strengths."

" Securely attached children grow up to outperform their peers in almost every way that has been tested."

"To the extent that you believe that the past determines the future, you will tend to allow yourself to be a passive vessel that does not actively change its course."

"I think that the events of childhood are overrated; in fact, I think past history in general is overrated. It has turned out to be difficult to find even small effects of childhood events on adult personality, and there is no evidence at all of large-to say nothing of determining effects."

"Bad childhood events, in short, do not mandate adult troubles. There is no justification in these studies for blaming your adult depression, anxiety, bad marriage, drug use, unemployment, aggression against your children, or anger on what happened to you as a child."

"One of the major symptoms of depression is self-absorption. The depressed person thinks about how she feels a great deal, excessively so. Her low mood is not a fact of life, but is very salient to her. When she detects sadness, she ruminates about it, projecting it into the future and across all of her activities, this in return increases her sadness."

There are many other quotes I could share, but I think a summary of it would be that authentic happiness comes from the simple pleasures of the every day events. Of pushing forward and getting joy out of the mundane activities of life. We become happy by finding ways to genuinely serve those around us- happiness is a byproduct, not an end in its self.