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Meaning, Pleasure & Strengths

Formula Negative emotions- fight/flight, promoting fear, sadness and anger. “Negative moods activate a battle station mode of thinking: the order of the day is to focus on what’s wrong and then eliminate it” Positive emotions- growth, jolts us into a new way of thinking that is… “creative, tolerant, constructive, generous, and non-defensive” Happiness = Set Point+ Circumstances +Voluntary Control

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The Pleasant Life Positive Subjective Experiences- choosing the experience of subjective pleasure/ enjoyment Power of NOW- Learning skills to amplify them: Savoring - Sharing moments with others, Memory building, Self-affirmation, sharpening perception, and absorption. Mindfulness- Optimizing experience, quality and variety Drawbacks- heritable (emotional climate), habituates (fading pleasure) Hedonic- pursuit of pleasure

The Good life (Engagement) Strengths- Identification of Strengths and/or passion (two-sides of passion) Self-Awareness and Virtues (Eudemonia) - authentic exploration of self- needs, values and virtues Flow- seeking states of joy, creativity and total involvement arising out of strengths/passion Flow: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Pronounced: "cheek-sent-me-high-ee)

Transcendence Service- using strengths/talents towards positive causes/institutions Relationships- Emotional responsiveness and intimacy Resilience- strength amidst troubles (meaning makers) Forgiveness – despair or decision The Meaningful Life “ Forgiving is not easy; perhaps the only thing more difficult than forgiving is not forgiving” Daniel Klassen

Happier: Ch.1 Focus Questions O Reflect on a couple of personal experiences where reaching a certain milestone (goal) did not bring you the emotional payoff you expected O How would you define happiness? O What ritual or habit could you form that would increase your happiness?

Happier: Ch.2 Focus Questions O TimeIn-1: Which quadrant (Rat Racer, Hedonist, Nilhist, Happiness) do you spend most of your time in? O TimeIn-2: Do you feel part of the rat race? Looking at your life from the outside, what advice would you give yourself? O TimeIn-3: Think of a time or experience where you lived as a hedonist. What were the costs and benefits of living this way? O TimeIn-4: Think back to a time when you felt nihilistic, unable to see beyond your current unhappiness. Had you been looking at the situation from the outside, what advice would you give yourself? O TimeIn-5: Think back to a period when you enjoyed both present and future benefit. Exercise1: 4 Quadrants & Meditating

Who is Happy? Myers & Dieber (1995), Seligman (2002) Specific age people are happier? No… Gender ? No … Race? No… Cultures? Yes… countries supporting traits Money? Not so much Political freedom/security? Yes. Health? Yes… correlative data with qualifiers Traits/values? Yes!! Healthy relationships, positive interpretation of events, work & leisure, faith (social support, purpose and hope) Social psychologist David Myers