Healthy Living Books Books

Rating: - 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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Rating: - A book that shows happiness should not just be your goal, but your duty...
I was drawn to this book having read the chapter about it in Tom Butler-Bowdon's 50 Psychology Classics. I had never heard of 'positive psychology' before, but its aims - to increase the happiness of 'normal' people, rather than cure the psychoses of 'ill' people - has definite appeal.

Authentic Happiness suggests that happiness should not just be a goal in itself merely because it makes us feel good - but also that it has an evolutionary advantage. I've long been aware of the way in which as negative mood can aid evaluation of a situation, but I'd never thought that when we are happy we would have the advantages of creating an expansive, tolerant and creative mindset. In short these positive feelings maximise the social, intellectual and physical benefits life has to offer.

But how do we achieve such happiness? As ever, that's the million dollar question. One of the answers is through optimum experiences which Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi calls 'flow'. Indeed it is one of Seligman's characteristic flourishes he relates the story in which he rescues Csikzentmihalyi. Make no mistake, there's a lot of information to digest in Authentic Happiness, indeed I'm looking forward to re-reading it to get even more out of it. Yet while it is academically thorough, Seligman adds personal touches which make the book much more easy to digest.

The later stages of the book will be of particular interest if you have children. Fittingly Seligman has a optimistic view of human nature. He has his own ideas of how we can achieve transcendence and how we can all part in the evolution of the human race, but you'll have to read "Authentic Happiness" to find out what these are.

I can't say I agreed with everything that Seligman had to say - and I'm not really one that enjoys filling out questionnaires, though if you are you'll be in form heaven here - but this is one of the books I find myself recommending to other people and can see myself returning to again and again.

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Rating: - Positive Psychology
I attended a Positive Psychology conference some years ago, and Martin Seligman was one of the speakers. He founded the movement of Positive Psychology and opened up my mind to the power of the brain in relearning thought patterns and behaviour in order to start achieving the life that I always dreamed of. He is an incredible and inspiring man. Buy his books.

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Rating: - Could I be happy, more often?
Self confessed pessimist Professor Martin Seligman has over 50 years of “…mostly wet weather being in his soul.” He wants to share his discovery that happiness is within the readers’ power and not the result of good luck or genes.

He introduces ‘Positive Psychology’. The concept has three themes and associated written tests (many may be taken on-line):
* Positive emotion - its effect on satisfaction with the past, optimism about the future and happiness in the present
* Strengths and virtues, and
* How the reader’s increased insight might be deployed in work, love, parenting and personal satisfaction

Seligman tells how his five-year-old daughter argued if she could stop whining - so could he! He then read a paper on how positive emotion generates greater creativity in fulfilling aspirations. Seligman realised “…a positive mood... bouys... (so) detect not what is wrong, but what is right”, reminiscent of Kurt Wrights work.

Seligman develops a Happiness formula, H=S+C+V:

* ‘H’ - enduring level of happiness

* 'S' - set range, effectively our genetic predisposition

* 'C' - circumstances, a factor potentially affecting us most, but not the case in practice.

* ‘V’ – Voluntary Variables, the most crucial factor relating positive emotion with the past, present or future.

Gratitude and forgiveness are key factors affecting our opinion of, and satisfaction with, the past. An exercise is described where undergraduates expressed gratitude to an invited guest for affecting something important in their lives. The examples are powerful. Seligman doesn't pretend we can forget or suppress bad memories. He describes how forgiving allows a victim to free themselves from the past, facilitating the possibility of greater life satisfaction.

The degree to which we believe events are temporary or permanent significantly affects our expectation about the future. Although I learned my outlook was at least a little optimistic, Seligman comments such an appraisal might come at the expense of being less realistic! He recommends the ‘ABCDE’ model for when we are accusing ourselves of some perceived failing or deficiency. The approach is to dispute and then dismantle negative self-talk. The reader is offered a seven day ‘ABCDE’ template, so that adverse inner dialogue can be recognised, recorded and disabled.

For present happiness, the author defines two states:

* "The pleasures… have clear sensory and strong emotional components…” They can be bodily e.g. touch, sight, sound, smell or taste
* The gratifications include any of the above, however the distinctions are they "…last longer, involve quite a lot of thinking and interpretation, do not habituate easily and are undergirded by our strengths and virtues…These are activities not necessarily accompanied by feelings at all".

Positive Psychology classifies “just twenty-four strengths …The last time anyone bothered to count, in 1936, more than eighteen thousand words in English referred to traits.” Surprisingly, this ignores Cattell’s work, which subsequently identified 16.

Three criteria define strengths, they are:
* valued in almost every culture
* valued in their own right - not just a means to an end
* malleable

The author argues some of the twenty-four strengths are deeply characteristic, defining these as "Signature Strengths", believing "the highest success in living and the deepest emotional satisfaction comes from building and using your Signature Strengths".

Seligman contends these strengths fit six core virtues occurring across most cultures; Wisdom and knowledge, Courage, Love and humanity, Justice, Temperance, Spirituality and transcendence.

He adds, to live the ‘good life’ is about using your Signature Strengths everyday, but admits sometimes undertaking tasks he’s good at, yet which leave him feeling drained and less authentic. Myers Briggs knows we sometimes use our less preferred skills, without enjoying them.

80+ pages are devoted to answering the implied question "So now you know your strengths, what are you going to do with them"? In my view he is not a pioneer in this particular area.

Seligman highly rates Csikszentmihalyi, definer of ‘flow’, recognised by several features especially, a sense of time standing still and our sense of self vanishing.

Seligman says to increase flow:

* Identify your Signature Strengths
* Choose work that lets you use them every day
* Recraft your present work
* When employing, choose those with Signature Strengths to mesh with the work you give them
* As a manager, allow employees to recraft (within bounds) their work.

While Csikszentmihalyi calls the states attached to flow as ‘enjoyments’, Seligman prefers ‘gratifications’, it plays down the emotional aspects.

The narrative on love follows a familiar pattern; case studies, a questionnaire, vast cross-referencing, in-depth research and statistics. Seligman identifies what he regards as a most surprising outcome “… children of stable marriages are more interested in long-term relationships than are the children of divorce” - I wasn’t surprised!

The Professor exudes dry humour - “I did something I don't recommend to you; I read …all the major marriage manuals. This is a depressing task for a positive psychologist…about how to make a bad marriage more tolerable.”

He suggests two summary love principles “You must not scrimp on the attention you pay to the person you love... (and) the quantity is crucial.”

I was intrigued with Mrs Seligman’s work on raising children, (especially as a parent and co-author of ‘The Coaching Parent’). In a self-effacing journey, she doesn't disappoint, providing at least eight techniques for building positive emotion. The ‘strengths test’ for children, similar to the adult version, can be used by any child aged about seven plus.

Concluding, the author invites us to live a ‘meaningful life’.

* The good life “…consists in deriving (authentic) happiness by using your Signature Strengths every day”

* The “…meaningful life… uses these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness… something much larger than you.”

This book contains detailed material, backed up with substance, multiple tests and well summarised chapters. It includes comprehensive end notes adding 300+ paragraphs of background information linked to related research material. I believe he achieves his purpose, and demonstrates exactly why happiness is within the readers’ power!

David Miskimin 2006

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Rating: - The New Wave of Humanistic Psychology
The author, American psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman, is famous for his book Learned Optimism. And his new book, Authentic Happiness, is a useful addition with an especially good web site presenting personality tests. Not all psychologists, however, have agreed with, or found research support for, Dr. Seligman's theory of optimism. Some parts of this "Positive Psychology Movement" have been found to be too one-sided and unrealistic about optimism. The academic book about that more balanced research and theory is Optimism and Pessimism edited by Dr. Chang. That book has a chapter about constructive pessimism by Dr. Norem, the author of the Positive Power of Negative Thinking. Some psychologists say Dr. Seligman's theory of Positive Psychology is too much a 'one size fits all' model of healthy personality. Individual and cultural differences seem to be more important than Dr. Seligman implies -- his approach may be a bit too "American" and optimistic for some readers. The recent surge of research on Resiliency in psychology indicates that individual differences in personality are fundamental -- what helps me won't necessarily help you. Keeping an open mind while exploring psychological health seems to be the key. In any case, Dr. Seligman does present some of the answers for some of the people, and that alone is a very worthwhile contribution.