Using the new Positive Psychology

The theory in Authentic Happiness is that happiness could be analyzed into three different elements that we choose for their own sakes: positive emotion, engagement, and meaning. And each of these elements is better defined and more measurable than happiness. The first is positive emotion; what we feel: pleasure, rapture, ecstasy, warmth, comfort, and the like. An entire life led successfully around this element, I call the “pleasant life.” The second element, engagement, is about flow: being one with the music, time stopping, and the loss of self-consciousness during an absorbing activity. There are no shortcuts to flow. There is yet a third element of happiness, which is meaning. “Your 2002 theory can’t be right, Marty,” said Senia Maymin when we were discussing my previous theory in my Introduction to Positive Psychology for the inaugural class of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology in 2005. This was the moment I began to rethink happiness. Summary of Well-Being Theory

Happiness & Health - Chronic Disease Prevention - Harvard Public Health Magazine [ Winter 2011] Could a sunny outlook mean fewer colds and less heart disease? Do hope and curiosity somehow protect against hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory tract infections? Do happier people live longer—and, if so, why? These are the kinds of questions that researchers are asking as they explore a new—and sometimes controversial—avenue of public health: documenting and understanding the link between positive emotions and good health. A vast scientific literature has detailed how negative emotions harm the body. Jack P. Focusing on the positive “But negative emotions are only one-half of the equation,” says Laura Kubzansky, HSPH associate professor of society, human development, and health. Kubzansky is at the forefront of such research. Among dozens of published papers, Kubzansky has shown that children who are able to stay focused on a task and have a more positive outlook at age 7 report better general health and fewer illnesses 30 years later. State of mind=state of body

Happiness 1. The meanings of ‘happiness’ 1.1 Two senses of ‘happiness’ What is happiness? Philosophers who write about “happiness” typically take their subject matter to be either of two things, each corresponding to a different sense of the term: A state of mind A life that goes well for the person leading it In the first case our concern is simply a psychological matter. Having answered that question, a further question arises: how valuable is this mental state? In the second case, our subject matter is a kind of value, namely what philosophers nowadays tend to call prudential value—or, more commonly, well-being, welfare, utility or flourishing. Importantly, to ascribe happiness in the well-being sense is to make a value judgment: namely, that the person has whatever it is that benefits a person.[1] If you and I and have different values, then we may well differ about which lives we consider happy. 1.2 Clarifying our inquiry 2. 2.1 The chief candidates 2.2 Methodology: settling on a theory 3. 4. 5.

This pearl shows the difference between real and fake happiness and how it affects your wellbeing. This is a good source when considering the differenct between long term and short term happiness. by c.gallagher595 Dec 13