We often choose what
makes us feel good, but it is very important to realize that often our choices
are not made for the sake of how we will feel.
There are no
shortcuts to flow. On the contrary, you
need to deploy your highest strengths and talents to meet the world in flow.
Well-being is a
construct, and happiness a thing.
Symptom relief
should be a way station on the road to cure. But the road has come to a dead
end at symptom relief. Every single drug
on the shelf of the psychopharmacopoeia is cosmetic. There are no curative drugs.
Positive emotions
does much more than just feel pleasant; it is a neon sign that growth is under
way, that psychological capital is accumulating.
Positive mood
produces broader attention, more creative thinking, and more holistic
thinking. This is in contrast to
negative mood, which produces narrowed attention, more critical thinking, and
more analytic thinking.
The cornerstone of
all high expertise is not God-given genius but deliberate practice.
Self-discipline
outpredicts IQ for academic success by a factor of about 2.
Negative emotions
warn us about a specific threat: when we feel fear, it is almost always
preceded by a thought of danger. When we
feel sad, there is almost always a thought of loss. When we feel angry, there is almost always a
thought of trespass.
Positive emotions
are heavy hitters in the emotional system: it is through cultivating the
positive that we are able to learn, grow, and flourish.
The key to taking
advantage of positive emotions is to regard them as "resource
builders".
Being in a state of
mental health is not merely being disorder free; rather it is the presence of
flourishing.
People who believe
that the causes of setbacks in their lives are temporary, changeable, and local
do not become helpless.
