The Pleasure Trap Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness by Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D., 2010
This book challenges conventional wisdom about sickness and unhappiness in today's contemporary culture and offers solutions for achieving change. The authors provide a fascinating new perspective on how modern life can turn so many smart, savvy people into the unwitting saboteurs of their own well-being.
"In my darkest hours, what has saved me again and again is some action of unselfing — some instinctive wakefulness to an aspect of the world other than myself: a helping hand extended to someone else’s struggle, the dazzling galaxy just discovered millions of lightyears away, the cardinal trembling in the tree outside my window."
What is happiness? Here, one of the world’s foremost behavioral scientists tackles this age-old question. He shows that there are many ways of achieving happiness.
The Way of the Monk The Four Steps to Peace, Purpose and Lasting Happiness by Gaur Gopal Das
Discover how to master the monk mindset with world-renowned motivational coach and Indian monk Gaur Gopal Das as he reveals how to tackle our modern anxieties with characteristic serenity, profound wisdom and irresistible humour.
New blog post! I review a dynamic systems model of pursuing happiness. Zerwas and Ford find that the system of happiness and goal pursuit can potentially lead to paradoxical effects. Pursuing happiness too intensely can make you less happy!
While the practice of Yoga is now being widely embraced by the West in context with health benefits, body flexibility and as a relaxation method, in a world where most of us now have on a material level almost everything we need, the spiritual aspects and questions of quality of life, happiness and well-being are center-stage questions now.
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Citing Plato, Buddha and modern brain science, psychologist Haidt notes the mind is like an "elephant" of automatic desires and impulses atop which conscious intention is an ineffectual "rider."
This book introduces the reader to the ways in which happiness has been explored in philosophy and literature for thousands of years, in order to understand the newest theoretical approaches to happiness.
Finding out that I have spent my life scripting things to say just to make other people happy and make social interactions go "smoothly" at the cost of my own mental health, personal integrity, and self-identity is an masked Autistic experience.
"This research addresses this unique component of science attitudes—spirituality of science: feelings of meaning, awe, and connection derived through scientific ideas."
"Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”