REVIEW: "Be happy," Tal Ben-Shahar

Happiness - is a character trait. At one in the character all the time waiting for others to continuously search, the third - to find everywhere

(C) elchin safarli

Do you know what happiness is? Do not worry - no one knows.

Even his famous preacher Tal Ben-Shahar. "How so?" - you ask? After all, Dr. Ben-Shahar has been researching this phenomenon for decades, its rate of positive psychology was the popular at Harvard, and now to his lectures and seminars visited by thousands of people, eager to comprehend what is happiness.

This question was asked (and, as you can see, are set), hundreds of people - from different age, origin, social status and level of education. As for love, happiness written many books, poems and songs, a lot of movies filmed. But no one has yet managed to bring his formula, to give such a definition, which would be able to take everything for granted, and the only true objective definition.

Ben-Shahar honestly did not know what happiness is. Although, in my opinion, he crept very close to nature.

happiness archetype

Professor Ben-Shahar has developed the so-called "hamburger model." According to her, people are divided into 4 types (depending on their emotional well-being, past, present and future), "runner", "hedonist", "nihilist" and "a happy man".

As a child you were given sweets only after priberet in his room? Nothing happens for a reason? First we need a certificate with good grades, then a diploma (preferably red), then a decent job, a good marriage, spacious house... Of course, to get all this will have to work hard. Be happy once - first thing, then happiness.

Congratulations! You are member of the "rat race."

People of this type a lifetime, "as slaves in the galleys." On the side they - the standard of success. They set themselves challenging, sometimes outrageous, purposes, and largely denying themselves, achieve them. But they are unhappy.

That's because the winning bid or purchasing an expensive car, they have only a temporary relief. Something for which were sleepless nights, stress and fatigue, achieved. A great weight off one's mind. Here it is - "Bingo!".

The euphoria of goals easily confused with happiness. The only difference is that it runs too fast. After all, on the horizon looms a new unclimbed peak, and it's time to be included in the race.

"Come on! We have to live in a rush, "- says" runner "for the second psychological archetype. For the hedonist's no tomorrow. There is only the here and now. And they are designed for enjoyment.

But he is wrong, as also to go to extremes. He confuses the happiness with emotion. Joy, courage, ecstasy - that is how many describe the state of happiness.

Indeed, the positive emotions - the integral component of happiness. But not the only one.

Therefore, over time hedonist all bored: delicious expensive food does not deliver more fun and new things do not improve self-esteem, women do not bring pleasure. Lightness of Being becomes unbearable.

As a result, a person having participated in the race for happiness somewhere in the future, and not finding it in the signs of the present, very disappointed in the ability to experience it. He denies the possibility to change the world, or at least his attitude to it. Nihilist puts foot and drifting, avoiding dangerous areas.

And member of the rat race, and a hedonist, and the nihilist are mistaken in their own way, but in one and the same. They do not understand the nature of happiness.

The universal equivalent

The pursuit of happiness is genetically built into us. And everyone wants to it in their own way.

Ben-Shahar reveals two very important components of happiness - the meaning and enjoyment.

Modern technology has advanced so that people in many spheres of life can be replaced by machines. Robotics robots create one to one similar to the human, not inferior to him (and sometimes superior) in intelligence and performance.

But the uprising of machines does not happen. At least, as long as scientists have not invented a chip emotions and not live his robots.

Emotions - that is our internal clock. Without them we would not have to go to work, exercise, travel, bear children. Everything we do - in order to experience the joy, enthusiasm, affection and other emotions.

But they are not enough to be happy. Hedonists would otherwise have won, but we are not much different from those of the higher animals, which are known as emotional.

Man wants not only to enjoy what was happening to him, but also realize that it is real. Actions and events that bring us joy, to be filled with meaning. Specific. Sacred.

Meaning and pleasure - is the resources. And on how to dispose of them, it depends on how much will be able to "get rich" in the universal equivalent values.

The general impression of the book

Ben-Shahar teaches how to increase their capital in general terms, is simply how to become happier.

I am skeptical about the works from the series "How to lose weight while continuing to eat", where 300 pages pour water, desperately trying to cover up the lack of meaning. Book "to be happy", although similar names, not like that. She captivates the scientific and practical approach.

It analyzed numerous psychological studies. After each chapter exercises. Many of them - a simple time management (for example, "schedule of happiness"), but their implementation will really help to become happier. Not least because that will learn to allocate their time and do things that bring joy and meaning of introducing in life.

Read this book was not easy. Although it is not turned my world - I have long realized that happiness, as the universe is infinite, it is a process where you just need to be.

But Ben-Shahar asks the reader a lot of "inconvenient" questions. If you answer them yourself honestly, can immerse themselves in the long excavation at the mine's own "I".

And if you have time, ask yourself from time to time: "I am happy I", you just need to read this book. This question is meaningless. Better to ask yourself: "How to be happier?".

"Be happy," Tal Ben-Shahar

Buy on litres.ruBuy at amazon