Martin Seligman and Ed Diener wanted to decode the mystery of
happiness. He and is research team identified group of people with high
happiness index; they were basically happy people in their life style and in dealing with the world. And they selected other people who were anxious and depressed most of
the time, means who were very low in the happiness index.
The research team observed for a longer period of time their
life style and how do they deal with all things they come across. The research
findings highlighted important findings:
• Everyone experiences negative emotions: Both the
groups experience more or less same number of negative events in their day
today life. It is not that the happy people are surrounded with rosy things and the
depressed ones are with dark cloud.
• Different cognitive interpretations (pessimists
vs. optimists): The important difference between the two groups was the ability
to interpret the events either with hope or hopelessness. The first group when
they encountered negative event, they were affected by it, but bounced back
within no time. They saw them as transient and momentary; they coped with them
and made it positive with a sense of humor Where as the similar negative
events were perceived by the second group as if they are permanent and they are
always unlucky.
• Self-fulfilling prophecies: sooner than latter,
the first group started seeing the problems as opportunities and their belief
made it so eventually. The second group started ruminating and their fear
become true due to the self fulfilling prophecy
How you interpret the events matters most. Even superficially and artificially try to find positive things in the negative situation, your
mind eventually moves in that direction. It is all about training the mind.
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