Sublime

happiness brings out our best potential in four concrete ways.5

people feel better about themselves when they are helping other people, and despair and helplessness when they are not able to do so.

For example, doing any practice is an act of kindness toward yourself; you’re treating yourself like you matter—which is especially important and healing if you have felt as a child or an adult that others haven’t respected or cared about you. Further, you’re being active rather than passive—which increases optimism, resilience, and happiness, and

Second, a strength is valued in its own right.

The happiest and most successful people are those who have figured out ways to exploit their Tendency to their benefit and, just as important, found ways to counterbalance its limitations. For all of us, it’s possible to take the steps to create the life we want—but we must do that in the way that’s right for us.

The most successful and happy people are, in fact, the givers.

Until recent years, the common belief among scientists was that every person has a mood set point that doesn’t change much over a life span. That explains why people who win the lottery or become paraplegic in an accident will (after some transitional time in elation or depression) return to their mood set point. There is also a relationship betwee

“The larger the entity you can attach yourself to,” Seligman advises, “the more meaning you can derive.”8