:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/C3TG6BDOWBFUPDOC4XC7IRTOJA.jpg "“Happier, despite everything”, the last title of Tal Ben-Shahar")
It is natural that when something good happens to us, we are very happy, and when something bad happens to us, we are sad. Naturally, yes, but what impact does all of this have, good or bad, on our subsequent state of happiness? How will we feel tomorrow or a month later?
Several studies indicate that in reality the impact will not be good or bad, it simply will not be. Because? Happiness does not depend on the current situation, it only functions as a frame of reference for good and bad times, and it is constantly changing.
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Again, the Israeli professor Tal Ben Shahar, presents readers with a series of thoughts on the subject of happiness. In “Happier, despite everything”delivers a diagnostic tool that enables those who read the book to identify the fundamental components of happiness that underpin their own lives, and accompanies it with a more than apt recipe for making them happier.
Our happiness is the result of a combination of five essential components, says the author. The first of these is spiritual well-being, followed by physical, intellectual, relational and emotional well-being.
Ben Chahar tackles the subject of happiness from as many angles as possible, giving readers strategies for wisely managing their emotions, taking care of their bodies, nurturing their relationships, nurturing their intellectual curiosity, and living mindfully, even in the most complex.
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In a newspaper interview Trade, dated October 2022, the Israeli stressed that happiness does not simply arise. Being a state of the soul, it requires practice.
“Socrates said that to do good, you must know it. He was very intelligent, but in this he was wrong. To play tennis well, it is not enough to read a manual, just as to be happy it is not enough to buy a self-help book. Happiness must be practiced. Ask Nadal or Alcaraz how many hours they train every day. I follow the rule of the three Rs: memorize, repeat and ritualize. I give myself reminders to say thank you, to be humble, to appreciate beauty. I repeat these actions every day. And the repetition ends up becoming a ritual, a habit,” he commented.
Since the success that “The pursuit of happiness”, Ben-Shahar has become a reference and a happiness in an academic subject. This Israeli professor and psychologist, also of American nationality, practiced for more than 25 years at Harvard University. Its courses often break attendance records, attracting more than 1,400 students per semester.
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The Israeli is also a consultant for various international companies such as Microsoft, Orange or Shell, among others; best-selling author and director of the Happiness Studies Academy, an online platform that offers resources for learning how to manage emotions in the pursuit of happiness.
Then, via the Planeta group, we share the beginning of “Happier, despite everything”:
There is the story of a tourist who was traveling through Italy. He arrived at a place where they were under construction, full of workers. He approached one of the workers and asked him:
-What are you doing?
The mason replied:
I lay bricks.
The tourist walked about twenty meters and met another mason who was doing the same. I ask him:
-What are you doing?
And the mason answered him:
I build a wall.
Eventually, a third worker was found doing the same thing as his two companions, and the tourist asked him:
-What are you doing?
The mason looked at him and said:
—I am building a cathedral for the greater glory of God.
No matter how repetitive the task or how big the challenge: our perspective on it all matters a lot and determines how we handle what lies ahead.
The first element of the SPIRE acronym for happiness is spiritual well-being. Most people identify spirituality with religion or with prayer, but that’s not entirely necessary. Although spirituality can be experienced in a synagogue, in a church, in a mosque or in another temple, it is also found in our daily lives. There are two ways to experience spirituality: when what we do has meaning and purpose for us, and when we are totally present and focused in the moment.
When we talk about spirituality, we have to make a very important distinction. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl differentiates between the meaning of life and the meaning of life. The meaning of life can encompass questions such as “why am I here?”, “what is it for?” or “what is life?” Many people turn to religion for answers, or perhaps a noble mission for the greater good, like ending poverty or ending global warming. Finding meaning in life is often difficult, and it can be overwhelming to confront the concept, especially in difficult times when we are simply trying to get to the end of each day. On the contrary, it is easier to find meaning in life: in the normal things we usually do, in the present moment, in our activities at home or at work. To experience spiritual well-being, we will first explore the meaning of life, because through this concept we will discover the possibilities of a truly happier life, even in difficult times.
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