What a Wonderful World Louie Armstrong I see

What a Wonderful World (Louie Armstrong) • I see trees of green, red roses too I see them bloom for me and you And I think to myself what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue and clouds of white The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night And I think to myself what a wonderful world. The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people going by I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do They're really saying I love you. I hear babies crying, I watch them grow They'll learn much more than I'll never know And I think to myself what a wonderful world Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world. © Mark Williams

History of Happiness Psychological Science? Positive Thinking? or Mindfulness? Mark Williams Ph. D. Professor of Applied Positive Psychology Shenzhen University (International) email: markw. positive@gmail. com web: www. aappi. net © Mark Williams

Using Science: Life Happiness Measure 7 = Strongly agree非常同意 6 = Agree同意 5 = Slightly agree略同意 4 = Neither agree nor disagree既不同意也不反对 3 = Slightly disagree稍有不同意 2 = Disagree不同意 1 = Strongly disagree强烈不同意 1. In general, my positive emotions (happiness, pleasure, 2. 3. 4. 5. optimism, etc) give me an extremely happy life. In general, my negative emotions (sadness, concern, doubt, etc) are very well balanced and necessary. Overall, I feel extremely satisfied with my life. Overall, I wholeheartedly say “yes” to what I have done and what has happened in my life. Overall, I think I am and look very attractive in my own way. Add scores to give a total out of 35 © Mark Williams

American Positive Thinking: The Secret • The Secret is the law of attraction: “Nothing [good or bad] can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts. Your thoughts are the primary cause of everything. Your current reality or your current life is a result of the thoughts you have been thinking. This is The Secret to everything—the secret to unlimited joy, health, money, relationships, love, youth: everything you have ever wanted. ” • The author says that her life immediately began to change in ways nothing short of miraculous. In March of 2006 a video was released on the Internet, then a DVD and book with phenomenal success. • Two episodes of Larry King Live, live appearances on Ellen Degeneres’ daily TV show, and two Oprah Winfrey shows catapulted the Secret to the top of the charts in Feb 2007. • “There isn’t a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. . The Secret can give you whatever you want - you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want”. © Mark Williams

American Positive Thinking: The Secret • In the final analysis, The Secret is nothing more than Name It • • Claim It, Positive-Confession, Prosperity Theology, built on a foundation of New Age self-deification – you are all powerful! In other words, the book is just a secular version of what some TV preachers have taught for decades, namely, if you will sustain the right thoughts, words, and feelings, you will receive whatever you want – the American positive thinking movement. But The Secret adds this important twist: your thoughts can bring anything into your life because you are god. Books that promise health and wealth for their practitioners are published every day - but few associate such promises with such breathtaking audacity. “You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet. ” © Mark Williams

Mindfulness Rick Hanson PH. D. is a neuropsychologist, on an advisory board to UC Berkeley, an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard universities, and taught in meditation centres worldwide. © Mark Williams

Applying Science to study Mediation We will investigate how even meditating for just 2 minutes each day will make you happier, less stressed, less worried & change your brain © Mark Williams

Meditation is just sitting still for 1 minute or more anyway you can: Try to do it everyday © Mark Williams

Pos. Psych. D. LECAG and W. PERMAGASMIC Mindfulness • • L: learn (& tell at least • • 1 new thing to somebody) • • • E: Exercise 30 min • • C: Connect deeply with the people in your • life • Daily • A: Awareness STOPSLOW-SMILE mindfulness of both cosmic & small • G: Gratitude (e. g. 3 Good Things every night – relive the good feeling; gratitude notes) • • Weekly P: positive emotions E: Engage fully in work R: relationships (enhance!) M: life Meaning-purpose A: Achieve to goals G: Giving money, fruit, presents to people A: Acting and living, right now in this moment, exactly like the strongest and happiest person I ever dreamed I could be – indeed I am acting and living as that person right now! S: Strengths to live by (Enneagram 9 types) M: Morph suffering (ABCreward: “Activating thought/event; Bad Belief-thinking-feeling patterns; Change; self reward”) H-E-A-L I: Inhale-exhale belly breathing relaxation C: Communicate actively (passive & active) © Mark Williams

Seligman: What is Happiness? 什么是幸福 ? • • Prof. Dr. Martin Seligman, who brought positive psychology to the foreground of both the scientific and popular worlds, talks of “authentic happiness” made up of 1. pleasurable experiences, 2. deep engagement with our activities (“flow”) 3. meaning found in a meaningful connection with something larger or greater than self. Martin Seligman 教授使积极心理学迈入了科学界以及公众 界的前沿。他认为一个人的真正的幸福快乐是由愉快的经 历，生活中的深入交往，以及在一些有意义的事情中找到 超越自我的价值. H = P + Fl + M © Mark Williams

Ben-Shahar: What is Happiness? 什么是幸福 ? • Dr Tal Ben Shahar, the Harvard University professor of Positive Psychology, author of Happier (2008) and Even Happier (2010), calls happiness the “ultimate currency” and defines it as • 1. the overall experience of pleasure (present benefit) • 2. meaning (future benefit) • 哈佛的�极心理学 教授，曾著书《幸福》（2008年），《超 越幸福》（2010年）。他将幸福称为人类的“�极�� ”并定 � 它为 所有的愉悦经历（眼前的好处）以及它们的价值意义 （将来的好处）. H = Experience. PB + Experience. FB © Mark Williams

How would you define “happiness”? 你会如何定义“幸福”？ • Happiness is similar to： ü Pleasure 愉快 ü Bliss 福气 ü Ecstasy 狂喜 ü Contentment 满意 • However, happiness researchers agree that these emotions do not capture all of happiness. © Mark Williams

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC) and Neo-Confucian thinking • “They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. ” Analects • “With coarse rice to eat, only water to drink, and my bended arm as a pillow, I am happy in the midst of these things. Riches and honour acquired by means that I know to be wrong are to me as a floating cloud. ” Analects, VII, 15 • “The name of the master of happiness is not known …/ His or her feelings are those of the wind and the moon. ” Poem by Neo. Confucian Shao Yung • “By riches and high estate I am not polluted; / Neither poverty nor low rank can affect my happiness. / They like this are heroes indeed. ” Poem by Neo-Confucian Ch’eng Hao © Mark Williams

Lao Tze (Circa. 600 BCE) • "Fame or integrity: which is more important? Money or happiness: which is more valuable? Success or failure: which is more destructive? If you look to others for fulfilment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. “ • Don't think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness. © Mark Williams

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (circa 563 -483 BCE) • Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. • Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship. • Thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them. • We are what we think. All that we arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. • Success does not lead to happiness. Happiness leads to success. © Mark Williams

Definitions of Happiness 幸福的定义 • Aristotle describes happiness as “an expression of the soul in considered actions”. 亚里士多德将幸福描述为“一 个灵魂在考虑行动” • Dr. Sigmund Freud, the famous German Psychiatrist, describes happiness as a matter of lieben und arbeiten (to love and to work). 弗洛伊德把幸福描述为去爱 和去 作. © Mark Williams

Aristotle (384 -322 BCE) (Happiness, 2010) • In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that happiness (also “being well 感觉好” and “doing well 干得漂亮”) is the only thing that humans desire for its own sake, unlike riches, honour, health or friendship (which are sought for their own sake but also to be happy 这些只是为了自己的需要而寻求，但是同样 也是为了得到快乐. ) • Aristotle understands eudemonia, translated as “happiness 幸福”, as an activity, being virtuous 幸福 作为一项活动, rather than just an emotion 而不只是 一种情感 or hedonistic living for short-term fun. © Mark Williams

Mencius (c. 200 BCE) (Happiness, 2010) • The Chinese Confucian thinker Mencius gave advice to the ruthless political leaders of the warring states period, that the mind played a mediating role between the “lesser self 小我” (body 身体, lusts 欲望中介作用) and the “greater self 大我” (virtue 美德, goodness 善良, love爱). (Mencius, 6 A: 15 2 A: 2). • We should feel pleasure in nourishing and developing our “vital force” with “righteous deeds” 我们应该为我们可以发展和滋润 我们的“生命力与行善”感到高兴 • More specifically, he mentions the experience of great happiness by celebrating the great virtues, especially through music (Chan, Wing-tsit, 1963). © Mark Williams

Al-Ghalzali (1058– 1111) and Patanjali (c. 1200) (Happiness, 2010) • Al-Ghazali, the Muslim Sufi thinker wrote the “Alchemy of Happiness 幸 福炼金术”, a book of spiritual instruction throughout the Muslim world and widely practiced even now. • Patanjali, an Indian Hindu thinker, author of the ”Yoga Sutras 瑜 伽经”, wrote widely on physical exercise and psychological methods, mental habits and spiritual practices to attain bliss. © Mark Williams

Western Utilitarian Philosophers 西 方功利主义哲学家 (Happiness, 2010) Circa. 1800 • Many recent classical Western philosophers contend that individuals, organizations, communities, governments and society in general should act to maximize happiness in general. • Utilitarians (such as John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham) advocate the “greatest happiness principle最大幸福原 则” as a guide for ethical behavior. © Mark Williams

Brightness life philosophy 光明生活哲学 • “There is no immortal soul and no heavenly world. 没有永垂不朽的 灵魂和天堂般的世界。 • We do not experience or pass through death: death is simply life’s horizon. 我们没有经历过死亡：死亡只不过是人生的地平线。 • The self is a collection of biological impulses that seek as full and unified an expression as they can get. 自我是我 们的生理冲动在寻找一种最完整统一的表情的收集。 • Culture provides roles and approved forms of symbolic expression. ” 文化提供了象征表情的公认的形式。 Don Cupitt: Emptiness and Brightness © Mark Williams

Ordinary life – an epic quality 普通的生活—一种 • “We should say plainly that we most need is to learn to love life, just this life. 我们应该清楚简单地说我 们所需要的去学着去爱生活，而这里说的生活正是我们现在 的生活。 • We need to educate our senses and emotions, and we need to understand our own bodies. 我们需要去训练我 们的感觉和情感并且去了解我们的身体。 • Most people are quite unaware of the extent to which a good visual education (for example) can be a source of great happiness throughout one’s whole life. ” 大部 分人都没有意识到一个好的视觉教育的影响程度（比如说） 可以是一个人人生幸福的来源。 Don Cupitt: Emptiness and Brightness © Mark Williams

We say Yes to our lives in toto 我们用toto对生活说：“好” • This is what the renowned Cambridge philosophical scholar Don Cupitt highlights in his recent books “The Way to Happiness” and “The Fountain”. 这是著名的剑桥哲学学者堂 古比特在他最近的 著作《通向幸福的路》和《喷泉》中强调的观点。 • Together we create our new ways of thinking，our philosophies and artistic perspectives of life. 我们一起创造我们对生活的新的 思维方式、哲学和艺术性看法。 • There is no leader to reveal mysteries or guide us down philosophical paths; we make discoveries in conversations - face to face or online. 在我们开启奥秘的哲学路上没有引领者；我们通 过和别人面对面或在网上的交谈，来发现新事物。 • In every day life now, we think and talk in fresh and sometimes refreshingly simple ways about life. 在现在每天的生活里，我们用 新颖的简朴的方式思考或谈论人生。 © Mark Williams

References • Ben-Shahar, Tal. (2007). Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting • • • Fulfilment. Mc. Graw-Hill: New York Cognitive behavioral therapy. (2010, April 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12: 23, April 8, 2010, from http: //en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Cognitive_behavioral_therapy&o ldid=354287980 Diener, E. , & Biswas-Diener, R. (2008). Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300 - 319. Mindfulness (psychology). (2010, April 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12: 28, April 8, 2010, from http: //en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Mindfulness_(psychology)&oldid =354018552 Seligman, M. Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. New York: Pocket Books © Mark Williams