My 10 Rules for Life
11/26/11
Here, on iPersonic the subject of
happiness in all its facets is obviously always on my mind,
including the question whether there is something like a “universal
formula” for being happy. Those readers who have already dealt with
their personality
type a little more extensively (and maybe have even read the
LifeCoach for their type) already know
that THE universal formula for a happy life just does not
exist. Personal ambitions, aspirations and needs of
various personality types are much too different. For instance,
something that would make an extrovert happy could well be
extraordinarily stressful for an introvert and vice versa. With
this understood, every person must decide for him/herself which are
the building blocks for his/her personal road to happiness.
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How Idealists can find Meaning in their Lives
08/17/11
The primary aspiration of all
Idealists (Spontaneous Idealists, Dreamy
Idealists, Harmony-seeking Idealists and
Engaged Idealists) is
self-discovery and
self-actualization. If you are an Idealist, life
represents one continuous search for a deeper meaning: Who am I?
Where am I going? What is my destiny? This already describes the
most important pillar of your personal concept of happiness:
The meaning of life! Continue
reading ...
40 Tips for a Happier Life
05/03/11
Since the end of the 90s a new branch
of the science, also known as Positive Psychology has been dealing
with the essentials for happiness. In order to help you find out
which happiness potentials are maybe lying idle with you, I have
summarized the 40 most important insights on the subject
“happiness” in an abbreviated format in the following “checklist”.
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Give your life a meaning
04/15/11
Born in 1905, psychiatrist Viktor
Frankl founded a special psychotherapy school of thought: the
Logotherapy. The Greek word “logos” stands
for meaning and this basically already outlines the central content
of this therapy concept. Frankl sees the search for meaning as a
human fundamental motivation: As the only living creature aware of
its finiteness, and so as not to despair, the human being must give
its existence meaning. If his innate “need for meaning” is
frustrated, the resulting sense of futility manifests itself in
emotional disturbances such as depression, aggression, or
addiction. Conversely, one could say: happiness is to have found
the meaning to one’s life. Continue reading
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Do what you enjoy doing!
03/24/11
The American psychologist Mihály
Csikszentmihályi did research on the subject of happiness in
the middle 70s and came to the conclusion that people experienced
the most happiness when they were in a state that he called „Flow“.
Flow means that we are totally immersed in an activity
while everything else becomes secondary. Time and space,
even our own needs recede and lose their significance. We are
totally concentrated, the task completely absorbs us, and we merge
with whatever we are doing, so to speak. This is indeed an
important character strength for the achievement of your happiness:
Enthusiasm! Enthusiasm represents the ability to meet the world
with excitement and energy, to be totally involved with what one
happens to be doing at the time. Continue
reading ...
Gratitude is a key to happiness
09/23/10
On the first weekend of October most
German religious communities again will celebrate Thanksgiving. (In the USA it is not celebrated until the
end of November although the basic idea is quite similar.) Here in
the rural area where we live as well as in the cities people are
doing their very best to decorate church sanctuaries with fruit,
vegetables and flowers. In my opinion it represents a wonderful
tradition because at least once a year it breaks with this matter
of course habit of our, usually thoughtless daily excursions to
super markets and stores. We are rarely aware that compared to the
rest of the world, we are magnificently provided for.
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How problems can make you feel happy
09/06/10
Yes, you read correctly:
Problems will make you happy! In psychological
research something that looks like a contradiction at first glance,
turns out to be a simple but important truth. Because, whoever is
never confronted with obstacles or difficulties also never gets a
chance at a very important happiness component: The sense of having
faced and mastered a challenge. Continue reading
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How to start living your personal, happiness-supporting lifestyle
07/22/10
In recent years hardly any other
psychological field of research has grown as intensively and has
received as much attention as the so-called positive psychology. In the early 90s of the last
century, a group of psychologists asked themselves why so much
attention had been focused on the origin of psychiatric disorders
and their elimination by way of therapies, and very little
attention had been dedicated to the origin of mental health and the
circumstances supporting it. These psychologists wanted to change
this, and to that end, began to increasingly dedicate themselves to
researching the prerequisites of happiness, contentment, and mental
health.
Continue reading ...