Book6_U2_文化背景.doc

Some ways to become happier Be OptimisticOptimism is important to our happiness We can see our glasses as half full, or half empty. We can hope for the best, and expect that things will turn out well, or we can dread what might go wrong, and worry about our future. Happiness research shows that worry is the number one enemy to happiness, and as we become more optimistic, we become happier.Basic Emotions and Moods WorkPsychologists have published findings suggesting that ones entire emotional experience can be understood in terms of six basic, or universal, emotions.These six emotions are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.One principle reason emotions researcher Paul Ekmandescribes these six emotions as basic and universal is that, unlike with other emotions, people in any part of the world who see a photograph of a person expressing these six emotions can readily identify the emotion.All other emotions are theorized to be comprised of various distinct combinations of our six universal emotions.Of These six, happiness is pleasant, sadness, fear, anger and disgust are generally unpleasant, and surprise is neutral, leaning toward the unpleasant side.Since these emotions, and the moods they create when sustained, will ultimately determine our happiness, we should strive to minimize the five unpleasant emotions, and to maximize happiness. In theory, becoming happier is just that easy.Psychologists have also determined that we can choose our emotions by choosing to evaluate the situations and circumstances of our life in certain ways.This process is called cognitive appraisal, and has been used very successfully by cognitive-behavioral therapists to help clients overcome depression.This process of systematically changing ones evaluations from less pleasant to more pleasant is called cognitive re-structuring, and is one of the principle techniques making cognitive-behavioral therapy the most effective psychotherapy for depression.Go on Vacation!Vacations are, for most of us, the happiest times in our lives.Getting away from our work and daily routines for a few days or weeks of leisure and enjoyment is a great way for us to quickly get happier.We can also use vacations to help us understand how much more enjoyable our non-vacation lives could be if we simply made an effort to hotly pursue our happiness all year round.We should consider our happier vacation days or weeks very important to us.We can appreciate them and have them motivate us to, from then on, hold on to that greater happiness no matter what. Remember to Feel Very Happy!When we think about remembering, we usually appreciate its importance to academic and work-related learning.The better we commit what we learn to memory, the more effectively and quickly we learn. We often become so involved in day-to-day activities that we simply forget to feel happy.Remembering to feel very happy is a simple and powerful way of helping our happiness become more habitual. We often overlook the important role memory plays in creating and sustaining our level of happiness.We can learn to evaluate the events of our lives in ways that maximize pleasure, and minimize displeasure, and thereby achieve greater happiness.However, learning these to create these pleasant appraisals is just the first step.In order for this learning to be most effective, we must commit it to memory so that it is available for us to unconsciously apply to all of our situations.This process of committing beneficial learning to memory is called integration, and our aim is to have our positive appraisals, and our happiness, become habit.Choose Your Thoughts WiselyHappiness is dependent on our thoughts We do not have to keep thinking unpleasant thoughts simply because they come into our minds.