In The Mansions Of Life By Seligmans Summary

This book is a classic positive psychology book. The author, Martin Seligman, is actually the founder of what is “positive psychology” today. The book is divided into three parts: Positive Emotion, Strength and Virtue, and In The Mansions of life. It is written from Seligman’s perspective and he shares examples and experiences from his life to better help us understand the concepts in each chapter. In the preface he introduces to us the three pillars of “positive psychology” which he says are: positive emotion, positive traits, and positive institutions. In part one of the book, which contains about half of the content, Seligman focuses on helping us understand the idea of positive emotion. He provides us with studies that he did with different
He states that many people believe things like age, health, education, and where you live, all have to do with how satisfied you are in your life. There is actual a very minimal difference in happiness involving all of these factors. Seligman makes the point that there are a lot of things in life that are not as important as people make them out to be. One of the points that stood out to me is about people experiencing negative emotion. Most people think the best way to be happy, is to avoid things that cause negative emotions. However, Seligman says, “[H]aving more than your share of misery does not mean you cannot have a lot of joy as well” (Seligman, 56). Things that happen in your life may affect your emotion temporarily, but they only impact lasting happiness if you let it. Things that happen in the past, do not define how happy someone will be or what their future will be like. The way that one reacts, and how they think about things, will change their lasting happiness the most. Most circumstances you cannot easily change. Focus on what you can do internally to make the your happiness