I find it so interesting when someone seems surprised at the discovery happiness is as simple as postive thinking.
This excerpt from an article in the Gannett News Service today shows what I mean.
Sometimes it’s hard to be happy in a hell-in-a-handbasket world. The war in Iraq, the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the crisis in the Middle East and starvation in Africa can leave us with heavy hearts.
But a concept gaining ground in the field of psychology could provide some help. Positive psychology, which studies how optimistic people prevail, is developing a following after a decade of research. Those who study the science of happiness say learning to emphasize the positive over the negative could tip the scales.
The quest for optimism is not new. Buddha contemplated the nature of happiness around 500 B.C. America’s founders codified it as a worthy pursuit in the Declaration of Independence.
In 1952, New York minister Norman Vincent Peale published “The Power of Positive Thinking,” a mass-market book that proved inspirational to millions and continues to spread its upbeat message.
PoughkeepsieJournal.com – Come on, get happy
As the article states Buddha was doing this 2500 years ago! When can we start learning (or relearning this lesson?
Miami
technorati tags:Buddha, happiness, Norman+Vincent+Peale, Power+of+Positive+Thinking
