Interesting

Chock full of stats and data, study results and evidence, to support the theory that one is capable of experiencing one's own happiness. There are no practical exercises to apply to your own life experiences, but plenty of theory and evidence to get one thinking about the application of the principles to one's set of current beliefs.

21 people found this helpful

It didn’t “change my life” but it was still a good

I generally dislike self help books (especially the ridiculous ones claiming that the universe or quantum laws are doing the job for you). However, if a book at least aspires to be science based then I am willing to give it a try. In addition positive psychology i.e., the scientific study of what makes happy people happy, is a hot topic within psychology today and Martin Seligman is one of the founders of this field.

For these reasons I was able to overcome my fear of beeing pursuaded to change my life by a silly self help book. It was a nice surprise when early on Seligman acknowledged that happiness is not everything. One can find meaning in life without being extraordinarily happy. Interestingly, happy/optimistic people are actually quite inaccurate in their beliefs about the world when compared with depressed people. For instance, happy people thought they were in control of completely random events much longer than depressed people who acknowledged their inability to affect events much earlier.

Still happiness, at least statistically, is correlated with many beneficial effects. Happiness and optimism correlates with longevity, income, and ability to endure pain, and whether or not someone would end up in a happy marriage correlated with the type of smile (genuine or fake panam smiles) people had on photos from their youth.

So how do you become happy? Having the right genes helps but at least according to Seligman (who does quote a lot of studies), there are thing you can do to become happier. Be warned though, it requires an effort. Up to a rather low limit, money makes you happier. Having friends and a wife is also correlated with happiness.

Another strategy if you do not fancy wives and friends but would still like to be happy is to engage in gratifying activities. Gratifying activities (e.g. hiking) are the one that make you feel good about yourself for a “long” time after you have done them (often they require you to work in some way). This should be contrasted with pleasurable activities (e.g. eating chocolate) that make you feel good when you do them but not afterwards. Seligman (thankfully) does not say that you should never engage in pleasurable activities, only that to achieve happiness we should really focus on gratifying activities.

Seligman further argues that it is important to use your “signature strengths”. Signature strengths are essentially the positive parts of your personality. This includes things such as passion, curiosity, openness, integrity, sense of justice humour etc etc. In other words, the things that others value in you. Try to steer towards situations that let you use your signature strengths and you will become a happier person...

Have this book changes my life? Not really, no. It was interesting and it has made me think more about what type of activities I find gratifying which include training and doing research, and I try to do more of this. All in all “Authentic Happiness” is a good interesting book that I would recommend it to people interested in positive psychology, and who would like a science based understanding of happiness and its consequences.

32 people found this helpful

More child psych than adult...

What would have made Authentic Happiness better?

The author left general psych and adult psych and ended the book on raising children to be well-rounded and of positive disposition. This is valuable, but the intro reviews made no mention of child psychology.

Has Authentic Happiness turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of John Dossett?

Narrator was good.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Up to and including the author's 'H=SCV' formula for happiness (where 'H' equals enduring happiness), the author was interesting and on topic. In this formula, 'V' equals voluntary factors, or, those things which we can voluntarily do to increase our level of 'enduring happiness'. Good. This is just what I am seeking. But from here the author fills his final 1/2 of the book on child raising and did not elucidate on the 'voluntary factors' I was looking to his book to address.

16 people found this helpful

Enough good points in there for me

This book has several good exercises and observations, which I incorporated into my daily practice. One of the disadvantages is that the segments are about an hour long each and it's really hard (at least on a Blackberry) to go back and find specific locations. Many of the concepts are worth re-hearing. I got another self-help in audiobook and both are good but a bit hard to use in audio format.

7 people found this helpful

Great book, missing parts from paper copy though

Would you consider the audio edition of Authentic Happiness to be better than the print version?

No, while the audio version was great, when I referred to the print version I found that the audio version skipped over some print parts. This may be fine for others, but since I needed it for a class, it was important to me.

What other book might you compare Authentic Happiness to and why?

Many of other Seligmans books would be comparable. Its better than a lot of "self-help" books though, since its more psychology based.

Which scene was your favorite?

I didnt really have a favorite scene, as this was non-fiction, but the sections on why positive emotions are beneficial were good.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

The Happiness formula was a part of the book that I will likely remember and apply to my life.

5 people found this helpful

Missing too much information

this Abridged version for Audible is way to abridged. the whole point of the book as laid out is missed in the audible version. don't bother getting it by the book and read it.

3 people found this helpful

Good information good listen

I hold a few post BA degrees one of them in psychology. This book is good science and just a plain good listen. Good for serious and casual readers.

15 people found this helpful

not great

mono toned with lengthy points that seemed to go on forever. exceptionally hard to stay interested in.

1 person found this helpful

Re-Read and Re-Read

Where does Authentic Happiness rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a ground breaking and profound book, Listening to it makes it easy to re-read over and over again.

What did you learn from Authentic Happiness that you would use in your daily life?

I use the information every day. This book opened up a better way to look at life.

2 people found this helpful

Decent

The narrator does a great job. The book has some good points and gets you thinking however the end seems to trail off a bit. I would recommend it.

2 people found this helpful