Emotional Decision-Making: Why It’s a Risky Undertaking

Emotional Decision-Making: Why It’s a Risky Undertaking

What role should emotions play in decision-making? How can you mitigate their influence? In Solve for Happy, Mo Gawdat argues that emotional decision-making is dangerous. He recommends that you put your reason in the driver’s seat, and he shares advice on how you can keep your emotions from getting in the way of your decisions. Continue reading to learn Gawdat’s argument and recommendations.

What Is Your True Self? Exploring the Deepest Level of You

What Is Your True Self? Exploring the Deepest Level of You

What is your true self? Is there something to intuition? How do you trust yourself? Martha Beck argues that, at your deepest level of self, you know what will make you happy and what kind of life you want to lead. You also know how you feel and what is true about your own life. This deepest level of self is your personal nature. Continue reading to learn more about Beck’s theory of identity.

Stoic Negative Visualization: Learning to Want What You Have

Stoic Negative Visualization: Learning to Want What You Have

What’s Stoic negative visualization? How can it actually make you happier? You can develop a Stoic practice by following six basic techniques derived from ancient philosophy. The first technique is negative visualization. Considering that Stoicism aims to offer a path toward joy, this practice is counterintuitive. But, it works. Continue reading to learn what Stoic negative visualization is and see how you can use this technique to appreciate more, handle disappointments better, and even grieve with less pain.

Your Fear Response Explained: How Do You React to Danger?

Your Fear Response Explained: How Do You React to Danger?

What triggers your fear response? What’s your personal instinct when reacting to dangerous situations? In Becoming Bulletproof, former U.S. Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras teaches you how to pursue the life you want without fear. Her book offers strategies for building resilience by teaching you how to understand your responses to fear and danger and how to control them. Read on to learn about how your fear response influences you, according to Poumpouras.

Faulty Assumptions: How Predictions & Stereotypes Cause Harm

Faulty Assumptions: How Predictions & Stereotypes Cause Harm

How can it be dangerous to make assumptions? Why should you be careful when making predictions? Why are stereotypes harmful? In Solve for Happy, Mo Gawdat discusses several weaknesses (or “blind spots,“ as he calls them) that can cause you to be unhappy. Some of these are faulty assumptions that can take the form of predictions or stereotypes. Read more to understand why you make faulty assumptions and learn how you can mitigate them.

Martha Beck: The Way of Integrity (Book Overview & Takeaways)

Martha Beck: The Way of Integrity (Book Overview & Takeaways)

Do you feel like you’re living out of sync with who you truly are? Who are you, deep down? What do you really want out of life? A book by Martha Beck, The Way of Integrity, is a guide to living in alignment with your true self. Beck argues that, deep down, you know who you want to be and what you want to do with your life. She contends that the greatest source of chronic misery is living out of alignment with these wants. Keep reading for an overview of this book and understand Beck’s solution to chronic unhappiness.

How to Tell if Someone Is Lying to You: 3 Verified Ways

How to Tell if Someone Is Lying to You: 3 Verified Ways

Want to know how to tell if someone is lying to you? How do professionals detect lying? What should you look for? As a former interrogator, Evy Poumpouras knows how to understand others’ true feelings and intentions through careful observation. In Becoming Bulletproof, she argues that learning how to tell if someone is lying to you can help you to get more out of your relationships.  Read on to learn how to tell if someone is lying to you, according to Poumpouras’s three methods.

Is Fear Good? No—You Must Confront It & Send It Packing

Is Fear Good? No—You Must Confront It & Send It Packing

Is fear good? Does it serve a positive purpose? If not, how can you get rid of fear? According to Mo Gawdat, fear is useless and just gets in the way of your happiness. In his book Solve for Happy, he recommends confronting your fear and dispelling it by asking seven questions that expose it as an unworthy intrusion in your life. Read more to learn Gawdat’s argument and his advice on how to confront your fear.

Focus on What Matters Most: Set Priorities Like a Stoic

Focus on What Matters Most: Set Priorities Like a Stoic

Should you seek fame, approval, wealth, and pleasure? What would such pursuits produce in your life? Too often, what people think will make them happy ends up robbing them of joy. They waste energy going down fruitless paths in life. In A Guide to the Good Life, philosophy professor William B. Irvine argues that the ancient Greek and Roman philosophy of Stoicism offers a better way. Read more to learn how to focus on what matters most, according to Stoic philosophy.