Anna Pasternak is astonished to learn and experience for herself that the skills of happiness can be taught.
Happy now? The course claiming to replace the blues with true happiness
Some selections from her diary of her encounter with American professor Richard Davidson
"You will never be happy as long as you are afraid of your sadness. You don't have to learn to like your unhappiness - but you do have to learn not to be afraid of it.
--
His key message is that it is not self improvement that will make us happy, but self-acceptance.
"Classically, people believe that if they improve themselves enough, they will be happy. But we can never improve enough.
--
Holden explains the difference between who we really are and who we think we are: our "essential self" as opposed to our "self-concepts".
He warns that self-image can be extremely detrimental to happiness. Often, we allow our "story" about who we think we are to become our identity.
"You can try to change your thoughts, but they are driven by your identity. If you want to change your thinking, change your identity."
--
When Robert Holden said: "You must let go of your hope for a better past" something released inside. I felt unbelievably drained but buoyant. As if I've re-ignited hope.