📚 Meister Book Club: Shortcuts to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar

Joerg Koper
Joerg Koper MT Tester, DE Business Posts: 1,482 Community Leader
in Community Café

Good afternoon, reading community!

image.png

The book Shortcuts to Happiness is about pearls of wisdom that Tal Ben-Shahar was told by his barber Avi. He then combined this wisdom with his scientific studies and turned them into a wonderful book.

Tal Ben-Shahar emphasises that true happiness is not about achieving permanent states of joy, but about living a fulfilled life that includes both positive and negative emotions. He explains that the key to happiness is to find a balance between positive emotions while acknowledging and accepting negative emotions.

The Shortcuts to Happiness is based on scientific findings and personal experience. The shortcuts help us develop a positive attitude towards life and maximise our happiness potential in everyday life.

The book also teaches the importance of mindfulness and consciously experiencing the present moment. Tal Ben-Shahar explains how mindfulness practices such as meditation and conscious breathing can help calm the mind and create a deeper connection to one's sense of happiness.

A further important topic he covers is the ability to deal with setbacks and negative experiences.

My personal conclusion: This book reminds me of many learnings in life and of the time I spent with my Buddhist teacher (a Tibetan Geshe and close confidant of the Dalai Lama). These nice and often philosophic lessons help to reflect many things in retrospect. 

Have a wonderful day!

Jörg

Als Experten-Partner von Meister führe ich in meiner Agentur u. a. Workshops für die Integration der Meister Software durch. Hier in der Community freue ich mich auf den Austausch mit Euch und helfe bei Fragen zu MeisterTask, MeisterNote und MindMeister gerne weiter.

Weitere Informationen findest Du auf agenturkoper.de und LinkedIn.

Tagged:

Comments

  • Andrew Lapidus
    Andrew Lapidus Admin, MeisterLobster, EN Business Posts: 1,007 Community Admin

    Thanks a ton for the recommendation, Jörg! We've discussed this before, but I love the integration of mindfulness and other well-being philosophies as a way to overcome the tension between "work-life balance" and find a holistic approach to life. Will check this out!

    Best,

    Andrew

  • Joerg Koper
    Joerg Koper MT Tester, DE Business Posts: 1,482 Community Leader
    https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/4791#Comment_4791

    I'm sure you'll love this book, as I do Andrew. It's a fun read and a nice opportunity to reflect the wise hints while enjoying a cup of tea 😉

    Best, Jörg

    Als Experten-Partner von Meister führe ich in meiner Agentur u. a. Workshops für die Integration der Meister Software durch. Hier in der Community freue ich mich auf den Austausch mit Euch und helfe bei Fragen zu MeisterTask, MeisterNote und MindMeister gerne weiter.

    Weitere Informationen findest Du auf agenturkoper.de und LinkedIn.

  • MiÅ¡a Hennin
    Miša Hennin Admin, MeisterLobster, EN Business Posts: 1,652 Community Admin

    Seen this in the shop a few times but never checked what it was about.

    I'd love to hear more about how Ben-Shahar combined science with philosophy? Do you have an example of the scientific findings or studies he mentioned?

  • Andrew Lapidus
    Andrew Lapidus Admin, MeisterLobster, EN Business Posts: 1,007 Community Admin

    I actually had a brain-wave about this last night: I read Ben-Sahar when I was in college in a seminar about the field of Positive Psychology. His course at Harvard had just made waves and he had recently published "Happier." The seminar and book had a tremendous impact on me, but I didn't immediately make the connection with your suggestion, @Joerg Koper! So cool!

    @Miša Hennin if memory servers, Ben-Sahar's work was very heavily grounded in qualitative/quantitative studies of people's well-being but also engaged philosophically with the troubles of defining "well-being" itself. For example, who can even say someone is or isn't "happy?" Plenty of people report having happy/meaningful lives in circumstances that would be unbearable to us. I think this is the moment where less objective analysis is possible and philosophy takes over.

  • MiÅ¡a Hennin
    Miša Hennin Admin, MeisterLobster, EN Business Posts: 1,652 Community Admin
    edited May 2023

    @Andrew Lapidus I finished reading Sapiens last night and towards the end, there's a section on happiness and quantifying it. Harari questions whether all the changes over the years have made Sapiens happier and whether it's even possible for us to assess this. Sounds a bit similar to what you're saying!

Categories