Stumbling on Happiness - Deepstash
How to Be Happy

Learn more about creativity with this collection

How to find purpose and meaning in life

How to cultivate gratitude

Techniques for managing negative thoughts

How to Be Happy

Discover 100 similar ideas in

It takes just

15 mins to read

How We Think About The Future

How We Think About The Future

  • Thinking about the future is pleasurable and sometimes we’d rather just think about it than get there. Some events are more pleasurable to imagine than to experience.
  • We like to daydream because the mere dream itself can be a joy.
  • The main reason why our brains simulate the future is so that we can control the experiences that we have. 
  • Our brain makes predictions incredibly quickly and about nearly everything in life. When our experiences don't match what our brain expects, we feel surprised.

97

2K reads

Our Ability To Imagine

The greatest ability of the human brain is to imagine, to see the world as it has never been before.

But imagination has three shortcomings:

  • Imagination tends to add and remove details, but people do not realize that key details may be fabricated or missing from the imagined scenario.
  • Imagined futures (and pasts) are more like the present than they actually will be (or were).
  • Imagination fails to realize that things will feel different once they actually happen—most notably, the psychological immune system will make bad things feel not so bad as they are imagined to feel.

87

1.36K reads

About Happiness

About Happiness

The word happiness is used to refer to three related things:

  • Emotional happiness
  • Moral happiness
  • Judgemental happiness

It’s hard to define emotional happiness, but when we feel it, we have no doubt about its reality and importance. Because we have a poor recollection of our experiences, we cannot objectively compare a previous state of happiness to a present state.

83

1.19K reads

Happiness Is Subjective

All claims of happiness are subjective. And are formed from the perspective of a single human being whose unique collection of past experiences serves as context.

Nobody really knows what happiness feels like for others, so that means we can’t say definitely whether someone in a situation that might seem bad to us is actually less happy than we are. In fact, it’s entirely possible they are just as happy or even more so.

Not knowing what we are missing is the very thing that allows us to be happy despite not having some other opportunity.

93

1.05K reads

The Experience-Stretching Hypothesis

Your experiential background can dramatically change your happiness levels.

Once you know something exists and have experienced pleasure from it, then your definition of happiness changes compared to what it was in the past.

81

1.1K reads

Rationalization

Rationalization

Negative events affect us but not as long as we expect them. When our psychological immune system is working, we are able to cope with any negative situation that comes our way. 

Explaining events robs them of their emotional impact because it makes the event seem more likely. This allows us to stop thinking about them.

82

889 reads

Wealth And Happiness

Wealth And Happiness

Wealth increases people’s happiness after it removes them from poverty and places them in the middle class.

After that, there is little relation between wealth and happiness.

86

949 reads

Experience And Awareness

Experience and awareness are closely related but not the same.

  • Experience refers to partaking in an event.
  • Awareness refers to being cognizant that the event is happening.

77

906 reads

The Law of Large Numbers

It happens when a phenomenon arises from very large numbers of something, but not smaller versions of it.

For example, billions of neurons lead to a conscious human brain, but two neurons are not a small version of consciousness.

79

868 reads

The Shortcomings of Psychology

The Shortcomings of Psychology

Psychological sciences will always be imperfect because we are trying to observe someone else's subjective experience, but it's the best we've got and the closest an outside observer can get to understanding the inside of someone else's mind.

77

845 reads

Presentism

Presentism

It refers to judging historical events or people by modern-day standards.

It is largely useless and unfair because you can't expect historical figures to make the same decisions as we do now because they lived in a very different context.

83

819 reads

CURATED BY

matclar

Diplomatic Services operational officer

View all Stumbling on Happiness Book Summaries

Ready for the next level?

Read Like a Pro

stash-superman-illustration

Explore the World’s

Best Ideas

200,000+ ideas on pretty much any topic. Created by the smartest people around & well-organized so you can explore at will.

An Idea for Everything

Explore the biggest library of insights. And we've infused it with powerful filtering tools so you can easily find what you need.

Knowledge Library

Powerful Saving & Organizational Tools

Save ideas for later reading, for personalized stashes, or for remembering it later.

# Personal Growth

Take Your Ideas

Anywhere

Organize your ideas & listen on the go. And with Pro, there are no limits.

Listen on the go

Just press play and we take care of the words.

Never worry about spotty connections

No Internet access? No problem. Within the mobile app, all your ideas are available, even when offline.

Get Organized with Stashes

Ideas for your next work project? Quotes that inspire you? Put them in the right place so you never lose them.

Join

2 Million Stashers

4.8

5,740 Reviews

App Store

4.7

72,690 Reviews

Google Play

samz905

Don’t look further if you love learning new things. A refreshing concept that provides quick ideas for busy thought leaders.

Shankul Varada

Best app ever! You heard it right. This app has helped me get back on my quest to get things done while equipping myself with knowledge everyday.

Sean Green

Great interesting short snippets of informative articles. Highly recommended to anyone who loves information and lacks patience.

Ashley Anthony

This app is LOADED with RELEVANT, HELPFUL, AND EDUCATIONAL material. It is creatively intellectual, yet minimal enough to not overstimulate and create a learning block. I am exceptionally impressed with this app!

Laetitia Berton

I have only been using it for a few days now, but I have found answers to questions I had never consciously formulated, or to problems I face everyday at work or at home. I wish I had found this earlier, highly recommended!

Giovanna Scalzone

Brilliant. It feels fresh and encouraging. So many interesting pieces of information that are just enough to absorb and apply. So happy I found this.

Jamyson Haug

Great for quick bits of information and interesting ideas around whatever topics you are interested in. Visually, it looks great as well.

Ghazala Begum

Even five minutes a day will improve your thinking. I've come across new ideas and learnt to improve existing ways to become more motivated, confident and happier.

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving & library

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Personalized recommendations

FAQ

Claim Your Limited Offer

Get Deepstash Pro

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates