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The fast track to a life well lived is feeling grateful - David DeSteno | Aeon Ideas
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If virtue leads to a life well lived
How do we become virtuous?
Virtue comes from living an examined life - one where deep deliberation leads to holding on to noble qualities such as honesty and generosity, regardless of how difficult it can be to do them.
While one can take the time to pursue virtue deliberately, Cicero states that by cultivating gratitude, other virtues will grow.
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The link between gratitude and self-control
Gratitude encourages people to repay debts. The more gratitude people feel toward those who have helped them, the more diligently they will work to return the favour.
When you want to repay someone you have to forgo your own immediate needs in service of someone else. This action boils down to self-control.
For instance, when you are grateful that a friend helped you to move to a new apartment, you are more likely to return the favor, even if you have to forgo something you looked forward to.
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Gratitude enhances honesty
In a study published in Psychological Science, participants were presented with temptation. Those who recalled a time when they felt grateful were more likely to act in an honest manner than those who described a time when they felt happy or neutral.
People who feel grateful are more likely to help others, divide their profits and be loyal even at a cost to themselves.
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Back to The Simple Life
Due to an increasingly complicated and hyper-connected world, a lot of people are revisiting and paying attention to the concept of a simple life.
From Buddha to Socrates and contemporaries l...
Simple Was Boring
In many prosperous, capitalist societies where consumerism, big pharma and supermarket culture is rampant, leading a quiet, simple life is considered boring.
Big Brands continue to persuade everyone to aspire for more and most people fall for that.
Benefits of Simple Living
- Millennials are showing interest in simple living, in pre-consumerist and pre-industrial ways.
- It seems like a moral way to live and it makes you into a better person.
- The struggle of living simple and frugal builds up new skill-sets, a certain independence and better health of the mind and body, by being close to nature.
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Aristotle gave us an alternative conception of happiness
It cannot be acquired by pleasurable experiences but only by identifying and realizing our own potential, moral and creative, in our specific environments, with our particular family, friends and colleagues, and helping others to do so.
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Positive Thinking
- Recall positive life events.
- Help others and remind yourself that you can impact the world and feel happier.
- Practice mindfulness that makes you more pres...
Creating Purpose
Living a life with meaning and purpose is key to improving your psychological well-being. Your purpose doesn’t necessarily have to involve changing the world or devoting yourself to helping others.
If you lack a purpose, think about the legacy you’d like to leave behind and establish some objectives that can help you reach those goals.
Psychological Well-Being
it is the combination of feeling good and functioning effectively. People with high psychological well-being report feeling capable, well-supported, and satisfied with life, besides living longer and healthier lives.
Researchers found that the absence of distress doesn’t necessarily correlate with high psychological well-being, but it does with having one’s basic needs met.