If we can accept as true that life circumstances are not the keys to happiness, we'll be greatly empowered to pursue happiness for ourselves.
Sonja LyubomirskyRead
People prone to joyful anticipation, skilled at obtaining pleasure from looking forward and imagining future happy events, are especially likely to be optimistic and to experience intense emotions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Anticipating positive future events can enhance one's optimism and emotional experiences.
In this quote, Sonja Lyubomirsky highlights the significance of joyful anticipation in fostering a positive emotional state. Individuals who can envision and look forward to happy moments are more likely to cultivate optimism and experience deeper emotional reactions, suggesting that our mindset about the future can shape our present happiness.
Themes
AnticipationHappinessOptimismFutureEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about cultivating a positive mindset.
More from Sonja Lyubomirsky
All quotes βIt is equally important to investigate wellness as it is to study misery.
Sonja LyubomirskyRead
Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it's not out there is that it's inside us.
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The combination of rumination and negative mood is toxic. Research shows that people who ruminate while sad or distraught are likely to feel besieged, powerless, self-critical, pessimistic, and generally negatively biased.
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Thus the key to happiness lies not in changing our genetic makeup (which is impossible) and not in changing our circumstances (i.e., seeking wealth or attractiveness or better colleagues, which is usually impractical), but in our daily intentional activities.
Sonja LyubomirskyRead
I prefer to think of the creation or construction of happiness, because research shows that it's in our power to fashion it for ourselves.
Sonja LyubomirskyRead
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