The document discusses cognitive distortions and negative thought patterns that can impact happiness and provides recommendations for developing gratitude, mindfulness, and focusing on positive attributes in order to improve well-being. It also suggests taking action through deep breathing, challenging distortions, expressing gratitude, and maintaining a positive outlook for at least 21 days to potentially change one's perceptions and increase happiness.

1. “Sowhat if today
were the last day of
the rest of your life?”

2. Goals
 Thought provoking
 Informative
 Practical
 Fun

3. Skill 1
Find a quiet place in your mind.
Now take deep slow belly breaths.

4. “It appears that the way people perceive the
world is more important to happiness than
objective circumstances.”
Ed
Diener
Great wealth is not having great
possessions but few wants!

5. “To different minds, the same world is a
hell, and a heaven.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. The Nun Study (Danner et al., 2001)
 Only positive feelings predicted longevity
Age 85: 90% of most cheerful quartile alive;
34% of least cheerful quartile alive.
Age 94: 54% of most cheerful quartile alive;
11% of least cheerful quartile alive

7. Two Types of People in the World
 The Fault Finder
“The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise”
Henry David Thoreau
 Could lead to resignation
 The Merit-finder
“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous
in the common.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Could lead to detachment
 The need to respect reality

8. The positive elements of being a
Merit Finder
 Well-being (Thompson, 1985)
 Health
 Affleck et al. (1987)
 Bower (1988)
 King & Miner (2000)
 Longevity

10. Happiness
Obstacles

11. “We see what we look for and we miss much of
what we are not looking for even though it is
there... Our experience of the world is heavily
influenced by where we place our attention.”
Stavros and Torres

12. “As a man thinkth so shall he
be!”
Cognitive distortions
By David Burns

13. The Ten Cognitive Distortions
(David Burns)
1. All-or-nothing thinking 2. Magnifying or minimizing
4. Emotional reasoning
3. Over-generalization
6. ‘Should’ or ‘must’
5. Mental filter statements
4. Disqualifying the 8. Labeling
positive
10. Personalization and blame
5. Jumping to conclusions

14. Skill 2
 Identify ways in which you think that are
stress inducing or stress producing.
 Identify one action you can take to
promote new thoughts.

15. Actions:
Change the Way You think!
Seek actions that promote positive attitudes.
 Help others
 Exercise
 Be mindful
 Value self
 Become empowered - Reduce helplessness
What actions can you take?

16. Other Distortions
 By our nature we focus on the unique for
self preservation. For survival we focus
on:
Danger
Change
 The media filters these realities to
play on our inherent preferences
for the unique.

17. Media bias tends to:

 Magnify rather than report all
 Accentuates the negative
 It tends to be detached from the
greater reality
 Focuses on the negative 10%

19. We need to remember:
Focus creates reality.
Change your focus and you
change your reality.

20. Actions:
Change the focus of your attention.
to news, art and the media!
 Be more selective
 Look for good news
 Question the bad news
 Bring balance to your use of the media.

21. Seek positive media and art

22. Seek Good News

23. Happiness
Thoughts

24. A Matter of Interpretation
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Anne Harbison
“Things don’t necessarily happen for the
best, but some people are able to make the
best of things that happen.”

25. A Matter of Interpretation
“A pessimist sees the
difficulty in every
opportunity;
An optimist sees the
opportunity in every
difficulty.”
Winston Churchill

27. HOW MANY OF YOU
WORRY?

28. The Nature of Worry
Non productive
Concern
thought
Same Reoccurring
Concern thoughts
More
thought

29. “If I always think,
what I always thought,
I will always feel
what I always felt!”

30. Seek Action!
Breaking the cycle of worry can be a
conscious action or an unconscious
stroke of luck!
Either way an ACTION is required.

31. Acceptance is an action
YOUR LIFE IS MADE UP OF:
IMAGES + REALITIES
The Happiness Option

32. IF YOUR IMAGE OF LIFE AND REALITY
OF LIFE ARE NOT THE SAME!
IMAGE + REALITY =
YOU will be:

33. Options:
Make a change…
You have choices:

34. You can change your image to
match your reality!
 New Image + Reality = HAPPY
ACCEPT the
dog you have!

35. You can change your reality to
match your image!
Image + New Reality = HAPPY
Option find the NEW DOG
YOU REALLY WANT!

36. Consequences
 Optimistic
 Hopeful
 Excitement

37. DO YOU HAVE ANY DOGS IN YOUR
LIFE
YOU DON’T WANT?

38. More Actions:
Research on Gratitude
 Emmons and McCullough (2002)
 Four groups: gratitude, hassles, superior,
control
 Psychological and health benefits
 Physiological benefits (McCraty & Childre
2004)
 Benefits of trait gratefulness
 Maintaining freshness through mindful
focus

39. Learning to be Grateful
“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace
before the concert and the opera, and grace before the
play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book,
and grace before sketching, painting, swimming,
fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace
before I dip the pen in the ink.”
“Gratitude has produced the most purely joyful moments
that have been known to man.”
G. K. Chesterton

41. 21 days or your money back
Try It!
 Be mindful – stop, reflect, meditate
 Becoming a merit-finder
 Visualize it, feel it
 Chipping away negativity
 Nurture Gratitude
 Make a bucket list
 “Life begins when you do!”

42. Summary of Options
 Deep breathing
 Thought distortions
 Rituals
 Worry/Sleep
 Acceptance
 Gratitude
 21 days or your money back

43. Bibliography and Recommendations
• Danner, D., Snowdon, D., and Friesen, W. (2001).
Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Finding
from the nun study. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 80, 804-813.
• Emmons R. A. & McCullough M. E. (2004). The
Psychology of Gratitude. Oxford University Press.
• Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic Happiness. Free
Press.
• Brother David Steindl-Rast (1984). Gratefulness, the
Heart of Prayer. Paulist Press.
• Wiseman, R (2003). The Luck Factor. Miramax.
• Wiseman’s website: http://www.luckfactor.co.uk/