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INGREDIENTS OF HAPPY AND HEALTHY LIVING
SELF-ACCEPTANCE
Healthy people choose to accept themselves unconditionally, rather than
measure or rate themselves or try to prove themselves.
RISK-TAKING
Emotionally healthy people choose to take risks and have a spirit of
adventure in trying to do what they want to do, without being foolhardy.
NON-UTOPIAN
We are unlikely to get everything we want or to avoid everything we find
painful. Healthy people do not waste time striving for the unattainable or
for unrealistic perfection.
HIGH FRUSTRATION TOLERANCE
Healthy people recognize that there are only two sorts of problems they
are likely to encounter: those they can do something about and those they
cannot. Once this discrimination has been made, the goal is to modify
those obnoxious conditions we can change, and to accept (or lump) those we
cannot change.
SELF-RESPONSIBILITY FOR DISTURBANCE
Rather than blaming others, the world, or fate for their distress, healthy
individuals accept a good deal of responsibility for their own thoughts,
feelings, and behavior.
SELF-INTEREST
Emotionally healthy people tend to put their own interests at least a
little above the interests of others. They sacrifice themselves to some
degree for those for whom they care, but not overwhelmingly or completely.
SOCIAL INTEREST
Most people choose to live in social groups, and to do so most comfortably
and happily, they would be wise to act morally, protect the rights of
others, and aid in the survival of the society in which we live.
SELF-DIRECTION
We would do well to cooperate with others, but it would be better for us
to assume primary responsibility for our own lives rather than to demand
or need most of our support or nurturance from others.
TOLERANCE
It is helpful to allow humans (oneself and others) the right to be wrong.
It is not appropriate to like obnoxious behavior, but it is not necessary
to damn oneself or others for acting badly.
FLEXIBILITY.
Healthy individuals tend to be flexible thinkers - as opposed to having
rigid, bigoted, or invariant rules, which tend to reduce happiness.
ACCEPTANCE OF UNCERTAINTY
We live in a fascinating world of probability and chance; absolute
certainties probably do not exist. The healthy individual strives for a
degree of order, but does not demand perfect certainty.
COMMITMENT
Most people tend to be happier when vitally absorbed in something outside
themselves. At least one strong creative interest and some important human
involvement seem to provide structure for a happy daily existence.
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