A review by statman
Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being by Martin Seligman

4.0

This is an interesting book that makes you think. It challenges some of the basic assumptions that we have about how to be happy and talks about positive psychology as a means to have more happiness. The author is a psychologist and shares the research that he and others have done to answer this question. I was struck by how much of this overlaps with the gospel of Jesus Christ - Seligman mentions things like having positive relationships, showing gratitude, showing kindness to others, having a sense of purpose and meaning as things that correlate with more happiness and a greater sense of well-being. He argues that it is not money that brings happiness - it will up to a point once basic necessities of life are met but happiness flattens out as income increases beyond that initial point. The middle part of the book got less interesting as he details the work that he had done with soldiers and others to help them become more resilient and happier.