At last, psychology gets serious about glee, fun, and happiness. Martin Seligman has given us a gift-a practical map for the perennial quest for a flourishing life.

I think the smartest thing for people to do to manage very distressing emotions is to take a medication if it helps, but don't do only that. You also need to train your mind.

I don't think focus is in itself ever a bad thing. But focus of the wrong kind, or managed poorly, can be.

When we focus on others, our world expands.

The more time you put into practicing, then, the greater the payoff.

Emotional self-control is NOT the same as overcontrol, the stifling of all feeling and spontaneity....when such emotional suppression is chronic, it can impair thinking, hamper intellectual performance and interfere with smooth social interaction. By contrast, emotional competence implies we have a choice as to how we express our feelings.

But the rational mind usually doesn't decide what emotions we "should" have !