HAPPY FOREVER

Submitted by ub on

Questions of personality have vexed mankind from the dawn of person-hood: Can people change?

How do others perceive me? What is the difference between normal and pathological behavior?

One's personality is so pervasive and all-important that it presents a clinical paradox of sorts: it is hard to assess our own personality, and impossible to overlook that of others.

Research on how to increase positive moods and capitalize on our strengths have proliferated in recent years. Thanks to the positive psychology movement, it has shed light on ongoing insights into personality, mood, and cognition.

Not everyone is born with a sunny disposition, but experts agree we can all learn how to bring more meaning and satisfaction into our lives.

When people have power they don't feel the need to shift how they present themselves in different situations or contexts. In one way this is a good thing, because it helps a person feel and behave more authentically in all different situations.

In contrast, lacking power means one has to be strategic in the way one presents the self, changing from context-to-context. While self-presentation concerns are probably adaptive in some situations, it is easy to see how changing one's self all the time can contribute to negative feelings like "I can't be my true self." or "People don't really know me".

STAY POSITIVE AND HARNESS ALL THE POWER WITHIN, YOU TOO ARE FREE TO BE HAPPY.

http://www.psychologytoday.com