Via Brain Pickings, I managed to navigate my way to Dr. Martin Seligman’s 2004 TED talk on positive psychology (above). I’ve been spending a lot of time in this space, as I continue to see the importance of life satisfaction as a critical strategy to avoid overeating.
Seligman’s talk is particularly good for a couple of reasons. One, it points out that life satisfaction is not chiefly about what he calls “Hollywood happiness” … i.e., the pursuit of pleasure.
For Seligman, the three dimensions of life satisfaction include the pleasant life (pursuit of happiness or other positive states), the good life (pursuit of engagement, a la Csikszentmihalyi’s flow), and the meaningful life (using one’s strengths in service of others), where:
life satisfaction = positive emotion + engagement + meaning
He also points out that there is a big difference in relieving misery and building happiness. I think this is key for folks struggling with food issues. Eating real whole foods will certainly assist greatly with the pain of cravings, but it’s really just a foundation from which you can find your own path to happiness and satisfaction.
For more, visit Seligman’s Authentic Happiness page at Penn.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health & food policy. And cats!
Given that the First Noble Law of Buddhism is “Live Is Suffering” (yeah I know that’s not a good translation) aren’t you just starting down another path that is going to lead you to disappointment? I think if you just gave up on satisfaction altogether, and accepted that you will never find satisfaction, you would be better off. Otherwise you will continue to spend your life chasing the unattainable.
I don’t know which would be easier … finding a life I find satisfying or giving up on satisfaction altogether. Don’t think I’m zen enough for the latter.
This actually makes a lot of sense. I usually overeat for one of two reasons: to numb or to fill a void. Both happen when I am not engaged with my life, when I have tuned out. So to me it’s more about that one component in particular: life engagement. And I know from experience that when I am engaged with what’s going on around me then life is what nourishes my soul, not food.
Yes! If I could go back in time, I would so unlearn overeating as a coping strategy.