The Happiness Track summary

Many people think stress is a necessary fuel to stoke certain behaviors, such as ambition or personal achievement. Let’s examine this assumption to see if it holds water.

There are two kinds of stress: the good, short-term kind and the bad, long-term kind.

Have you ever been told to “just relax” when you’re stressed out? It probably didn’t feel very useful. Taking a bath or going for a walk, on the other hand, often helps to calm frayed nerves.

So what do these actions tell us about the nature of stress?

The British wartime slogan, “Keep Calm and Carry On,” has become a popular quote on T-shirts, coffee mugs and other items in recent years. But how does one keep calm in reality?

This is where simple breathing exercises come into play. Doing so regularly helps you essentially rewire your nervous system.

Have you ever felt “burnt out” from a job? In the working world, this has become a widespread phenomenon, and it is growing. What exactly causes burnout?

There are three main ways in which you can exhaust your mind.

How do you feel when you’re doing absolutely nothing? Do you feel bad, or guilty? Yet idleness might be just the medicine your body and soul needs.

Contrary to the popular belief that you have to be focused to come up with innovative ideas, not concentrating might be what you need to do.

When a friend tries something new and fails, what do you do? It’s likely you choose not to criticize her or tell her to give up. Yet this is exactly what many of us do to ourselves.

Being your own worst critic can be good in small doses, but being too self-critical is counterproductive.

For many, Thanksgiving is a day of gratitude and gorging on traditional dishes. Roasted turkey and pumpkin pie aren’t bad in moderation, of course. But gratitude is a dish we should always eat more of.

Research shows that only around half the people in the United States regularly show gratitude to one another. As the benefits of showing gratitude are so overwhelming, it’s surprising we don’t express thanks more often. In fact, expressing gratitude is possibly the greatest act of self-compassion there is.

Growing up, you may have been told that you need to look out for yourself before anyone else. How much truth does this instruction hold?

Focusing too much on yourself can have negative effects. It makes you a poorer judge of people, generally less liked by others and can even make you sick.