book-notes

Las gafas de la felicidad

This book describes why we are happy or unhappy not by our own circumstances, but by the interpretation that we make out of them.

The book is full of stories from Buddhist books and other people lives.

He recommends the cognitive therapy

Inspiring stories

The author includes the stories of happy people that live extraordinary lives thanks to their positive/strong mindset:

• A reporter who takes care of an orphanage in india
• A traveler who lives many adventures
• A nun who decides to live in a poor village in chile
• A successful person who suffers a stroke and losses all his mobility, and decides to write a book by blinking his only good eye: La mariposa y la Escafandra.

The crazy monkey mind

The crazy monkey goes from branch to branch because he never finds a branch that he likes.

Some of us are like that monkey in the sense that we are never happy with the present moment.

Rafael tells a Buddhist story of a little frightened mouse who is really afraid of cats. One day a magician appears and decides to turn it into a cat. Soon, the cat starts to be afraid of dogs, so the magician, starting to feel annoyed turns him into a dog. However, a few days later the new dog finds out about a big tiger nearby, so the magician quite annoyed already turns him into a tiger, the king of the jungle. The new tiger happiness did not last long either, as he started to be worried about a human hunter. Finally, the magician turns him back into mouse and tells him: That’s it, i turned you into a mouse and won’t transform you again, later he tells him: Dear friend, you have to learn how to be happy being a mouse first, otherwise nothing will make you happy

4. The method

The cognitive therapy model to change behavior consists of getting rid of the irrational beliefs that we have in our minds and sabotage us.

• it’s terrible that this happens to be
• I cannot take it anymore
• The world does not work well

Rafael’s method of turning irrational beliefs into rational beliefs

• First, you need to identify unhappy moments and find out the root cause of distress
• Second, we unmask that logic with opposite arguments
• Finally we reframe them with rational belief that will make us feel better

4. Rational visualizations

Many professional players leverage visualizations to prepare their minds to achieving some goals

There are 2 main types of visualization

• Full happy life visualization. For example we want to learn to live in solutide so you visualize yourself enjoying your single life.
• See your self calm in a stressful situation. If you are worried about anything, like going to the dentist, you can visualize yourself living through tha situation in a calm way.

The full life visualization

1. Connect with good times. Remember a time where you felt happy and strong (physically and mentally), as you walk on the street you feel great being yourself
2. Be in harmony with your current life situation