Chapter 5 “Satisfaction about the Past”
from Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:
●Explain how our relationship with the past influences overall well-being.
●Describe and apply four key practices—gratitude, forgiveness, healthy pride, and
positive reappraisal—to foster lasting satisfaction.
●Reflect on personal experiences and develop a plan to cultivate greater
contentment with their own life stories.
“When you think about the last year—or even
your entire life so far—what single word best
describes how you feel about your past?”
“Positive psychology doesn’t deny pain or
struggle. It asks: how can we view our past—
good or bad—in a way that supports happiness
today?”
Key points to include:
●Seligman’s three time orientations (past, present, future).
●Only the past is completely unchangeable—yet we can change our relationship to
it.
●Emotions about the past are thought-driven: how we interpret events shapes how we
feel.
Three Realms of Positive Emotion
(Past – Present – Future)
I. The Past: Satisfaction and Contentment
Core emotions: gratitude, serenity, pride, fulfillment, peace.
Key idea: Although the past can’t change, how we think about it can.
Practices: gratitude journaling, forgiveness, positive reappraisal.
II. The Present: Pleasure and Flow
Two modes:
Pleasures – immediate sensory delights (e.g., good food, music).
Flow/Engagement – deep absorption in a challenging activity where time
“flies.”
III. The Future: Hope and Optimism
●Emotions: hope, faith, confidence, trust.
●Involves setting goals, imagining positive outcomes, maintaining realistic
optimism
Thinking vs. Emotion
“Have you ever replayed a memory over and over—and noticed your mood change
depending on what you told yourself about it?”
Historical Views
Freud’s Perspective:
●Emotions drive thoughts.
●Unconscious feelings surface as dreams, slips of the tongue, or symptoms.
●Therapy aimed to uncover and release hidden emotion.
Cognitive Revolution (Aaron Beck & others):
●Thoughts drive emotions.
●Depressed mood comes from distorted thinking (“I’m worthless,” “Nothing will work
out”).
●Changing thought patterns changes feelings.
Modern Understanding:
●It’s bidirectional: thoughts influence emotions and emotions can influence
thoughts.
●But when we’re dealing with the past, our emotions are almost entirely thought-
driven because the events themselves are over.
Dwelling in the Past vs. Moving Forward (Why the past does not lock in your future)
“Do you think childhood experiences permanently fix who we become as adults? Why or
why not?”
