Section
One – Brain and Meaning: The Foundation of Life
The first part of the book presents
the evolution of the human brain and surveys its various psychological
processes. It shows how the brain uses these natural processes and,
through the integrative process of interpretation, constructs its understanding
of reality. Interpretation indeed gives meaning to all events. These
chapters hence introduce the central question: How our interpretation
of everyday events can lead to unhappiness.
Section
Two – The Pitfalls of Thinking
The second part of the book focuses
on the limitations of our psychological processes. Those limitations
are called “cognitive distortions” and can cause numerous
unpleasant situations, such as poor self-esteem, interpersonal conflicts
or depression. The chapters in this second part introduce the relationships
between cognitive distortions, destructive beliefs and emotional states.
The chapters also provide numerous exercises to help readers identify
and suppress their own cognitive distortions.
Section
Three – On the Way to Happiness
We hold a fantastic tool inside
our brain: metacognition. This is the ability to understand our own
psychological processes and to control them. Unfortunately, we frequently
underuse our metacognitive capacities simply because we do not know
how they function. The third part of the book explains how metacognition
works and, especially, how to use it against cognitive distortions.
Several chapters provide detailed exercises and tables designed to help
readers become increasingly comfortable using metacognition to cope
with daily difficulties.
Section
Four – Four Seasons in Happiness
The
final part of the book provides several examples to contextualize cognitive
distortions and metacognition in everyday life. The goal is to help
readers accurately and promptly recognize their own cognitive distortions
and to make a proactive, effective use of metacognition against them
… to live four seasons in happiness.
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