本课几个重要内容:

观念或者说想法能够改变现实，当然也不只是单独的观念就可以创造，观念起到一个非常重要的作用。

怎么创造一个积极的环境：自己喜欢的图片、纪念品、艺术品、名言等挂在经常看到的地方；看书、听音乐、观看电影等等。

高的期望并不会导致失望。这里教授指出幸福是有一个基准线的，当碰到开心的事情或者不开心事情，幸福会上升或者降低，但一段时间之后，都会回来基准线。基准线是可以通过努力提高的，而最重要的是去面对现实。

怎么变得更加乐观：首先是行动；其次是想象胜利；最后是认知疗法。

1.Beliefs shape reality

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world."

                                                        ----The Buddha

"Treat a man as a he is and he will remain as he is.  Treat a man as he can and should be and he shall become as he can and should be."

----Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Running the mile in 4 minutes are the limitation of human, which is proved by doctors and scientists. Roger Bannister does it.  From that on many other atheists did it too.

2.Create a positive circumstance.

Create a powerful and positive circumstance, can we?  The answer is yes.

Priming is something can be done in the conscious and subconscious level. It means planting a seed, planting a belief, planting a word, or a picture in our mind, consciously or subconsciously. And how that really influence our behavior.

How to create?

Have pictures of people you love or places you love, even if you didn't see them, you see them.

Have pleasant object, whether it's memorabilia, whether it’s flowers or arts. Remind us everyday.

Quotes, a list of quotes.

Have your favorite books next to you. Listen to music. Mindfully listen to it.

Watch films that inspire you.

3. The Self-Help Movement

《think & grow rich》   By Napoleon Hill

“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve”                                                      ----Napoleon Hill

《the power of positive thinking》 By Norman Vincent Peale

“Have great hopes and dare to go all out for them. Have great dreams and dare to live them. Have tremendous expectations and believe in them.”                             

----Norman Vincent Peale

Our mind create reality, part of true. Mind plays a very important role. Co-create reality.

Rely on many other things.

4.How does beliefs work?

5.The brain does not like inconsistency

When the things that we think inside and the things happen Outside are not consistent, what we do?

Update schema.

Ignore/discard information

Actively seek confirmation.

Create new reality

6.The secret of success

Optimism, passion, hard work.

   “I am a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

----Thomas Jefferson

“There is no substitute for hard work.”                                                         

  ----Thomas Edison

7.Do high expectations lead to disappointment?

The answer is not!

Imagine first of all, our happiness has a basic line. When we meet something good, happiness will rise up, but it will go to the basic line after some time. The same will happen to bad thing, go down, and back to basic line. This is not only a good news but also a bad news to us, whatever good thing or bad thing we meet, we will recover. But in fact, we can rise the basic level of happiness. 

8.How to rise the basic line?

To cope, to put ourselves on the line.

We derive certain conclusions about ourselves, I must be brave, I must be a person who has high self-esteem; I must be a person who has a strong desire to succeed, and then we derive conclusions about ourselves in the same way, that we derive conclusion about others, that is self-perception theory.

Fail more often, will feel it is not that bad. Fail the way to success.

9.How to be optimistic:

1）Take action, just do it.

Actually work hard, Lead to success, more success than before. Start to believe ourselves. When we fail more, we will also have immune to it. 

"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily.  Not to dare is to lose oneself."

                                                 ----Soren Kierkegaard

2）Imagine success, Visualization.

Prepare, prepare, prepare, and then be spontaneous.

When brain sees something, some neurons are firing; when we close eyes and just imagine the same thing, the exact same neurons are firing. Brain did not know the exact thing and imagine one.

So the visualization, is to Fool the mind to believe this is the real thing. We have known the mind does not like inconsistency, when we imagine something, we will also change the reality to make inside and outside consistent.

Imagine the journey and destination, more success.

3）Cognitive therapy

The basic premise: Though drive emotion. Event -> Evaluation(though) -> Emotion

Restoring rationality. Stop the absurd though in your mind.

Where do I distort the reality?    "3M"

Magnifying, exaggerate something that happen.

Minimizing.  Tunnel vision.

Making up or fabricating,  making something from nothing.

Be real:

Is my conclusion tied to reality?

Is it rational? They are interconnected.

Am I ignoring something important?  Go well, or not go well.

What other important evidence that I have to take into consideration.