A rational approach to happiness

Professor Michael Bernard is very clear when he says we can increase the likelihood of leading a happy life. “We all need to be managers of our own personal happiness. If we just wait around for happiness to happen, it probably won’t.”

Professor Bernard’s new book, Rationality and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Legacy of Albert Ellis (Wiley-Blackwell), draws on the work of influential psychotherapist Albert Ellis to demonstrate what he describes as, “the potential to use rationality to take charge of one’s search for personal happiness”.

While Albert Ellis is recognised as one of the world’s most popular and significant figures in the fields of counselling and psychotherapy, Professor Bernard recognised that Ellis’s contribution to the development of human happiness has, until now, largely gone unrecognised.

“I wrote the book to bring to the attention of the positive psychology field and the general public, how rationality can enhance our happiness,” he says.

According to Professor Bernard, what blocks our happiness are irrational beliefs about why something has happened, which lead to dysfunctional negative responses, such as procrastination, becoming angry or becoming depressed. On the other hand, rationality is characterised by positive emotions such as pleasure, joy and excitement, an absence of dysfunctional negative emotions, a determination to solve life’s problems and goal-directed behaviour.

“Irrational beliefs are not based on fact and therefore distort reality,” Professor Bernard explains. “Helping people recognise irrational thoughts is the first step towards thinking more rationally, and therefore becoming happier.”

While cautioning that rationality does not guarantee lifelong happiness, Professor Bernard says that putting into action 11 “timeless” rational principles of living will encourage happiness. A selection of these principles include:

Self-interest: Rather than spending all of your time meeting the needs of others, make a point of spending some of your time doing things you find interesting and enjoyable.

Social interest: In exploring your own interests, make sure your actions do not hurt others or interfere with their rights. Treat others with care and respect and volunteer help without expecting anything in return.

Self-direction: Actively decide to pur- sue activities that bring you happiness and, as much as possible, eliminate those that encourage unhappiness.

Self-acceptance: Constantly putting yourself down blocks your ability to be happy. Accepting yourself as a fallible human being and recognising the difference between disliking your behaviour and disliking yourself will make you less prone to unhappiness and more able to take risks.

Commitment to creative, absorbing activities and pursuits: Make a real effort to discover activities that are fun and exciting and, when practised over an extended period, result in fulfilment. When you discover what you are interested in, commit time and energy to it.

Professor Bernard explains that some of us already have well-developed rational sides; others need to have their rationality developed more fully.

“We are all able to think rationally,” he says. “A great first step is to make a conscious decision to become an active pursuer of new, creative and absorbing pursuits that push you out of your comfort zone.”

Professor Bernard is a Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. An internationally recognised expert in applying rational emotive behaviour therapy to children, he is also the founder of the You Can Do It! Education program, which promotes the positive social, emotional and academic outcomes of young people.