Positive Thinking: The Unlikely Stumbling Block in the Path to Happiness

For most of us, making a very deliberate effort to be happy can have the opposite effect. Being hyper aware of getting to  a state of contentedness likely exacerbates our own anxiety and unease. But what if we tried taking a negative path to happiness? Could that be the key? 

Writer Oliver Burkeman has been thinking a lot about this and writing about the happiness industry in his new book, The Antidote:Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.

He joined Kara Miller in Studio Three to  discuss how our innate pessimism  might serve us better in the happiness department than any wildly exuberant motivational speech or best-selling self-help book.

GUEST:

Oliver Burkeman, writer, journalist