Summary
Scott Haas: The Japanese Art of Happy Living Through Acceptance and Empathy
In the book Japanese Art of Happy Living clinical psychologist and author Scott Haas deals with finding peace and contentment in everyday life tormented by numerous worries. For this purpose, he explained in detail to the readers the Japanese principle ukeireru - the art of accepting people and situations that we encounter on a daily basis. Practicing this ancient Japanese principle can go a long way in alleviating our daily anxiety, stress, tension and anger, and thus profoundly improving every aspect of our lives. By accepting the fact that our position in the world depends on our relationships with family, community and nature, we realize that our happiness also depends on the happiness of others.
Practicing ukeirera, we learn how to pause for a moment and - before we act - accept the situations we face. In this way, we will avoid hasty and thoughtless reactions and base our behavior on thoughtful calmness. Because when we are calm, we can choose what to do, and whether to do anything at all. Ukeireru is a unique skill with which we balance our own mindset and bring peace into our lives.
Dr. Scott Haas is a clinical psychologist and author of four books, the most famous of which is Why Be Happy? The Japanese Way of Acceptance, 2020. He graduated from the University of Detroit and received his doctorate after an internship at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center at Harvard Medical School. He is the winner of the James Beard Foundation's annual award, which is given to writers and journalists in the USA for the best reporting. He lives and works between Cambridge (USA), Japan and Switzerland.
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