Both George Vaillant and Jonathan Haidt acknowledge an ancient truth: meaningful rituals reliably produce positive emotions. But the benefit lies less in the act itself than in context and intention.
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Consider this question: How should a person live in order to flourish? This is a big question, and the attempts to answer it are significant. A person can cultivate strengths, be grateful and forgiving, do unto others, and so on. Now consider another question: What do people who are flourishing do? This is also a big question, but quite different from previous one.