A life is described as happy or otherwise not primarily because of the actual events which occur during it, but because of the way they are arranged in the individual’s memory. Many life stories stop at an unhappy ending rather than continuing to the subsequent happy ending. In order to achieve a “happy” biography, the stories told by a person about his or her life must end with events which were experienced as positive, and also start with such events if possible. Like the following stories, “Life as a Sinus Curve” encourages the listener to structure biographical stories in such a way that they end with positive experiences of this kind.

If we imagine that life’s ups and downs resemble a sinus curve, we can draw this curve in two different ways. We can start the curve at its highest point, trace it down through its lowest point and then return to its highest point – or we can do the opposite, and draw the curve from its lowest point, through its highest point and back to its lowest point. In mathematical terms, it is exactly the same curve.