But what is happiness really? What does a happy life constitute? Despite the advances of the modern world, why is unhappiness rising exponentially?
How can we choose to live in a state of happiness in our everyday lives despite the circumstances?
What is happiness?
According to the authors,"Happiness is a 'now-and-here' skill --
a by-product of a specific way of living your life."
Most of us would agree that happiness is something outside that happens to us. We like the pleasure it gives us yet it is fleeting. To maintain it's ecstasy we constantly look for the next high. And It never ends!
It never occurred to me that happiness is a skill. As with all skills, it too is learnable. And since it is learnable it can be a state we all can enjoy in our everyday lives if we choose to.
Happiness vs Unhappiness
The first three chapters of the book talk about the general perception of happiness and defined what it really is.The authors also enumerated the 9 common qualities of happy people and broke down the ingredients of unhappiness.
As much as I'd like to share all the information in this post, it would be more beneficial if you find it out yourself. The book is available here.
Gleanings from the Book
Here are 3 of my favorite thought-provoking thoughts from the book.- Happy people are willing to employ the power of choice and ownership while unhappy people opt for a sense of victimization.
- A life marked by ownership, planning, and priorities enjoys a huge happiness advantage. It gives personal meaning to the activity of living. It allows you the joy of completion and accomplishment. It limits waste.
- Happiness is work! Being miserable is infinitely easier than being happy. Because many of life’s moments carry the capacity to turn on us — if we allow them to. We are practically surrounded by unhappiness traps — inside ourselves and in our circumstances. So, if we don’t attune our minds and actions to counter these pitfalls every day, we will surely fall victim to many of them.
Want more? Check out The Happy Mind: A Simple Guide to Living a Happier Life Starting Today by Kevin Horsley and Louis Fourie, CLICK the image link below!
Book Review
It is a short read. It can be done in an hour or two. However, it dense with good ideas that make you ponder about the choices you'd made so far in life.For someone who has read a lot of personal development books, I would say this is more like a summary of all of those.
The 'Practical Guidelines, Thoughts, Suggestions & Reminders In the Interest of Happiness' chapter quickly covers a lot of areas like finance, health, personal responsibility.
I would say this is more like a bite-size read. Something you can go over a few pages in the morning for encouragement or a quick motivation boost before starting your day.
Don't forget to grab your copy here.
In Conclusion
Overall, I would rate The Happy Mind: A Simple Guide to Living a Happier Life Starting Today By Kevin Horsley and Louis Fourie 4/5 stars.P.S.: The book was sent by TCK Publishing for review but all thoughts published are mine.
Links: TCK Publishing: https://www.tckpublishing.com/
TCK Publishing Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tckpublishing/
Kevin Horsley’s official site: http://www.supermemory.co.za/
Kevin Horsley’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kevinhorsley