Through his books and appearances, Brother David Steindl-Rast has shared the blessings of the thankful heart with millions. In this uncommon writing journal, he invites us to find greater depth and richness amid our daily challenges and burdens. These inspiring pages will help to spark our own thankfulness, transform our "dismissible" moments into fresh delights, dance with both the light and dark, and merge with the natural world and with others. "The mystic is not a special kind of human being," writes Brother David, "rather, every human being is a special kind of mystic." No matter how ordinary we might feel, May Cause Happiness is sure to invoke the joy within us as it reveals portals to the extraordinary all around us.
A smart and funny book by a prominent Harvard psychologist, which uses groundbreaking research and (often hilarious) anecdotes to show us why we’re so lousy at predicting what will make us happy – and what we can do about it. Most of us spend our lives steering ourselves toward the best of all possible futures, only to find that tomorrow rarely turns out as we had expected. Why? As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains, when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagination play tricks when we try to look forward. Using cutting-edge research, much of it original, Gilbert shakes, cajoles, persuades, tricks and jokes us into accepting the fact that happiness is not really what or where we thought it was. Among the unexpected questions he poses: Why are conjoined twins no less happy than the general population? When you go out to eat, is it better to order your favourite dish every time, or to try something new? If Ingrid Bergman hadn’t gotten on the plane at the end of Casablanca, would she and Bogey have been better off? Smart, witty, accessible and laugh-out-loud funny, Stumbling on Happiness brilliantly describes all that science has to tell us about the uniquely human ability to envision the future, and how likely we are to enjoy it when we get there.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the motivational speaker, life-coach, and author of Spirit Junkie comes a practical and fun 40-day guidebook of subtle shifts for radical change and unlimited happiness. Are you ready to work miracles? Gabrielle Bernstein believes that simple, consistent shifts in our thinking and actions can lead to the miraculous in all aspects of our daily lives, including our relationships, finances, bodies, and self-image. In this inspiring guide, Gabrielle offers an exciting plan for releasing fear and allowing gratitude, forgiveness, and love to flow through us without fail. All of which, ultimately, will lead to breathtaking lives of abundance, acceptance, appreciation, and happiness. With May Cause Miracles, readers can expect incredible transformation in 40 powerful days: simply by adding up subtle shifts to create miraculous change. Praise for May Cause Miracles "Mistress of Miracles, Gabrielle Bernstein, offers the compelling message that anything is indeed possible with a few simple shifts that almost all of us can make. Recognizing that we are the authors of our own experience, Gabrielle leads us step by step through the thorny terrain of false beliefs, and helps us find our way home to our deepest truth so that we might manifest a life that is filled with light and love." —Katherine Woodward Thomas, bestselling author of Calling in “The One”and co-leader of the Feminine Power Global Community
Utilizing sophisticated methodology and three decades of research by the world's leading expert on happiness, Happiness challenges the present thinking of the causes and consequences of happiness and redefines our modern notions of happiness. shares the results of three decades of research on our notions of happiness covers the most important advances in our understanding of happiness offers readers unparalleled access to the world's leading experts on happiness provides "real world" examples that will resonate with general readers as well as scholars Winner of the 2008 PSP Prose Award for Excellence in Psychology, Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers
With New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Hanson's four steps, you can counterbalance your brain's negativity bias and learn to hardwire happiness in only a few minutes each day. Why is it easier to ruminate over hurt feelings than it is to bask in the warmth of being appreciated? Because your brain evolved to learn quickly from bad experiences and slowly from good ones, but you can change this. Life isn’t easy, and having a brain wired to take in the bad and ignore the good makes us worried, irritated, and stressed, instead of confident, secure, and happy. But each day is filled with opportunities to build inner strengths and Dr. Rick Hanson, an acclaimed clinical psychologist, shows what you can do to override the brain’s default pessimism. Hardwiring Happiness lays out a simple method that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new neural structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace. You’ll learn to see through the lies your brain tells you. Dr. Hanson’s four steps build strengths into your brain to make contentment and a powerful sense of resilience the new normal. In just minutes a day, you can transform your brain into a refuge and power center of calm and happiness.
Explains how and why money that is wisely spent can promote a healthier, happier, more satisfactory life, with guidelines on how to reevaluate one's priorities and reallocate one's wealth to buy more time and peace of mind.
The Sunday Times Bestseller 'Really brilliant and just crammed with wisdom and insight. It will genuinely make a difference to me and the way I think about myself.' Stephen Fry ___ Everyone says they want to be happy. But that's much more easily said than done. What does being happy actually mean? And how do you even know when you feel it? In Happy Derren Brown explores changing concepts of happiness - from the surprisingly modern wisdom of the Stoics and Epicureans in classical times right up until today, when the self-help industry has attempted to claim happiness as its own. He shows how many of self-help's suggested routes to happiness and success - such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals - can be disastrous to follow and, indeed, actually cause anxiety. Happy aims to reclaim happiness and to enable us to appreciate the good things in life, in all their transient glory. By taking control of the stories we tell ourselves, by remembering that 'everything's fine' even when it might not feel that way, we can allow ourselves to flourish and to live more happily. ___ What readers are saying: ***** 'Immensely positive and life-affirming' ***** 'This is the blue print to a good life' ***** 'Thought provoking and potentially life-changing.'
It’s not just big choices that can radically change our lives—sometimes it’s the small ones. Activating Happiness offers powerful, evidence-based strategies to help you conquer low motivation, nix negative moods, and defeat depression by actively making positive choices in small, everyday moments. If you have depression or just suffer from low mood and lack of motivation, you know that your life isn’t going to change with one grand, sweeping gesture. But you can make important decisions every day—whether it’s getting off the couch and going for a walk, signing up for a course in pottery or screenwriting, or just setting aside some time to meet and chat with a good friend over coffee. These little things won’t change your life all at once. But over time, they will shape the way you live and see the world and keep you on a path to wellness. In Activating Happiness, you’ll find solid strategies based in behavioral activation and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help you break the cycle of avoidance, guilt, shame, and hopelessness that can take hold when you’re feeling your lowest. Using this guide, you’ll find little, doable ways to “show up” to your life, get the ball rolling, and start really feeling better, instead of just reassuring others. You’ll learn to set healthy goals for your body like eating and sleeping well, as well as healthy goals for your mind. Most importantly, you’ll discover how to view your life through the lens of your own deepest values, which will spark a commitment to real, lasting change. The best thing about change is that you can start anywhere. By building a life—moment by moment—of rewarding behaviors that correspond to your values, you have the recipe for getting and staying well at your fingertips. This book will guide your way.
There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. We all want more money, but as societies become richer, they do not become happier. This is not speculation: It's the story told by countless pieces of scientific research. We now have sophisticated ways of measuring how happy people are, and all the evidence shows that on average people have grown no happier in the last fifty years, even as average incomes have more than doubled. The central question the great economist Richard Layard asks in Happiness is this: If we really wanted to be happier, what would we do differently? First we'd have to see clearly what conditions generate happiness and then bend all our efforts toward producing them. That is what this book is about-the causes of happiness and the means we have to effect it. Until recently there was too little evidence to give a good answer to this essential question, but, Layard shows us, thanks to the integrated insights of psychology, sociology, applied economics, and other fields, we can now reach some firm conclusions, conclusions that will surprise you. Happiness is an illuminating road map, grounded in hard research, to a better, happier life for us all.
Discover the thirty-day -ing Equation to sharpen your intuitive senses and activate untapped inspirations! Lots of people are selling "happiness" these days, but in her hip self-transformation book, Add More -ing to Your Life, motivational speaker and life coach Gabrielle Bernstein truly shows you how to make happiness a way of life by accessing your -ing—your Inner Guide. In her thirty-day -ing Equation, Gabrielle will show you how to bulldoze negative thought patterns and create personal change through positive affirmations, physical activity, and visualization meditations. Get prepared to change your life by accessing a state of "flow" to help you connect with your -ing. You'll release your negativity and choose happiness!
