Activating Happiness


Book Description

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.




Activating Happiness


Book Description

It's not just the big choices we make that can radically change our lives-sometimes it's the small ones. Offering a powerful blend of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and behavioral activation strategies, Activating Happiness teaches readers how to conquer depression and low mood by actively making positive choices in small, everyday moments. These small changes will help reignite motivation, improve mood, and help readers get unstuck so they can connect with what they value most.




The Happiness Advantage


Book Description

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • An engaging, deeply researched guide to flourishing in a world of increasing stress and negativity—the inspiration for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time “Powerful [and] charming . . . A book for just about anyone . . . The philosophies in this book are easily the best wire frames to build a happy and successful life.”—Medium Happiness is not the belief that we don’t need to change; it is the realization that we can. Our most commonly held formula for success is broken. Conventional wisdom holds that once we succeed, we’ll be happy; that once we get that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But the science reveals this formula to be backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. Research shows that happy employees are more productive, more creative, and better problem solvers than their unhappy peers. And positive people are significantly healthier and less stressed and enjoy deeper social interaction than the less positive people around them. Drawing on original research—including one of the largest studies of happiness ever conducted—and work in boardrooms and classrooms across forty-two countries, Shawn Achor shows us how to rewire our brains for positivity and optimism to reap the happiness advantage in our lives, our careers, and even our health. His strategies include: • The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility so we can see and seize opportunities all around us • Social Investment: how to earn the dividends of a strong social support network • The Ripple Effect: how to spread positive change within our teams, companies, and families By turns fascinating, hopeful, and timely, The Happiness Advantage reveals how small shifts in our mind-set and habits can produce big gains at work, at home, and elsewhere.




The Happiness Track


Book Description

Everyone wants happiness and success, yet the pursuit of both has never been more elusive. As work and personal demands rise, we try to keep up by juggling everything better, moving faster, and doing more. While we might succeed in the short term, this approach comes at a high cost in the long term: it hurts our well-being, our relationships, and—paradoxically—our productivity. In this life-changing book, Emma Seppälä explains that the reason we are burning ourselves out is that we fall for outdated theories of success. We are taught that getting ahead means doing everything that’s thrown at us with razor-sharp focus and iron discipline, that success depends on our drive and talents, and that achievement cannot happen without stress. The Happiness Track demolishes these counterproductive theories. Drawing on the latest scientific research on happiness, resilience, willpower, compassion, positive stress, creativity, and mindfulness, Seppälä demonstrates that being happy is the most productive thing we can do to thrive—whether at work or at home. She shares practical strategies for applying these scientific findings to our daily lives. A fulfilling, successful, and anxiety-free life is within your reach. The Happiness Track will show you the way. Happiness Is the Fast Track to Success “Are you a hard-driving, multitasking, conscientiously striving professional? Then your ideas about success are probably all wrong—and you need The Happiness Track, Dr. Emma Seppälä’s investigation into the counter-intuitive factors that create career and life success. The best news of all? All these skills are well within your grasp.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind “Emma Seppälä convinces us that reconfiguring our brain for happiness can change the way our lives unfold and the way we approach success. A worthwhile read for anyone who wants to achieve a successful and fulfilling life.”—Amy Cuddy, professor at Harvard Business School and author of Presence “Backed by extensive research in psychology and neuroscience, The Happiness Track offers a wealth of insight on changing how we approach our work, our personal lives, and our relationships. It’s a carefully researched, engaging look at how to improve ourselves without losing our authenticity or our sanity.”—Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take and Originals “Through her research-backed strategies, Emma Seppälä teaches us not only how to thrive in our chosen profession, but how to stay true to ourselves—and enjoy every moment of the process.”—Susan Cain, cofounder of Quiet Revolution and New York Times bestselling author of Quiet “For decades we’ve been tied to theories of success that have burned us out and driven us into the ground—because we don’t know of any alternatives. The Happiness Track provides us with a highly readable, science-backed solution to obtaining sustainable success, the sort of success we are all really striving for, that leaves us fulfilled, happy, and healthy.”—Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., scientific director at the Imagination Institute at the University of Pennsylvania




Outer Order, Inner Calm


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this lovely, easy-to-use illustrated guide to decluttering, the beloved author of The Happiness Project shows us how to take control of our stuff—and, by extension, our lives. Gretchen Rubin knows firsthand that creating order can make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. But for most of us, a rigid, one-size-fits-all solution doesn't work. When we tailor our approach to suit our own particular challenges and habits, we can find inner calm. With a sense of fun, and a clear idea of what’s realistic for most people, Rubin suggests dozens of manageable tips and tricks for creating a more serene, orderly environment, including: • Never label anything “miscellaneous.” • Ask yourself, “Do I need more than one?” • Don’t aim for minimalism. • Remember: If you can’t retrieve it, you won’t use it. • Stay current with a child’s interests. • Beware the urge to “procrasticlear.” By getting rid of things we don’t use, don’t need, or don’t love, we free our minds (and our shelves) for what we truly value.




Growing Happy Kids


Book Description

Every parent wants his or her child to be happy and grow into a productive, fulfilled adult . . . and according to parenting expert Maureen Healy, the secret to that success is in providing a foundation of inner confidence. Parents and teachers know that confidence and inner strength are important attributes, but in an era where self-worth is often measured by possessions and attractiveness, most have no idea how to model true inner confidence for their kids or how to help them cultivate it. Real power—or inner confidence—is necessary to overcome obstacles, pursue our unique dreams, and be truly happy. Maureen Healy, a spiritual teacher with twenty years of experience as a child development expert, literally traveled the world from the Bronx to the base of the Himalayas to learn the connection between inner confidence and lasting happiness, and she shares that wealth of knowledge in Growing Happy Kids. Combining her Buddhist training, her background in child psychology, and the latest scientific research, Maureen shares her revolutionary model that defines inner confidence and cultivates a child's sense of optimism and connection. She explores each part of her system, which she called The Five Building Blocks of Confidence, with the mind of a scientist, yet the softness of a real parent who wants to raise strong, happy children. By using those building blocks—biology, beliefs, emotions, social, and spiritual—parents, teachers, and anyone who touches the life of a child can gain the skills necessary to foster happy kids who are strong, self-reliant, and confident. "In Growing Happy Kids, Maureen Healy has given us rich and valuable tools to assist us in honoring and supporting our children in building their self-confidence and helping them become happier. It is a MUST read for all parents, educators, and people who care." —Edwene Gaines, author of The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity "Drawing on her own extensive research and experience, Maureen Healy wisely leads parents and caregivers into the heart of awakening and activating the innate confidence with which every child is born. This is a book that parents will read over and over again." —Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul's Potential




The Charge


Book Description

From the author of the #1 "New York Times" bestseller "The Millionaire Messenger," an electrifying book that provides the keys to motivation to satisfy the most essential creative and intellectual needs.




Dot Complicated


Book Description

With Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Wired Lives, new media pioneer Randi Zuckerberg offers an entertaining and essential guide to understanding how technology and social media influence and inform our lives online and off. Zuckerberg has been on the frontline of the social media movement since Facebook’s early days and her following six years as a marketing executive for the company. Her part memoir, part how-to manual addresses issues of privacy, online presence, networking, etiquette, and the future of social change.




Happiness is Depressing


Book Description

There is evidence that our search for happiness can trigger depressive feelings. Why? Striving for something as elusive and unattainable as happiness causes chronic (unconscious) disappointment. In this book you will learn what happiness actually means and how dissatisfaction can set the stage for the dark mindset we call depression. We do not know as much as we think about how one develops a depressive mindset, nor how to achieve a lasting sense of happiness. Happiness is Depressing is a coaching handbook to give you a meta-perspective on these topics and to coach you from the darkness to zest for life. Ultimately this is the story of how the experience of a coach leads to the investigation and transformation of depression. Happiness is Depressing answers two main questions: 1. How do you move from feeling depressed to zest for life? 2. How can the coaching approach create effective models for profound change with depression? Who should read this book, and why? Do you feel down? Are you experiencing pessimistic and depressive thoughts? Do you feel down, lonely or overwhelmed? Is feeling happy difficult for you? This book offers guidance, support and coaches you to zest for life. Are you a coach or therapist? Happiness is Depressing is also a manual for coaches and therapists. It is written from the perspective of the client and the coach, providing you with essential knowledge about the mindset of depression. This book offers the means to shape zest for life for depressed and other clients. You can use the new techniques directly in your daily practices. Are you a relative of a depressed loved one? You will want to read this book because it will give ideas for how to support your loved one.




The Happiness Formula


Book Description

Don’t worry, be happy. It’s easier said than done! But science has shown that we can live a more joyful life—and quickly go from feeling miserable to marvelous—by changing our habits. This book investigates the latest breakthroughs in positive psychology and examines the most effective ways to increases a reader’s sense of satisfaction with life. From exploring the benefits of the mind-body connection and the power of gratitude to the surprising ways that money, parenting and relationships can impact happiness, this publication will give readers the essential skills to finding peace—and make them appreciate the life they already have.