Contentment Magazine January 2017 | Page 16

BALANCE ~ BOOK REVIEW happy STATE OF MIND REVIEW BY REBECCA SPIESS THIS BOOK IS ABOUT... Helping people find and implement tools that increase happiness long-term. All of Lyubomirsky’s methods and arguments are firmly backed up by scientific studies, and she offers 12 commonsense “Happiness Ac tivities” based on these findings. The book also includes easyto-use assessments to find activities best suited for readers’ needs and to measure happiness levels. THIS BOOK LENGTH IS.... Even at 304 pages, this book is a fast read that can be completed in a few weeks. The medium-sized font adds to readability. always circles back to the facts, making this book a step up from others in the self-help genre. MY FAVORITE QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK IS... “Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it’s not out there is that it’s inside us. As banal and cliched as this might sound, happiness, more than anything, is a state of mind, a way of perceiving and approaching ourselves and the world in which we reside.” WHAT PEOPLE CAN LEARN FROM THIS BOOK IS... This book can teach readers a lot about the true keys to happiness. As Lyubomirsky notes, most people have THIS BOOK IS GOOD TO READ IF ... no idea what actually leads to lasting You’re a self-help skeptic who is looking happiness. Beauty, wealth, and fame for a happier, more fulfilling life. I pale in comparison to the impact of personally fall into this category. I things like meaningful relationships and dislike self-help books for their widelygratitude. She also introduces readers appealing and calculatingly empty, easy to the “Happiness Pie Chart,” where fixes. Lyubomirsky offers a work far from 50 percent of happiness is inherited, this, and even addresses the inherent 10 percent is circumstantial, and 40 “corniness” of some of the methods. She percent is directly in our control.