The Book of Happiness by Heather Summers and Anne Watson

Is having a house made of gold, a happiness? Or is having a small hut with golden people to live with, a happiness? Happiness might be anything. It lies in different ways or things for different person. For a baby, being in its mother’s arms might be happiness whereas for an old man a call from his distant son/daughter might be happiness. Eating kabab might be happiness for a person whereas the thrown away bones are happiness to a street dog. Coming first might be happiness for few students where as just getting pass marks might be happiness for others. The happiness differs from individual to individual. But the true happiness is found only in you. Yes You. As the author of the beautiful book “The Book of happiness” describes, “Happiness doesn’t come out from nowhere. The reality is you can create your own happiness by choosing what you do, what you say, where you go, what you do, what you think and what you listen to”. Live each and every moment of your life like the last adventure of your life, and then your life will be filled with never ending happiness. 

This beautiful book called “The Book of Happiness” gives the brilliant ideas on how to transform one’s life. Sounds simple yet it gives lot more to the life. The authors of the book Heather Summers and Anne Watson came up with interesting findings which is common across the age are that, a good health has no affect on a person’s health and it doesn’t lead to happiness. But certainly, the poor health leads to unhappiness.

Happiness doesn’t always mean a positive happiness. It shifts as per the situations. For instance, comparing ourselves to others affects our happiness. Generally, people tend to compare themselves with others. They look at others in what they have and this will end up being unhappy and discontent.

Happiness can be different for different people as mentioned earlier above. For few, money brings pleasure. But for few others, it doesn’t give any happiness. It is rightly said that money cannot bring you happiness.

Therefore, here I am to give some simple ways to be happy after going through this book. We see that the world is stressed. There is no stop for worries. People are frustrated and are chasing behind the money. The world needs peace. And for this, happiness is required. There are few questions to be asked to for self understanding as to how happy you are. Are you happy in where you live and work? Do you like to learn new things? When things go wrong, do you remember any happy times? Do you like the way you are? Do you make use of your talents that you have? Do you cherish every moment that fill your life? Questions like this will let one know where he/she stands. One thing that everyone has to accept is there is no end for the problems.

The world is the stage and we are merely the players. We come, stay and go. We have our entries and exits. Being happy will lead us to live the life to the fullest. The author in the book says that be happy for whatever one has in their life. Happiness can be found in small things. Happiness is a skill. It need not be inherited. The habit of learning happiness is to behave in a cheerful way and if you do this consistently, you will genuinely feel happy.  

Happiness and sadness are meant for free. Sometimes, life becomes so serious that we forget to laugh. There is always negativity ruling over positiveness. So continue laughing or smiling even if the day goes bad. Because it is the only way to make your lives go easier.

Take things positively. If something goes wrong continuously, take it as a challenge. See it in a different way and try to find the solution. Misery will not help to solve the problem. It is only your confidence, hope and smile (happiness) that you carry will help you to resolve the problem.

Spreading smiles and happiness across, is the most beautiful thing one can do. You can make others happy by supporting them when they lose hopes, or encouraging them when they try to do something good. Develop this habit because it is the unique way where people will have a good impression.  

Happiness can be a mood, a state or a feeling. People who are successful and rich don’t mean that they are happy. They crave for happiness. They try to find happiness in others. That is why they get into charities and do the charitable activities. This will help them to bring some kind of satisfaction and ultimately lead them to happiness.

One can find happiness in the work that they do. If you get that feeling of happiness in the work you do then trust me you are on the right track. Happiness can lead to achieve the goals in our life.

The author of this book gives various suggestions or the ideas to develop the happiness habit in the surroundings. I would like to share few of it from this book.

1.     List what you love: This is like what you love the most in each and every incident that takes place in your life. May be the food you eat, the work you do, the place you live or the people you have in your life.

2.     What can you change around you: A person cannot like everything in his life. But he can take things in a different way or take the situations in a different perspective. Take things easily.

3.     Start with what is easy: If you want to change something in your life, then start it with the easy things. Because change is good and the feeling of getting changed will help you to think positive about yourself.

4.     Consider impossible actions: Yes! Small things do bring happiness. But if the impossible things are made possible, the feeling of happiness is out of the world. Think big, and achieve it. And you can see your life shining.

I suggest you all to read this book, because it is not only interesting but gives values to the life. So please grab this book and take the values that this book is giving, because they are so essential and lead us towards what we want.