I love when my friends share amazing ideas that inspire and engage them. Not only does it tell me so much about where they are in their lives, to me the gift of a book is like a giant hug that embraces me emotionally and intellectually.
So it was a joy when my buddy Dee Dee Schurman mailed me the gift of “Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out.”
Written by transformational expert Marci Shimoff, the book offers a breakthrough approach to being happy, one that doesn’t depend on achievements, goals, money, relationships, or anything else “out there.”
Packed inside the paperback are key questions and ideas that ponder the concept: What would it take to make you happy? Is it a fulfilling career, a big bank account, or the perfect mate?
What if it didn’t take anything to make you happy? What if you could experience happiness from the inside out — no matter what’s going on in your life?
“Most books on happiness tell you to find the things that make you happy and do more of them,” says Shimoff, the co-author of six of the top-selling titles in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. “Although there’s nothing wrong with that, it won’t bring you the kind of deep and lasting happiness most people long for — the kind you’ll never lose, no matter what happens in your life.”
Based on research and insights from experts in the fields of positive psychology and neurophysiology, the book includes interviews with 100 people who Shimoff believes are “truly happy.”
Shimoff notes: “Studies show that each of us has a ‘happiness setpoint,’ which is a fixed range of happiness we tend to return to throughout our life — that’s approximately 50 percent genetic and 50 percent learned.”
As a result, she suggests that in the same way you’d crank up the thermostat to get comfortable on a chilly day, you can actually raise your happiness set-point for personal power, mind, heart, body, soul, purpose, and relationships. Here’s how.
Building Your Home for Happiness
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- The Foundation: Take ownership of your happiness — Focus on the solution, look for the lesson and the gift, make peace with yourself
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- The Pillar of the Mind: Don’t believe everything you think — Question your thoughts, go beyond the mind and let go, incline your mind toward joy
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- The Pillar of the Heart: Let love lead — Focus on gratitude, practice forgiveness, speak loving kindness
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- The Pillar of the Body: Make your cells happy — Nourish your body, energize your body, tune in to your body’s wisdom
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- The Pillar of the Soul: Plug yourself in to spirit — Invite connection to your higher power, listen to your inner voice, trust life’s unfolding
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- The Roof: Live a life inspired by purpose — Find your passion, follow the inspiration of the moment, contribute to something greater than yourself
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- The Garden: Cultivate nourishing relationships — Tend to your relationships, surround yourself with support, see the world as your family
“In these pages you’ll discover moving and remarkable first-person stories of people who have applied these steps to their own lives and have become Happy for No Reason,” explains Shimoff, whose book is filled with tales from a former drug dealer turned minister, a hit filmmaker, and a famous actress who escaped a “family curse,” as well as stories from doctors, mothers, teachers, and business executives.
“You don’t have to have happy genes, win the lottery, or lose 20 pounds,” she insists. “By the time you finish this book, you will know how to experience sustained happiness for the rest of your life.”
Click here to learn more: happyfornoreason.com.
Thank you, Dee Dee!