Thursday, 9 February 2012

Books for Happiness Review: The Happiness Trap


This is the book that got it all started! The Happiness Trap explores why we with all our ‘riches’ aren’t happy.  The irony being that our continued search for happiness can be the very thing that makes it so elusive. There are so many revelations in this book that have made a huge difference to my life.
The one that springs to mind immediately as I write this is the concept that having emotions about our emotions is what locks them in place and makes us miserable and stressed. For example, if you feel anxious, the wise thing to do is observe yourself feeling anxious and be with it till it passes, looking at what it is that is making you anxious and accepting that feeling. What we tend to do is get anxious about being anxious or angry or guilty or sad about it and it locks it there to escalate, into such things as panic attacks.
Lesson learnt: Emotions are like the weather, don’t fight them, let them pass through you and they will move on; like the clouds, the rain, the sun-this too shall pass…

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