Books on Happiness

New Releases on Happiness

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All You Ever Wanted to Know About Happiness, Life and Living - H.H. the Dalai Lama, compiled by Rajiv Mehrotra 2009

Amazon Synopsis: His Holiness the Dalai Lama describes himself as “a simple Buddhist monk.” However, to millions of people around the world, he embodies the highest human aspiration: to be happy. His messages of compassion, altruism, and peace are articulated in a unique secular ethic for our times and supported with techniques and practices that can help us achieve these ideals. He is the Dalai Lama—or simply, His Holiness—the epitome of the Buddhist model of loving-kindness and an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy. Evoking global respect and admiration, he is both a prophet and a statesman for our troubled times, yet he’s intensely human and accessible. He’s an inspiration to millions, yet many feel as if he touches and speaks to them personally. He is a Buddhist but belongs to all humanity. His Holiness is one of the most recognizable—and recognized—faces in the free world.

This remarkable book is an edited compilation of mostly personal conversations spanning nearly 20 years between the Dalai Lama and Rajiv Mehrotra, one of his early disciples who’s now the trustee and secretary of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, which was established with the funds from the Nobel Peace Prize. Here, the Dalai Lama is a teacher to a spiritual aspirant; a divine master and a temporal leader; an ambassador for Tibet and a lovable guru-philosopher to the whole world; a practitioner of the 2,500-year-old teachings of Buddhism; a Tibetan Buddhist and an interfaith ambassador; and an intense practitioner of mind-training and an inveterate optimist. His multiple hats may appear contradictory at times, but he balances them all, living his life with ease and happiness.

Within these pages, the Dalai Lama’s disarming candor, his deep empathy for his student’s quest, and his wisdom—garnered not just from texts and scriptures, but also from an active engagement with life—offer invaluable insights to us all on how we may find true happiness in our lives.

 

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living - Dalai Lama 2009

Amazon Synopsis: Nearly every time you see him, he’s laughing, or at least smiling. And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling. He’s the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, a Nobel Prize winner, and a hugely sought-after speaker and statesman. Why is he so popular’ Even after spending only a few minutes in his presence you can’t help feeling happier.

If you ask him if he’s happy, even though he’s suffered the loss of his country, the Dalai Lama will give you an unconditional yes. What’s more, he’ll tell you that happiness is the purpose of life, and that ‘the very motion of our life is toward happiness.’ How to get there has always been the question. He’s tried to answer it before, but he’s never had the help of a psychiatrist to get the message across in a context we can easily understand.

The Art of Happiness is the book that started the genre of happiness books, and it remains the cornerstone of the field of positive psychology.

 

Art of Happiness at Work - H.H. the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler 2005

Amazon Synopsis: From the authors who brought you the million-copy bestseller The Art of Happiness comes an exploration of job, career, and finding the ultimate happiness at work.

It spent nearly two years on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold well over a million copies in hardcover. It remains, five years later, in its original hardcover edition. It was the book by the Dalai Lama that broke new ground, that made him accessible to a larger audience, spreading his words of daily wisdom and message of inner peace that captured the imagination of America. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for the first time since that revolutionary book, has once again teamed up with psychiatrist Howard Cutler to resume the discussion about what makes life meaningful begun in The Art of Happiness.

Over the past several years, Howard Cutler has continued his conversations with the Dalai Lama, asking him the questions we all want answered about how to find happiness in the place we spend most of our time. Work-whether it's in the home or at an office-is what mostly runs our lives. We depend on it to eat, to clothe and shelter ourselves, and to take care of our families. Once again, Dr. Cutler brings forward seminal studies and asks the Dalai Lama to respond. Beginning with a direct correlation between productivity and happiness, Dr. Cutler questions His Holiness about the nature of work. In psychiatry and according to the Dalai Lama, our motivation for working determines our level of satisfaction. The book explores these three levels of focus:

Survival: focus on salary, stability, food and clothing

Career: focus on advancement

Calling: focus on work as a higher purpose

Cutler probes the Dalai Lama's wisdom by posing these questions: How does the relationship between our personal values and those of our employers affect happiness? What is the relationship between self-awareness and work? What are the main sources of dissatisfaction and how can we cope with them? How do we deal with conflicts with coworkers and bosses? How do we deal with jealousy, anger, or hostility at work? How does the lack of freedom affect our levels of happiness? How do we deal with boredom or lack of challenge? Unfair criticism? Overly demanding or taxing situations? Job change and unemployment?

Once again, Cutler walks us through the Dalai Lama's reasoning so that we know how to apply the wisdom to daily life. This practical application of Buddhist ideas is an invaluable source of strength and peace for anyone who earns a living.

 

Art of Happiness in a Troubled World - H.H. the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler 2009

Amazon Synopsis: Blending common sense and modern psychiatry, The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World applies Buddhist tradition to twenty-first-century struggles in a relevant way. The result is a wise approach to dealing with human problems that is both optimistic and realistic, even in the most challenging times.

How can we expect to find happiness and meaning in our lives when the modern world seems such an unhappy place?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has suffered enormously throughout his life, yet he always seems to be smiling and serene. How does he do it? In The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World, Dr. Cutler walks readers through the Dalai Lama's philosophy on how to achieve peace of mind and come to terms with life's inherent suffering. Together, the two examine the roots of many of the problems facing the world and show us how we can approach these calamities in a way that alleviates suffering, and helps us along in our personal quests to be happy. Through stories, meditations, and in-depth conversations, the Dalai Lama teaches readers to identify the cultural influences and ways of thinking that lead to personal unhappiness, making sense of the hardships we face personally, as well as the afflictions suffered by others.

 

The 18 Rules Of Happiness Pocket Guide - Karl Moore 2011

Amazon Synopsis: Would YOU like to discover your own true happiness? Right now, you spend 24 hours a day searching for happiness. It's the single motive behind absolutely every action you take. But are you experiencing enough genuine happiness in your daily life? If not, you need to take action. This book is a mini-course in mega-happiness. It unveils 18 simple secrets that you can use to begin enjoying profound happiness and freedom in your life. From simple shifts in attitude to powerful mind-body "hacks", this guide will show you how to easily tap into the sunshine that already exists within you - and, quite simply, become the happiest person you know.

 

The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work - Shawn Achor 2010

Amazon Synopsis: Our most commonly held formula for success is broken. Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just an empty mantra. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.          

In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, who spent over a decade living, researching, and lecturing at Harvard University, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS and KPMG—to fix this broken formula. Using stories and case studies from his work with thousands of Fortune 500 executives in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive edge at work.            

Isolating seven practical, actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms, stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe, he shows us how we can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential. Among the principles he outlines:

• The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see—and seize—opportunities wherever we look.
• The Zorro Circle: how to channel our efforts on small, manageable goals, to gain the leverage to gradually conquer bigger and bigger ones.
• Social Investment: how to reap the dividends of investing in one of the greatest predictors of success and happiness—our social support network
  

A must-read for everyone trying to excel in a world of increasing workloads, stress, and negativity, The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.

 

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill - Matthieu Ricard 2007

Amazon Synopsis: A molecular biologist turned Buddhist monk, described by scientists as "the happiest man alive," demonstrates how to develop the inner conditions for true happiness.

 

Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices - Thich Nhat Hanh 2009

Amazon Synopsis: Encouraging readers to be intelligent and skillful in their practice, this new collection by Thich Nhat Hanh outlines the essential steps by which we can all obtain real and lasting happiness. Each day, we perform the tasks of everyday life without thought or awareness — walking, sitting, working, eating, driving, and much more. But Hanh points out that if we remain truly aware of our actions, no matter the task we’re performing, we can stay engaged in our lives and better our outlook through mindfulness. This key practice is the foundation for this accessible, easy-to-understand volume, and an invaluable tool for change for both seasoned Buddhist practitioners and lay readers interested in bettering their lives through full awareness.

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun - Gretchen Rubin 2011

Amazon Synopsis: Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.

In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.

 

The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living - Russ Harris 2008

Amazon Synopsis: Are you, like milllions of Americans, caught in the happiness trap? Russ Harris explains that the way most of us go about trying to find happiness ends up making us miserable, driving the epidemics of stress, anxiety, and depression. This empowering book presents  the insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) a revolutionary new psychotherapy based on cutting-edge research in behavioral psychology. By clarifying your values and developing mindfulness (a technique for living fully in the present moment), ACT helps you escape the happiness trap and find true satisfaction in life.

The techniques presented in The Happiness Trap will help readers to:

• Reduce stress and worry
• Handle painful feelings and thoughts more effectively
• Break self-defeating habits
• Overcome insecurity and self-doubt
• Create a rich, full, and meaningful life

 

The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want - Sonja Lyubomirsky 2008

Amazon Synopsis: You see here a different kind of happiness book. The How of Happiness is a comprehensive guide to understanding the elements of happiness based on years of groundbreaking scientific research. It is also a practical, empowering, and easy-to-follow workbook, incorporating happiness strategies, exercises in new ways of thinking, and quizzes for understanding our individuality, all in an effort to help us realize our innate potential for joy and ways to sustain it in our lives. Drawing upon years of pioneering research with thousands of men and women, The How of Happiness is both a powerful contribution to the field of positive psychology and a gift to people who have sought to take their happiness into their own hands.

 

The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace - H.H. the Dalai Lama, edited by John Avedon & Donald S. Lopez 1997

Amazon Synopsis: His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings--a beautiful and accessible presentation of the time-honored path to enlightenment--are one of the world's great spiritual treasures.

The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace is the third volume in the landmark Libraey of Tibet series.Bringing us closer to the essence of Buddhist teachings, and to his own peerless insight, the Dala Lama offers his thoughts on achieving a meanful life and death.At the heart of his eloquent presentation is this lesson: by cultivating compassion, wisdom, and positive thought and action--in short, by living a good life--we can approach death without fear or regret, and welcome our passage and rebirth.

 

Leaders's Way - Business, Buddhism and Happiness in an Interconnected World - H.H. the Dalai Lama and Laurens van den Muyzenberg 2009

Amazon Synopsis: Born out of a decade of discussion and collaboration between The Monk and the Management Consultant - His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Laurens van den Muyzenberg - The Leader s Way represents the synthesis of East and West and provides an inspiring manifesto for business change. The world today faces many challenges. While our total wealth has increased enormously and we benefit from technological miracles, billions of people are living in abject poverty, we face the threat of environmental disaster, and even those in prosperous nations feel insecure about the future. Addressing these problems requires a different kind of leadership which sees things as they really are and resolves them in a holistic way. That is what The Leader s Way offers - a manifesto for change which can have an impact at every level, from the individual to the global.

 

The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn't, What Shouldn't Make You Happy, but Does - Sonja Lyubomirsky 2013

Amazon Synopsis: Happiness expert Sonja Lyubomirsky’s research-based lessons in how to find opportunity in life’s thorniest moments.

In The Myths of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky isolates the major turning points of adult life, looking to both successes (marriage, children, wealth) and challenges (divorce, financial ruin, illness) to reveal that our misconceptions about the impact of such events is perhaps the greatest threat to our long-term well-being.

Lyubomirsky argues that we have been given false promises—myths that assure us that lifelong happiness will be attained once we hit the culturally confirmed markers of adult success. This restricted view of happiness works to discourage us from recognizing the upside of any negative life turn and blocks us from recognizing our own growth potential. Our outsized expectations transform natural rites of passage into emotional land mines and steer us to make toxic decisions, as The Myths of Happiness reveals.

Because we expect the best (or the worst) from life’s turning points, we shortsightedly place too much weight on our initial emotional responses. The Myths of Happiness empowers readers to look beyond their first response, sharing scientific evidence that often it is our mindset—not our circumstances—that matters. Central to these findings is the notion of hedonic adaptation, the fact that people are far more adaptable than they think. Even after a major life change—good or bad—we tend to return to our initial happiness level, forgetting what once made us elated or why we felt that life was so unbearable. The Myths of Happiness offers the perspective we need to make wiser choices, sharing how to slow the effects of this adaptation after a positive turn and find the way forward in a time of darkness.

In The Myths of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky turns an empirical eye to the biggest, messiest moments, providing readers with the clear-eyed vision they need to build the healthiest, most satisfying life. A corrective course on happiness and a call to regard life’s twists and turns with a more open mind, The Myths of Happiness shares practical lessons with life-changing potential.

The Nine Rooms of Happiness: Loving Yourself, Finding Your Purpose, and Getting Over Life's Little Imperfections - Lucy S. Danziger 2010

Amazon Synopsis: What Room Are You In?

Ask any woman how she's feeling. Even when things look pretty darn great from the outside, chances are that at least one thing (and it may seem minor to others) is nagging at her, making her feel less than spectacular, bringing her down: I'm too fat. My husband doesn't help enough around the house. My friend is going to be mad if I don't call her back. Why don't my kids try harder at school? My job is less than inspiring. Whatever happened to that old boyfriend, the one who got away?

In The Nine Rooms of Happiness, Lucy Danziger, editor in chief of Self magazine, and women's-health psychiatrist Catherine Birndorf use the metaphor of a house to release us from this phenomenon. In this house, the living room is where we deal with friendships and our social life; the bedroom is where we explore intimacy, romance, relationships, and sex; the bathroom is for issues relating to health and body image; the kitchen is for nourishment and the division of chores; and so on.

Our "inner house" can have eight beautifully designed, neat and tidy rooms, and one messy one, and still we focus on the mess.

The Nine Rooms of Happiness pinpoints common self-destructive patterns of behavior and offers key processes that will help readers clean up their emotional architecture. After each room is "clean," Danziger and Birndorf show us how we can spend time on ourselves figuring out what is most meaningful to us--finding larger passion and purpose that makes returning to the rest of our house a pleasure, no matter what calamity or mess awaits.

The result - After reading this book you'll think differently about the things that are bringing you down and be able to live a happier, more joy filled life, in every room of your emotional house.

 

Path to Bliss - H.H. the Dalai Lama 2003

Amazon Synopsis: Clear, eloquent, simple, and profound, His Holiness's teachings are easily accessible to beginning practitioners yet richly nourishing to those more advanced in practice. In The Path to Bliss, the Dalai Lama shows how visualization, reason, and contemplation can be systematically crafted to enhance personal development. Beginning with practices designed to create an effective mental outlook, His Holiness skillfully guides the student to more advanced techniques for developing the mind's deepest potential and happiness. An impeccable attention to the correctness of detail, yet manages at the same time to convey a sense of playfulness, a balance of specific technical guidance, and delightful asides. It exemplifies the sophistication and elegance of Tibetan Buddhist methods for spiritual development.

 

Power, Freedom, and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness – Deepak Chopra

Synopsis: This book is Deepak Chopra’s take on the questions we all ask ourselves, as well as the ones we would ask if we thought of them. When we do ask the questions and get our own answers we have a chance to live from the source of lasting happiness.

Contents: Part I What do I want? Who am I? Why do I forget who I am? How do I participate in creating my reality? Part II Where so I go when I die? What is the key to lasting happiness? How can I live with effortless ease? When will I be fully awake? Part III What is power and how do I obtain it? What is freedom and how do I experience it? What is grace and how do I live it? The Infinite, Appendix The Old and New Paradigms, About Vedanta.

 

Secrets of True Happiness - Tai Sheridan PhD 2012

Amazon Synopsis: Poet-Philosopher and Zen Priest Tai Sheridan's 'Secrets of True Happiness' is a short, simple, and straight forward guide to becoming Truly Happy by living wisely. When you are truly happy you can be at ease in the world as a Buddha in Blue Jeans: a person of presence, openness, love, and benefit. Topics include True Happiness; Wanting; Anger; Pride; Life and Death; Uncertainty; Change; Openness; Time; Creativity; Work; Family; Solitude; Nature; Love; Buddha in Blue Jeans is Truly Happy; A Wish for The World. The book is for people of any faith, religion, race, nationality, gender, relationship status, capacity, or meditation background.

 

Stumbling on Happiness - Daniel Todd Gilbert 2007

Amazon Synopsis: Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink?·   Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? ·   Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? ·   Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can’t we remember one song while listening to another; and why does the line at the grocery store always slow down the moment we join it? In this brilliant, witty, and accessible book, renowned Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to misconceive our tomorrows and misestimate our satisfactions. Vividly bringing to life the latest scientific research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, Gilbert reveals what scientists have discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, and about our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there. With penetrating insight and sparkling prose, Gilbert explains why we seem to know so little about the hearts and minds of the people we are about to become. 

 

The Transformed Mind - Reflections on Truth, Love and Happiness - H.H. the Dalai Lama 2001

Amazon Synopsis: In his characteristically endearing and informal style, His Holiness the Dalai Lama examines the nature of the human mind and emphasises the need to transform it if we want to lead more fulfilling lives. In the form of several discourses delivered over a period of nine years, he talks about suffering, happiness, love and truth, and imparts practical wisdom on issues ranging from religious tolerance to world economy. Stressing the need for compassion and non-violence, the Dalai Lama reiterates the essential goodness of the human heart and teaches us how to live and die well, reminding us constantly of the responsibility of our actions and thoughts, and the interdependence between action and result. Wise, inspiring and always candid, The Transformed Mind gives us hope and solace in this new millennium.

The Ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 Keys to Joy and Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra 2009

Amazon Synopsis: Happiness is something everyone desires. Yet how to find happiness–or even if we deserve to–remains a mystery. Still more mysterious is the secret to a lasting happiness that cannot be taken away. In The Ultimate Happiness Prescription, bestselling author Deepak Chopra shows us seven keys to uncover the true secrets of joy in the most difficult times.

The goal of life is the expansion of happiness, he contends. But in today’s demanding world, that goal seems elusive, if not impossibly out of reach. Society reinforces the belief that fulfillment comes from achieving success, wealth, and good relationships. Yet Chopra tells us that the opposite is true: all success in life is the by-product of happiness, not the cause.

So what is the cause? The Ultimate Happiness Prescription shares spiritual principles for a life based on a sense of your “true self” lying beyond the ebb and flow of daily living. Simple daily exercises lead to eliminating the root causes of unhappiness and letting a deeper level of bliss unfold.

After all avenues to happiness have been explored and exhausted, only one path is left: the journey to enlightenment. In The Ultimate Happiness Prescription, the daunting and exotic challenge of finding enlightenment becomes accessible step by step. We are taken on an inspiring journey to the true self, the only place untouched by trouble and misfortune.

The Union of Bliss & Emptiness - H.H. the Dalai Lama, translated by Dr. Thupten Jinpa 1988

Amazon Synopsis: Guru yoga is the force that gives vitality to a serious practitioner's meditation. Combining the essential aspects of the sutra path with the profound tantric techniques that activate the latent spiritual forces within us, it lays the framework of the entire Buddhist path and sets down the guidelines for undertaking a complete form of practice on a daily basis. Tantric meditation depends largely upon inspiration, and this practice taps the inspiration of unbroken lineage.

 

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