Summary:
Happiness for Dummies is a very thin and small book, much more pocket-able than most pocket books. As the title suggests, it's a book that will teach dummies how to be happy. It gives tips, warnings, and key concepts about happiness.
Chapter 1 explains how Anyone can be Happy, how happiness is a universal emotion, and the resources that can be built by having a positive emotion.
Chapter 2 The Recipe for Happiness, lists the four basic ingredients (Safety, Satiation, Perspective and Quietude), and the add-ons (Satisfaction, different kinds of Pleasure, Gratitude, Serenity and Wellbeing).
Chapter 3 is about the Personality Attributes that Lead to Happiness, which are optimism, conscientiousness, engagement, and Being Hardy.
Chapter 4 Behaving your way toward happiness lists down various tips and tactics on how we can start to lead a life of day to day happiness.
Chapter 5 enumerates Ten Ways to be Happy as follows:
1.Live life in the present
2.Put your smile on
3.Choose to be optimistic
4.Laugh out loud
5.Focus on family and friends
6.Realize money doesn't buy happiness
7.Forgive and Forget
8.Help others be happy
9.Don't worry, Be Happy
10.Feed the soul
Reflection:
When I first got hold of the book, I wasn't too excited to read it. Who are they to teach anyone how to be happy anyway? Isn't happiness relative from person to person, situation to situation? It also seemed too light to contain anything worth poring over. But I decided to read it anyway being curious by this additional refreshment from Coca-Cola. And no regrets! You can actually read the whole thing in less than 30 minutes, but I decided to read one chapter a day, careful to digest every tip.
And here are some of my take-away(s):
I need to LINGER more. Currently, I usually have my To Do's laid out weeks or even months before. It doesn't matter how petty it is, like to read a chapter in a book, watch a telenovela , or finish a level in Candy Crush, it has to be done! And most of the time I HURRY, without any time to linger anymore. And this might just be one thing that I missed doing - to linger in a page of a book, to linger as I hang out with friends, to simply linger in the moment.
I also need to be more open to Surprises, Spontaneity and Serendipity. As we grow and mature, we tend to move towards rituals, plans, and jam-packed schedules. There' s nothing wrong with the latter. It helps us be more organized and orderly. But sometimes we need to balance things. By being more open to the 3S, we open ourselves to more opportunities for happiness.
The ingredients to happiness are also insightful, though I think that Satisfaction and Serenity are more of the main ingredients than is Satiation and Quietude. A person who is not content will always feel that their glass is half empty, and thus will find it hard to be satiated. But if one feels satisfied, he or she is more easily satiated. Though Quietude might be important to gain serenity, it's not always the case. I've always wanted to go out of town to experience quietude, and thus serenity. But even with quietude, I sometimes find it hard to have a serene mind, with all the noise going on inside my head. It might be more efficient to have a serene mind before we go into quietude and be in an appreciative perspective.
How to become happy is actually plain simple common sense. One does not need to be a psychologist to be able to realize what makes them happy. But in the world today where people seem to be more busy on things that make them rich but lonely rather than happy (and where common sense is not so common), this book serves as a great reminder.
Five years ago, I was hapee. But I left as I decide to take on a path that will make me more mature and responsible though I know will surely make that happiness dwindle. Quoting my farewell letter almost 4 years ago, "Hindi naman kailangang lahat ng gagawin natin ay makapagpapasiya sa atin. Dahil ang buhay ay hindi naman tungkol lamang sa pagsasaya."And so I went on with my life with this firm belief. And boy, did I attract too much sadness and loneliness! But now I've realized that though happiness may not be one of life's main purpose, having Happiness in our life not only makes us more productive but makes life itself more worthwhile.
So....after 28 pages, 5 chapters, and a bottle of coca-cola, here I am trying to stir my path back to happiness.
Quotes from Happiness for Dummies:
"The attitudes you have today largely determine how things turn out tomorrow."
"All people have something in their lives they can be thankful for."
"You'll always have the plan. The question is, will you ever have this opportunity again?"
'Helen Keller once wrote, "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."'
"Learn from the past, hope for the future, but live in the present!"
'Bernard Meltzer said "Happiness is like a kiss. You must share it to enjoy it."'
