Gain What Happy People Know: How The New Science Of Happiness Can Change Your Life For The Better Designed By Dan Baker Conveyed As Paper Copy

bosses bf gave it to him as a Christmas present, as soon as I read the tittle something clicked , my gut was right this book was life changing.
Hopefully it helps lost souls like mine to find the right path again, I have had this book on my shelf for along time and finally took it down, And now I wish I had read it long ago, So many things he says makes perfect sense, I have a close friend who is battling severe depression and a lot of things in this book has put a lot of what she is going thru into a great framework.
It is about time someone told the world that typical "talk

therapy" doesn't work for everyone, Wow! Really found this book useful and helpful, I picked this book up at a book sale years ago and I am not sure why, but I figured I would pull it off the shelf and give it a read.
In the last two years I have read quite a few selfhelp books, and this is one that I really enjoyed, The book is fairly short and straightforward, The author doesn't try to offer a onesize fits all solution, but rather shares a few tips for a happier life as well as several pitfalls that people fall into that get in the way of happiness.
Like any selfhelp book, there were a few things that weren't for me some of his discussion about everything that is wrong with the field of psychology went a little far in my opinion but overall I found the book helpful.
I enjoyed the author's stories both about his personal struggles to find happiness, as well as the stories of the clients he worked with,

I would recommend this book to those looking for a selfhelp book that isn't too preachy or full of itself, It is also a fairly simple and short read, which makes it even better, I enjoyed this book more than any other on happiness, I loved his practical approach to the concept of happiness and his frank discussion about how it's easy to get trapped even when we think we're doing it right.
I also liked his repeated emphasis on the idea that nothing changes until you do,

I also appreciated the glimpse into positive psychology, A fantastic and quick read, I enjoyed the stories in this book as they make the concepts easy to understand, I've read so many books on happiness and positive psychology that when I learn about new concepts or theories, it's rewarding to me, Let's begin.

The main premise is that the biological circuitry of fear is the greatest enemy of happiness, We're wired with a survival instinct and that takes over, There arequalities of happiness: love, optimism, courage, sense of freedom or choice, proactivity, security, health, spirituality, altruism, perspective, humor, and purpose, We're talking neocortex, the reptilian brain and the amygdala deal with fear,

There's a chapter on the money trapno, money does not bring happiness, There arehappiness tools that include: appreciation or love the antidote of fear, choice, personal power taking responsibility and action, leading with your strengths every day, the power of language and stories be positive about your own story.
We need multidimensional living, all threelove and relationships, health, and purpose, The battle here is between fear and happiness,

There aretraps that ensnare you: trying to buy happiness, trying to find happiness through pleasure, trying to be happy by resolving the past, trying to be happy by overcoming weaknesses, and trying to force happiness.
Basically, we'll never have enough money, A life of leisure, status, possessions, financial power, and worldly power won't bring happiness,

Chaptertalks a little more about positive psychology and my hero Martin Seligman, the founder of the movement, Pleasure doesn't last. Freud's approach failed and clinical psychology has been tarnished, Chapteris about love and appreciation as the antidote to fear, Anxiety and stress are the number one cause of heart attacks, Try focused meditation, yoga and other methods, Practice forgiveness. Get rid of the hate, Altruism overcomes fear.

We need choices and positive things to focus on, You can change the way you perceive things, Take responsibility and action, have courage, know your values and stick to them, Don't get caught up in victimization, entitlement, rescue, and blame, Chapteris about asurvivor and it was moving, Optimism can come from suffering, Wisdom is key. Use your strengths to make positive change,

The chapter on language and stories was really interesting, Frame them in positive ways, Again, there are so many great stories and lessons to be learned in this book, The only thing missing is a section on references, however, I imagine some of this can be found at the author's website, I highly recommend this book, Absolutely loved this book. I want to share it with everyone in my life, because it has changed mine for the better, Even though I don't think of myself as an unhappy person, this book provides useful tools to get through tough days, and makes you think about what actually matters in life.
Must read! An unexpected life development caused me to experience a bit of an existential crisis in the last few months, Many long held beliefs were challenged, I was upset. My Libertarian/Corporate lawyer friend said that Dan Baker's book had revolutionized the way he approached his emotions,

Baker talks about our ability to make conscious decisions regarding interpretation, Yes, you will have flashbacks to the Landmark Forum if you are an alumna/alumnus, They say timing is everything, My lawyer friend and I had a disagreement about racial social justice and wokeness last night,

Finishing the book today seems like fortuitous timing, I can try Baker's theories out when my friend and I speak next, This seems like an ideal way to test out Baker's theories, Of course, our discussion won't happen in the bucolic Canyon Ranch environment, Zoom will have to suffice, Happy people know not to read books by shameless selfpromoters, This is a bedside book that got buried under other books for a long time, I finally dug into it and found it a very enjoyable read with some valuable information on how to positively reframe the crap in one's life so that general happiness is possible with a nix of the fear response to everything.
read this several times

I read a lot of these kinds of books, This is among the best, Practical. Warm. Deep. Thoughtful. Researched. Interesting. I heard about this book from a Chris Guillebeaufollower who lives in his car, plays guitar at small gigs and for hospital patients, and wanders around enjoying life.


As far as clarity, simplicity, and utility, this is one of the best books I have ever read, Even though it hasn't actually changed my life, I'm putting it on the lifechangers shelf, because if I had found it earlier, it would have, Instead, I had to gather the same information from tons of other books, only to have it all confirmed, clarified, and organized here,

The main premise of this book is that fear is the source/cause of unhappiness, We all have parts of our brain devoted to processing fear and danger: the reptilian brain and the amygdala, The reptilian brain is the fight/flight/freeze area the amygdala is the storehouse for all bad memories and dangerindicating patterns, These parts are what kept our ancestors alive when they needed to run from cheetahs or whatever, However, when all we do is sit at a desk all day, they're not much help, Fear, stress, anger, depression, basically all come from here, and can be summarized as fear of not having enough and fear of not being enough,

Note that happiness isn't defined here as moonbeams and fairydust, la la la all the time, it's defined as thesecomponents: love, optimism, courage, a sense of freedom, proactivity, security, health, spirituality, altruism, perspective, humor, and purpose.
It's a very solid, realitybased definition of happiness,

The author mentions five common, ineffective ways people try to become happy: trying to buy happiness, trying to find happiness through pleasure, trying to resolve the past by incessantly talking about it and fixating on victimization, entitlement, rescue, or blame, trying to overcome weakness instead of working from your strengths, and trying to force happiness ex.
bullshit affirmations. I'm looking at you, The Secret, People do these all the time, but none of them work,

So, what does work The number one thing is appreciation, When you focus on appreciation, your fear centers are overridden, Even religion says that the two opposing forces in the world are fear and love, and they can't coexist, Well, appreciation is the purest form of love, so it's the quickest way to overcome fear, How Start listing things you're grateful for, If you have a horrible situation, think specifically of the good points of that situation, ex. cancer patients gt my form of cancer has a high survival rate, I can afford very good care, it's shown me how much everybody loves me

Altruism is the secondstrongest.
If it's coming from a pure heart not secretly looking for appreciation or recognition or trying to buy love, altruism is a very powerful source of happiness and very effective in overcoming fear.


Other pieces of the puzzle include being responsible for your own life and choices, practicing optimism, being nice when you talk to yourself, making sure you do work that plays to your strengths and continues developing them, and simply doing stuff rather than being passive.
It's also important to balance your life between three main areas: health, relationships, and purpose, Try to do at least a little bit of each every day, Interesting point: for optimal mood improvement, exerciseminutes a day, More thanor less thandecreases mood benefits,

This book is the most concise, comprehensive, realistic treatment of happiness I've ever seen, It has a scientific basis but is written in a very friendly, engaging way, It's so awesome, I'm sending one to my mom right now,

As an aside, I am disappointed to see that the author has also released a followup: What Happy Women Knowas if women aren't people.
I hope it's not a bunch of barftastic treacly schlock, a sort of Happy Soup for the Woman's Soul with dozens of forthcoming sequels, including Happy Soup for the College Student's Soul, Happy Soup for the Meateater's Soul, and Happy Soup for the Nascarlover's Soul.
This book was so great, though, it would be hard to imagine the author writing crap of that sort, I hope he hasn't. "Think about these things: racial tension, tribal clashes, religious hostility, . . They all stem, at the core, from fear, Fear of not having enough, Fear of people who are different, Fear of domination. Fear of not being enough, Fear of ideas
If we could rise above fear, . . what a world we would have, "

"Fear impels us to survive, and love enables us to thrive, "

"Having options and making choices is the very foundation of human psychological health, "

Perception errors:
Permanence this problem will last forever
Personalization every problem is your fault
Pervasiveness one problem extends to every other situation

"Just as you can change your behavior, you can also change your feelings.
The same forces of personal power influence both, "

"The key to feeling healthy is simple: Appreciate the health you have, and show our appreciation by doing as much with it as you can.
".