Product Description

Can You Learn to Be Happy?

YES . . . according to the teacher of Harvard University’s most popular and life-changing course. One out of every five Harvard students has lined up to hear Tal Ben-Shahar’s insightful and inspiring lectures on that ever-elusive state: HAPPINESS.

HOW?
Grounded in the revolutionary “positive psychology” movement, Ben-Shahar ingeniously combines scientific studies, scholarly research, self-help advice, and spiritual enlightenment. He weaves them together into a set of principles that you can apply to your daily life. Once you open your heart and mind to Happier ’s thoughts, you will feel more fulfilled, more connected . . . and, yes, HAPPIER.

“Dr. Ben-Shahar, one of the most popular teachers in Harvard’s recent history, has written a personal, informed, and highly enjoyable primer on how to become happier. It would be wise to take his advice.”
--Ellen J. Langer, author of Mindfulness and On Becoming an Artist

“This fine book shimmers with a rare brand of good sense that is imbedded in scientific knowledge about how to increase happiness. It is easy to see how this is the backbone of the most popular course at Harvard today."
--Martin E. P. Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3781 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Though everyone wants to be happier, how many of us can actually define what that means? In his class, "Positive Psychology," one of the most popular courses at Harvard University, Ben-Shahar teaches that happiness isn't as elusive a concept as people think, and can actually be learned; he commits the fundamentals of his course to paper in this primer on getting happy, which he defines as a combination of pleasure (short-term happiness) and meaning (long-term). Divided into three parts, "What is Happiness?", "Happiness Applied" and "Meditations on Happiness," Ben-Shahar provides insight and exercises, prodding reflection in readers ("Do you accept negative emotions as natural?" "Do you see your work as a job, a career, or a calling?") while explicating the relationships among happiness, motivation and goals. Though it sounds simple, Ben-Shahar insists on keen self-awareness and purposeful action to overcome entrenched patterns of despondency and/or disbelief. For answer-seekers, this is definitely a good start.
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Review
"It is easy to see how this is the backbone of the most popular course at Harvard today."
—Martin E. P. Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness

From the Back Cover

Can You Learn to Be Happy?

YES . . . according to the teacher of Harvard University’s most popular and life-changing course. One out of every five Harvard students has lined up to hear Tal Ben-Shahar’s insightful and inspiring lectures on that ever-elusive state: HAPPINESS.

HOW?
Grounded in the revolutionary “positive psychology” movement, Ben-Shahar ingeniously combines scientific studies, scholarly research, self-help advice, and spiritual enlightenment. He weaves them together into a set of principles that you can apply to your daily life. Once you open your heart and mind to Happier ’s thoughts, you will feel more fulfilled, more connected . . . and, yes, HAPPIER.

“Dr. Ben-Shahar, one of the most popular teachers in Harvard’s recent history, has written a personal, informed, and highly enjoyable primer on how to become happier. It would be wise to take his advice.”
--Ellen J. Langer, author of Mindfulness and On Becoming an Artist

“This fine book shimmers with a rare brand of good sense that is imbedded in scientific knowledge about how to increase happiness. It is easy to see how this is the backbone of the most popular course at Harvard today."
--Martin E. P. Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness

If you're a “rat racer,” who lives in the hope of being happy in the future, and yet is unable to enjoy the here-and-now . . .

If you're a “hedonist,” who finds some pleasure in the good things in life--good wine, good food, good company--and yet is unable to enjoy lasting fulfillment . . .

If you're a “nihilist,” who’s completely given up on finding happiness . . .you can learn to be happier!

Thousands of Harvard University students have discovered that you can become happier. They learned the secret to lasting fulfillment from acclaimed teacher Tal Ben-Shahar’s class on positive psychology--a branch of psychology that combines the latest scientific research with good old common sense. Now you can join his class and learn how positive psychology can make you happier right now--no lottery windfall, job promotion, or new love required.

Think of Happier as your own personal workbook. As you read each chapter’s illuminating discussion on happiness and incorporate its simple exercises into your daily routine, you will see every aspect of your life with new eyes and a new sense of purpose.

When you learn how to live for today and for tomorrow at the same time, you learn how to balance your immediate personal needs with long-term goals and enjoy life as you never have before.

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Customer Reviews

Better than the rest of the self-help books
This book approaches happiness with foundations based on research, peer-reviewed psychology publications, and observational logic. It is very well-written and uplifting, without being simplistic. It uses concepts from Csikszentmihalyi , Seligman, Jung, Campbell, Goleman, Branden, Gardner, Persig, and Kahneman, among others. The sections on happiness in education and in the workplace were especially helpful to me and made me realize I was focusing too much on financial rewards for happiness. This book gave me more focus and peace.

Life is A Process, Not An End.
Life is a process, not an end. If you don't enjoy the process, you're going to hate the end.

I've read the ideas in this book many many times. Yet run through one more point of view is not a bad thing. Actually the author sums up the key to life well lived quite well in this thin book. Have meaningful goals, but enjoy the day to day process or realizing those goals. Appreciation is the key to life. The Psychic bank account. And then he applys them to school, to work, to love. And then he ends the book with meditations.

Give it a try. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

The only criticism, yet not enough to substract a star, is that there are quite a few repeated ideas from his previous work. However, if you have a good idea, no harm in repeating that idea.

This book actually works
Even the bright yellow cover was carefully planned! This book may repeat what other books have said before, and it does it well. The author, Tal Ben-Shahar backs up his book with an abundance of research, surveys, science, logic, and well, PROOF. Of course, a lot of being happy starts from within ourselves, the motivation to want to be happier. Reading this book gave me a helpful kick-start.

Not only is this book an explanation of positive psychology, it also serves as a workbook. There are "Time-In" sections which ask you to reflect on certain areas of your life:
"Think back to a period or two in your life when you enjoyed both present and future benefits."
Also, there are more in-depth exercises included. It's great to see a self-help book with clear text, good editing, well mapped out and wonderfully organized. The wording is up to date, the references personal.

I can't think of anything negative about the book. Ben-Shahar appears to be very open-minded as he covers each section: relationships, love, work, etc. I finally felt good about myself (I'm 20 something, floundering about trying to find my way.) If you have a question about how to apply positive psychology to a given situation, it's pretty easy to get advice straight from the book after looking it up in the table of contents. (Fast advice!)

The principles in this book can not only be applied to all ages.

And it helps that they name-dropped Harvard. Well, Harvard is living up to expectations here. This book is very well written and sinks in. I highly recommend reading it more than once.