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

[OneWish]

Now that I am awake about my situation and where my pain is coming from I wanted some help that focused on me with practical tools on how I can put all of this behind me and live a fulfilling life. In the past few days the one thing I kept repeating over and over to myself was that I'm sick of living in fear, tired of being constantly anxious and exhausted. I just wanted the emotional rollercoaster to go away.

Today I stumbled upon this charmingly simple book written by a Frenchman who spent over 20yrs in butan and tibet finding that one thing I was after, happiness. Obviously based on Bhuddist tenets, its not about goingvegetarian or living in the mountains either, but it is about finding that inner calm, the serenity that always walks with you no matter what. True happiness according to this book is about being at peace with whats within rather than without.

Each chapter uses western and eastern philosophies to gently guide you into asking questions about what happiness personally is to you, and why modern life distracts us from true happiness and leads us into pleasure seeking instead.

The first chapter had a simple exercise to help me see where and what I was pinning my happiness on and how fragile that can be. The second a simple exercise in observing thoughts and refocusing, which did help me feel a lot less anxious. The book consists of 21 chapters with a simple exercise at the end of each to assist you in developing a sense of inner calm that is lasting and not dependant upon the circumstances around you.

Happiness is about developing the ability to have a solid inner core with which to weather the storms of life. To develop a lasting sense of contentment and fulfillment in life by focusing on what is essential and important. To me, this writer exudes the one thing I have sought my whole life, stability and inner peace. The big wow of this book for me is a total shift on what I thought would make me happy and the pleasant surprise in understanding what actually does. They are simple tools you can take with you on every journey. Exactly what I was searching for.

Luckily this book is also priced very affordably, about 40% below retail of most books. Its the kind of book you can pick up for 10 minutes once a day and get through a chapter.