Customer Reviews

Becoming What You Want to See in the World: The Art of Joyful Living

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The accessability, brevity and practicality of this book makes it valuable reading for anyone wanting to create a more balanced, happy life. I say this because I found the ideas and principles presented by Mary Claire O'Neal to ring true with my intuition and life observations, and I believe her insights to be universal to human experience. I've found the seven exercises and practices that she suggests (which she terms "tools") to be useful and helpful in getting my bearings in life.

This is not a dry reading of formulas to achieve happiness; O'Neal writes with an informal, personal voice and seasons the book with her own stories. It is also well written. I've had the pleasure of attending her workshop on communication, and can vouch for her brilliance as a teacher. Her book now extends to a wider audience the fruits of her efforts to achieve happiness and understand its underpinnings.

Are you haunted by a nagging feeling of "There has to be more to life than THIS!"--more than what the world insists is what ought to make you happy? Maybe you've unconsciously settled for somebody else's definition of "happy." One of this book's many strengths is that it shows you how to practice noticing what makes YOU happy. Because we all grow up being taught how to see what's wrong (with ourselves and with life in general), we can end up focusing on it so much that we forget that life is really about experiencing what's right. We may even lose track of what "happy" feels like for us.
O'Neal's book can help you train yourself to see the "good stuff" that's already in your experience. Learning to see it and to focus on it is the key to experiencing and consciously creating more of it. Plus, the book's attractively designed, well-written, easy to follow and full of practical techniques. It's an empowering work that shows you how to engage your own ongoing thoughts to create a more joyful and meaningful life. There's a lot in this slim volume, including exercises that you can use to create and reinforce "joyful habits" for years to come. Recommended both for individual and study groups.

In "Becoming What You Want To See In The World: The Art Of Joyful Living", author, speaker, and consultant Mary Claire O'Neal does something that no other self-help manual writer has done quite in the same way before - she examines the `physics' of happiness and just how we can ignite and revive our passion an joy in life. Enhanced with personal stories, practical tools, and motivating activities, O'Neal draws upon her years of professional experience and expertise as a seasoned professional to instruct her readers in how they can live more fulfilling, balanced, and meaningful lives. "Becoming What You Want To See In The World" is a thoroughly `reader friendly' compilation of clear, concise principles and action plans that are founded upon effective and compassionate communication. If you only have time and energy for one self-help, self-improvement book at present, you would be well advised to make it Mary O'Neal's "Becoming What You Want To See In The World".

This excellent book provided many ah ha moments! The light bulbs went on and I couldn't put it down. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants genuine peace and happiness in their lives!

Being happy is hard. There are so many negative things in the world and it is hard to be positive. The only way to make things better is if you change the way you look at things.
I read Becoming What You Want to See in the World, by Mary Claire O'Neal and it was exactly what I needed at the time. If you are depressed, have a chaotic life, over whelmed, want to find a happier way of living, or having a little trouble in life you might want to read this book. I was looking for ways to help me find happiness in a very low point in my life. This book lifted my spirits and helped me to realize that there are people in the world that are going through the same things I have been going through and have went through. I connected with the author of this book a lot. She talks about self-talk and how to work on making it positive, and how it's hard to stay positive because there are so many negative things in the world like the news. The book also talks about the fear of the unknown "and how sometimes, sometimes, the very things we are afraid of are areas where we have a gift, talent, an affinity or skill" (52). I believe this line to be very true. There are many things I'm good at, but I'm afraid to put myself out there from fear of failure and from other reasons I'm not really sure of. Mary Claire O'Neal tells of a time where she put herself out on the wire and I admire her for that. This book has showed me that happiness does not come easily; you need to work at it.
Inside the book there are pages to get you started writing a joy journal. I love the idea of a joy journal. It is where you write down positive observations, thoughts and feelings in a book everyday. I tried doing this but I have never been good at keeping a journal or anything like this.
There are many tools to help to find what you want to see in the world in this book. This book really connected with me. All I know is that I am keeping this book forever, because I always seem to take something new in each time I read it.

Mrs. Sage's Class

Julia

A superbly recorded, two disc, 1.9 hour audiobook production narrated by Mary Clair O'Neall, "Becoming What You Want To See In The World" examines the 'physics' of happiness and how anyone can invoke and restore passion and joy into the fabric of their lives. Replete with inspiring personal stories, "Becoming What You Want To See In The World" also provides tools and activities illustrating practical approaches to leading a more fulfilled, balanced, and meaningful life regardless of the listener's personal circumstances or economic restrictions. Especially recommended to the attention of those who are leading busy, time stressed lives, and feel they don't have the ability or opportunity to make changes in their schedules or themselves, "Becoming What You Want To See In The World" is ideal for learning how to take the time and invest the energy needed to improve the quality of life on a daily basis.