The Happiness Makeover: How to Teach Yourself to Be Happy and Enjoy Every Day [Hardcover]

M.J. Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2005

We all want the things that we’re sure will make us happy—money, success, independence, love. But when we finally get them, we can find to our surprise that we are the same miserable, moody, or just neutral people we always were. Why is that? Is it us? Is our ability to be happy genetically programmed in us like the color of our eyes?

Luckily not. You can teach yourself to be happy and enjoy every day, and M. J. Ryan, bestselling author of The Power of Patience and Attitudes of Gratitude, shows you how. In her international coaching practice, M. J. Ryan has shown hundreds of clients how to find and really feel the joy in their lives. She gives them tools to unearth what stands in their way and revolutionize the way they experience life. Now it’s your turn for a Happiness Makeover.

Ryan’s own desire to be happier first led her to study what is known about happiness from brain science, psychology, and the wisdom traditions of the world. The Happiness Makeover draws on this wide-ranging knowledge and presents a plan that will help you:

• Clear away happiness hindrances like worry, fear, envy, and grudges

• Discover happiness boosters like flow, meaningful work, challenge, and gratitude

• Literally rewire your brain to experience contentment—even joy

• Learn to think optimistically (it really is possible!)

• Find daily ways to truly enjoy, even relish, the moments of your life

Full of moving stories, inspiring quotations, and the wisdom of one who has been there before, The Happiness Makeover offers the means to find elusive happiness at last.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Advance Praise for M. J. Ryan’s The Happiness Makeover

“This book is like happy electricity—connecting us all to our joy, which we continually forget how to access.”
—SARK, author/artist of Make Your Creative Dreams Real

“A wonderful blend of motivation, inspiration, and explanation, The Happiness Makeover is a recipe for enjoying today and all your tomorrows.”
—David Niven, Ph.D., author of The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People

“Happiness is at the fingertips of every person on the planet. In The Happiness Makeover, M. J. Ryan provides example after example of people learning how to choose happiness. She offers wisdom from the ages and provides practical insights and advice on how you, too, can achieve happiness right now. A fun and enlightening book.”

—Barry Neil Kaufman, author of Happiness Is a Choice and cofounder of the Option Institute
“While we all want to be happy, we’re not always sure that we know what happiness is or how to have more if it. This wonderful book answers both questions. It’s based on the wisdom of the ages, and is informative, upbeat, and a delight to read. Keep it handy."
—Hal Urban, author of Life’s Greatest Lessons

About the Author

M. J. Ryan is one of the creators of the Random Acts of Kindness series, which has sold more than one million copies, and the author of Trusting Yourself, The Power of Patience, Attitudes of Gratitude, and many other titles. The founder and longtime publisher of Conari Press, she is currently a consultant with Professional Thinking Partners, where she specializes in coaching executives on issues of life purpose and leadership. She is a popular speaker and a contributing editor at Good Housekeeping. She lives in Walnut Creek, California.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Crown Archetype; First Edition first Printing edition (May 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767920074
• ISBN-13: 978-0767920070
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.2 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #334,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

M.J. combines a practical business perspective gained as a CEO of a publishing company with a strength-based approach to help clients reach professional and personal goals. Using methodologies from positive psychology and neuroscience, she is able to quickly identify a client's underlying thinking talents and helps them efficiently use them to overcome challenges and maximize success. She has coached many high level executives as well as entrepreneurs and individuals around the world who want lives of greater purpose and success.

Her clients include Frito Lay, Microsoft, Royal Dutch Shell, the U.S. military, Hewitt Associates, SRAK (a joint venture between Shell and the Saudi Arabian National Oil Company), the Cowell Foundation, the Boys and Girls Club, and the town of Paradise, Ca.

She is the author of many best-selling books including her latest ADAPTABILITY: How to Survive Change You Didn't Ask For and THIS YEAR I WILL...How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution or Make A Dream Come True.

www.MJ-Ryan.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ready for an Attitude Adjustment?, May 15, 2005

By 

Virginia Allain "(retired librarian)" (Poinciana, FL) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Happiness Makeover: How to Teach Yourself to Be Happy and Enjoy Every Day (Hardcover)

This title intrigued me after reading about it in Life Magazine. Ryan is a life coach who says you can teach yourself to look on the brighter side of life. Sure your life may be complicated and sad things happen, but apparently you can train your brain to be more upbeat.
One exercise was to make a list of three good things from each day. Maybe it's just something small, like "I'm glad that I didn't lose my temper when my boss reprimanded me." Maybe it's focusing on the beauty that is around us, like "Seeing the egret fly by was a treat."
Eventually this attitude adjustment will become a routine part of our thinking. Sure can't hurt to try.
I signed up for the daily e-mails (happiness boosters) from this author. They're great and remind you to put into practice what you learned from reading the book.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real gem, May 24, 2005

By 

Donna (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Happiness Makeover: How to Teach Yourself to Be Happy and Enjoy Every Day (Hardcover)

Despite the affluence of the Western lifestyle, many people aren't happy, and the numbers of unhappy and depressed people is ever increasing. Seemingly we don't know how to live our lives in a satisfied way - how to draw contentment, happiness, maybe even a little joy, from our lives on a daily basis.
This little book has so much wisdom to offer on this topic. It is a true gem drawing from Eastern and Western wisdom traditions, including positive psychology and is a blend of philosophical, spiritual, emotional and practical perspectives.
It contains very readable short chapters, 17 looking at what stands in the way of living happier lives, and then 36 on real, practical ways to improve one's happiness.
These can range from learning to think more optimistically, working out and embracing what your "flow" activities are, practicing gratefulness, finding your "tribe", revelling in life's simple pleasures, and the ultimate wisdom: "what are you waiting for?" The author quotes Lao Tzu - "this is it", our life is now, and happiness is for today, not tomorrow, or when we have some particular set of circumstances in our life that we think we need.
There is page after page of practical wisdom in this little book - and once finished, it can be kept close at hand, to be picked up again and again, to take in something new, or to refresh oneself if need be. There is enough practical wisdom in there to keep a person working joyously on enhancing their life's contentment, happiness and joy for the rest of their life!
There is finally a section containing 22 "instant happiness boosters", and also an excellent bibliography for further reading if desired.
You can also join a mailing list for a "daily happiness booster" - a daily email with an excerpt from one of the chapters - it's a great way to keep refreshed on what you have read and may well be trying to put in place in your daily life.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The right book at the right time, June 2, 2005

By 

MammaBear (Haverhill, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Happiness Makeover: How to Teach Yourself to Be Happy and Enjoy Every Day (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have read other books on positive thinking and happiness but somehow this is the book that clicked with me. The author pulls from many different disciplines ( psychology, religion, spirituality, philosophy, science) to illustrate and support her thesis. I think this is why it seems to go beyond the regular "self-help" type book for me. I found myself thinking about the book in various situations throughout the day and was able to really apply the things being said (especially with my children). I think its honest and real. I did not find it sappy or pollyanna like so many books on this topic run the danger of being. I have recommended the book to friends and look forward to reading more of M.J. Ryan's works as this was the first I have read.