Joy, No Matter What: Make 3 Simple Choices to Access Your Inner Joy [Paperback]

Carolyn Hobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2005

Joy, No Matter What shows us that joy is not something "out there," available only to the lucky few born with emotional silver spoons in their mouths. We all have joy at our core. No matter what's going on in our lives, we can uncover our innate joy and bring it into the light of our everyday lives.

Carolyn Hobbs has worked with thousands of people in individual and couples' therapy, workshops, and graduate courses. She has helped people face depression and anxiety, handle chronic pain and life-threatening diseases, overcome addictions, cope with life transofmrations--and still find their own joy in the midst of whatever life throws their way. Making the choices that can change your life is as simple as 1, 2, 3.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to therapist Hobbs, you can feel joy every minute of your life-no matter whether you're taking out the garbage or driving the kids to school. It is, Hobbs believes, our own bad habits of thought and feeling that keep joy away: we obsess about negative events, we let fear and anxiety control us. But, she says, joy can be always accessible to us: not the intense joy of dancing or of seeing a gorgeous landscape, but "the softer, subtler joy that can flood our awareness with a sense of inner peace and well-being." Hobbs offers three steps to that joy: first, "Say yes to what is"; then "witness your thoughts, feelings, and reactions"; finally, "respond differently, with kindness and compassion." Hobb's worldview is not for everyone: some will recoil at her idea that negative events in our lives are simply the effect of "the natural ebb and flow of the Universe." Her argument that we should say "yes" to our pain and develop a relationship with it won't convince everyone. But those open to this kind of Eastern-based spiritual approach will find advice on how to deal with discouragement, loneliness, fear and the other negatives that, Hobbs says, keep us from everyday happiness.
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About the Author

Hobbs is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a member of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and the Association for Humanistic Psychology. She has taught at Naropa Institute and Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573249688
• ISBN-13: 978-1573249683
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,093,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is alive!, March 2, 2005

By 

Dr. John G. Komarek (Boulder, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joy, No Matter What: Make 3 Simple Choices to Access Your Inner Joy (Paperback)

As a chiropractor I have a great interest in that which brings peace, more joy and freedom into anyone's life. In reading Carolyn Hobb's book, 'Joy, No Matter What', she condensed what I have been trying to communicate for some 28 years. This book is alive! One gets the sense that Ms. Hobbs has experieced completely what she is writing about and holds nothing back in communicating her deepest truths. If you are interested in playing full out in life, holding nothing back, this book is a must read.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, Compelling and Heartful, February 20, 2005

By 

Helen Read - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joy, No Matter What: Make 3 Simple Choices to Access Your Inner Joy (Paperback)

This wonderful author takes us gently by the hand and with honesty, clarity and a compassionate heart leads us into a revealing journey of self exploration. This book delivers what the title promises and much, much more! Through personal stories, examples and teachings Carolyn Hobbs does what many promise but few can deliver. In Joy No Matter What, we are clearly and directly given tools that truly work...to enable us to experience more joy and peace in our everyday lives. This is a must read! It will magnificently change your life if you say YES! Give yourself the gift of this extraordinary book, and give it to your friends and loved ones!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Guidance in Clear Language, October 25, 2006

By 

C. Wood "Relationship Therapist" (Marin County, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joy, No Matter What: Make 3 Simple Choices to Access Your Inner Joy (Paperback)

I loved Carolyn Hobb's book, "Joy No Matter What." There are a lot of self-help books out but none quite as clearly written as this one. Very inspiring. Simple yet profound. Wonderful stories and anecdotes that offer great wisdom. I like how Carolyn takes each feeling, mind and belief habbit and offers practice tools to support healthy changes. This is a book that you would pass on to a friend or client in need of support regarding any life challenge, of course after reading it yourself. And you don't even have to read the whole book. You can go to the section that deals with your specific challenge. I find I go back to this book again and again as the challenges change and I need different support tools for the new life situation.