This book is based on a pragmatic approach to happiness. Don’t expect the typical validation of feelings and touchy-feely, woo-woo psychobabble (not that there isn’t a place for all this in psychology). Instead, Dr. Baker believes that we can’t possibly resolve all our hurts or fix all our weakness. What we can do is transcend them by acknowledging and accepting, but not wallowing. We have to move on and lead our lives with our strengths, and focus on the good things in the here-and-now.
Since that may sound complex, let’s go back to basics. The biggest barrier to happiness is fear, which manifests itself in worry, anxiety, perfectionism, anger and a number of other familiar qualities. These fears all boil down to two - fear of not having enough and of not being enough. There are two paths to take when responding to these fears – the reptilian brain approach (named after the reptilian portion of the brain) that prompts a fear-based reaction such as fight, flight or freeze, and the higher brain response that prompts an intellectual or spirit-driven response.
Dr. Baker refers to the struggle between these two responses as “the dance of spirit and reptile”, and he can show you how to let the spirit lead. In the book, he discusses the qualities of happiness, happiness tools, happiness traps and how to incorporate all of these into an action plan. He shares stories about his patients and himself - people who truly have lost so much, and people who are just overwhelmed with today’s hectic pace of life. And he shows us how these people ultimately chose happiness over fear and say good-bye to lesser lives.
Happiness is not fluff and living in la-la land. And it’s also not about having loads of money or power or looking like a supermodel. Happiness is letting love conquer fear. Happy people are not happy all the time. Who could possibly be? But what do happy people know? They know how to live the words - don’t worry, be happy.
About
the authors:
Dan Baker, Ph.D., was on of the original developers of
Canyon Ranch and has been director of the award-wining Life
Enhancement Program for fifteen years.
He was founding director of the behavioral medicine
department at Canyon Ranch.
Cameron Stauth is the author of fourteen books, including
several bestsellers, and has been published in nine languages.
What Happy People
Know