HARVARD HAPPINESS!

May 16, 2007
BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

I would like to introduce you to a great new book called: Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, by Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D.

Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., is one of Harvard University's most popular lecturers. More students have signed up to hear Ben-Shahar than any other teacher in Harvard's history. His classes attract 1,400 students per semester - approximately 20 percent of all Harvard graduates. He has been profiled on NPR and featured on CNN and CBS and in the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Ben-Shahar graduated from Harvard with a degree in philosophy and psychology. For the last ten years, he has been teaching personal and organizational excellence, leadership, ethics, and self-esteem.

The book Happier is short and very easy to read. It is a delightful and delicious assortment of valuable happiness insights and exercises. One thing about this book is that it allows you to understand happiness from a common sense approach. Ben-Shahar uses logic and reason to explain happiness in a straightforward way.

The book Happier will allow you to learn to become exactly what it says...happier. Another important aspect of the book Happier is that a teacher cannot make you happy. What you can do, is learn to be happy, from a person that has learned about being happy. Ben-Shahar understands happiness, because he boils happiness down to the simple things of life, as well as the meaning you have in your life. Ben-Shahar's students have discovered that they can become happier. Ben-Shahar has lead his class on positive psychology - a branch of psychology that combines the latest scientific research with good old common sense.

I would like to use the words of Ben Dean, Ph.D. to describe what positive psychology is: "Positive psychology is the scientific study of what goes right in life, from birth to death and at all stops in between. It is a newly christened approach within psychology that takes seriously the examination of that which makes life most worth living. Everyone's life has peaks and valleys, and positive psychology does not deny the valleys. What is good about life is as genuine as what is bad and, therefore, deserves equal attention from psychologists. Positive psychology as an explicit perspective has existed only since 1998, but enough relevant theory and research now exists to fill a textbook suitable for a semester-long college course."

The title of the book Happier actually reveals and delivers what it proposes. You will learn to live with daily joy if you read this book and actually practice and apply the words of wisdom in this book. Another key thing you will learn is that there really is a lasting fulfillment to life. Tal Ben-Shahar states: "Attaining lasting happiness requires that we enjoy the journey on our way toward a destination we deem valuable." You can learn to be happy and this book will give you the essentials to being happy.

To quote Dr, Tal Ben-Shahar: "The happiness revolution, which is about the change from material perception to happiness perception, is mental and therefore internal. No outside force is required to bring about this change. Conscious choice - the choice to focus on happiness as the ultimate currency - is the only agent."
Ben-Shahar states so perfectly: "The happiness revolution is about creating a society-wide paradigm shift to a higher level of consciousness, a higher plane of existence - to happiness perception. If most people in our society understand and internalize the ideas that happiness is not a zero-sum game and that pursuing it does not put us in competition with others, a quiet revolution will unfold where the pursuit of happiness and helping others attain higher levels of happiness will be two complimentary ends. When this revolution comes about, we will witness a society-wide abundance of not only happiness but also goodness."

Congratulations to Dr, Tal Ben-Shahar for writing the book Happier and contributing to the Happiness Revolution. His web site is: www.talbenshahar.com.
Dr, Tal Ben-Shahar might ask you questions like these. "Can you recognize that happiness, not money or prestige, is the ultimate currency - the currency by which we ought to take measure of our lives? Can you accept that you have a right to be happy?"

Our next Happiness Club meeting is Thursday, May 17, from 7:00-9:00 P.M. The presentation is "How I Got Involved with Happiness!" by Dr. Mark K. Setton. Dr. Setton is an Associate Professor of World Religions and Chairman of the Martial Arts Studies Program at the University of Bridgeport. Dr. Setton will speak about the importance of happiness. The meeting will be held in the Rotary Room, at the Fairfield Public Library, located at 1080 Old Post Road. There is no charge for the meeting and everyone's welcome!

Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club and can be reached at PrintLRK@aol.com. The website is www.HappinessClub.com.