In 2017, I received a copy of The Happy Mind, A Simple Guide to Living a Happier Life Starting Today. It was written by Kevin Horsley and Louis Fourie and published by TCK Publishing in 2017. It only has 5 chapters, and 127 pages in PDF format. So it should be an easy read.
The introduction provides options on how to read the book and retain the information. You could use it for daily reading, or you can include some of the lessons in your monthly planning process, or you can convert the book into a customized happiness manual. Whichever way suits you is fine. So that should explain why it is only 5 chapters.
However, the topic of happiness can be very subjective. For one, people have different concepts and different perceptions of how we achieve happiness. For another, we can’t seem to pinpoint where happiness should be coming from. That’s what Chapter 1 – The Search for Happiness is all about.
Chapter 2 – Happiness Is, tries to define happiness based on the qualities most happy people have. It listed nine qualities and described each explaining how these qualities define happiness.
In most of the non-fiction presentations, once you give the pros, you follow it with cons. So Chapter 3 is entitled The Origin of Unhappiness. It lists 10 traps that will lead you into a state of unhappiness.
I believe the core lies in Chapter 4 where all the Practical Guidelines, Thoughts, Suggestions, and Reminders in the Interest of Happiness are listed. This is where it becomes a workbook or a manual. Although you can go back and review the previous chapters, chapter 4 is your road map to happiness.
Chapter 5 – A Few Last Words is short and sums up the previous chapters.
As I’ve said, the book is an easy read, conversational, relaxed, and not too stiff, and formal. Unlike other self-help books, this does not mention famous persons as examples but rather approached the topic in a matter-of-fact, life-lab workbook type. It focuses on the reader and the reader’s actions rather than providing examples or case studies to compare a situation from.
Also, the lessons here are also the lessons I’ve already read in other books., in a different way and approach. So there’s nothing new, really. This book, however, stood out with the times because it took an old topic into a different approach to appear new to some readers.
All in all, it achieves its purpose of being a simple guide to living a happier life starting today. I’m giving it 3 out of 5 stars.
