Three books to cultivate happiness

> Ode to joy

Everyone is looking for the shortest path that leads to their happiness. “We were not born to drool over it. We are here to find fun and excitement. To enter the joy of living and abundance. “ Happy program is that of Franck Martin, teacher in communication and management, expert in relationships of trust, who takes out the heavy gear of personal development and common sense – tools, reflections, concepts and exercises within everyone’s reach – to inject himself “The anti-virus of compulsive thoughts”, remedy the limiting injunctions and regain vital immunity. On this optimistic front, the author places the present moment and ego-benevolence at the heart of his battle plan for “Reconnect with who you really are”. His secret boot is to “To infect with blows of happiness all those who touch me, hear me and see me. Happiness is contagious ”. Unfortunately, not so much than Covid-19.

The Contagion of Happiness, by Franck Martin (Ed. Eyrolles, 2021, 186 pages, 16.90 euros).

> So, (badly) happy?

The Art of Being Unhappy, by Dirk de Wachter

Seeing life in pink is not the one and only path to happiness. Something bad is good: this is what the Belgian psychiatrist Dirk de Wachter defends, for whom the injunction to happiness, this obsessive quest for “always more” and “necessarily better”, is “The disease of our time”. For him, the art of happy living consists of being unhappy from time to time. And more than accepting setbacks and wiping out setbacks, it is constructive to welcome them: because the trials of life, ours as well as those of those we support, by creating meaning and connection, are sources of happiness. In the preface to this Art of being unhappy, neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik considers that “Happiness and unhappiness dance together like a pair of opposites. We need both to feel both ”. A dance that does not go without opening up to others, taking care of them and getting involved, without fear of exposing their vulnerabilities. “Perhaps I should have titled this book The art of being happy, after all “, concludes Dirk de Wachter.

The Art of Being Unhappy, by Dirk de Wachter (Ed. de La Martinière, 2021, 132 pages, 14.90 euros).

> All in good time

Good Vibes, Good Life, by Vex King

Can we be happy when nothing is available to us: devastated personal situation, tense professional climate, finances in disarray or even a health context as anxiety-provoking as that of Covid-19? “If you see everything in gray, move the elephant”, invites the Indian adage. To dispel any gray area, Vex King advocates a holistic approach to achieve a more fulfilled life, through “A level of mastery in all aspects of life and a positive influence on the world”. Two keystones contribute to happiness, according to the personal development coach: the law of attraction and that of vibration. The principle of the law of attraction says that “What you focus on will come to you”, that of the law of vibration, more esoteric, affirms that we are able to control our reality and transform our world ” by modifying [notre] way of thinking, feeling, speaking and acting ”. No one has ever said that moving an elephant is no big deal!

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