A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE FOR ACHIEVING HAPPINESS

Chirdeep Malhotra . Updated: 6/14/2018 7:03:04 PM Books and Authors

Book Review: 'Happiness Is All We Want' by Ashutosh Mishra

What is happiness? How to find happiness? These are questions that have eluded people since times immemorial. All of us know that happiness means different things for different people, and people go on different pursuits to achieve that. Psychology says that people are happy if they have a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Many self-help and motivational books have been written which describe the quest for happiness and how to achieve it. The author Ashutosh Mishra comes up with such a book “Happiness is all we want!” in which he presents a framework for comprehensive wellness with a fresh perspective, based on his own experiences over the last couple of decades.
In Introduction and structure, it has been detailed well how we all are in the pursuit of happiness in this “modern life”, which evades us as whenever we feel that we have achieved happiness, it vanishes quickly or we really don’t feel happy. It also describes what the modern life is doing to us, and how to read and use this book. The book is divided into three parts. The first part is about mental wellbeing and is titled “The mind or the monkey?”. Here, mind is compared to a monkey and the author has detailed how to delve into healthy and friendly relationships, and also about meditation practices, Yog-Nidra, Pranayama, Yoga, Reiki, guided meditation and the power of prayer.
The second part is about physical wellbeing and is titled “The body or the donkey?”. Here, the author has compared today’s man’s body to a donkey, because it is severely over-loaded with mental, if not physical burden. In this part, the author has detailed about the rebalancing of diet; benefits of Cardio exercises, running/jogging and swimming; why exercise programs fail and how to do Calorie control and Calorie substitution. The third part is about spiritual wellbeing and is titled “The Flying Horse”. In this part, the techniques for spiritual advancement and Vipassana meditation have been described, along with the demystifying of spiritual well-being and purifying the mind and consciousness.
The book incorporates Practical tips, Happiness moments, Well-being stories, Tech traps, things to ponder, and things to do which makes it more reader friendly and the content well organized. Owing to the somewhat succinct tips and to-do points present in the expansive text, this book should not be rushed through and should be read at a slow pace, for a better understanding of the wide variety of tools and techniques explained and for the important messages that need to be contemplated upon to sink in. This is also a book that can be read again and again, and in different moods, for one will find different meanings and messages from a more thorough foray into this self-help book.
This is a comprehensive and memorable manual about discovering happiness within ourselves, and the information provided is an edifying blend of detailed analysis and the author’s own personal reflections. The wisdom-packed pages of this book effectively advocate that the source of peace and happiness is within us, if we know the secret. The author clearly lets out the secret of physical and mental health for us in this inspirational and illuminating guide; and also demystifies the spiritual aspect of well-being, by letting us know how to integrate it with our life objectives. This book is a powerful and essential reading for everyone on the quest for happiness, and an entertaining one at that, owing to the author’s candour and upbeat writing.


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