BALANCE ~ BOOK REVIEW
happy
STATE OF MIND
REVIEW BY REBECCA SPIESS
THIS BOOK IS
ABOUT...
Helping people
find and implement
tools that increase
happiness long-term.
All of Lyubomirsky’s
methods and
arguments are
firmly backed up by
scientific studies,
and she offers 12
commonsense
“Happiness Ac tivities”
based on these
findings. The book
also includes easyto-use assessments
to find activities best
suited for readers’
needs and to measure
happiness levels.
THIS BOOK LENGTH IS....
Even at 304 pages, this book is a fast
read that can be completed in a few
weeks. The medium-sized font adds to
readability.
always circles back to
the facts, making this
book a step up from
others in the self-help
genre.
MY FAVORITE
QUOTE FROM THIS
BOOK IS...
“Happiness is not
out there for us to
find. The reason that
it’s not out there is
that it’s inside us.
As banal and cliched
as this might sound,
happiness, more
than anything, is
a state of mind, a
way of perceiving
and approaching
ourselves and the
world in which we reside.”
WHAT PEOPLE CAN LEARN FROM
THIS BOOK IS...
This book can teach readers a lot
about the true keys to happiness. As
Lyubomirsky notes, most people have
THIS BOOK IS GOOD TO READ IF ...
no idea what actually leads to lasting
You’re a self-help skeptic who is looking happiness. Beauty, wealth, and fame
for a happier, more fulfilling life. I
pale in comparison to the impact of
personally fall into this category. I
things like meaningful relationships and
dislike self-help books for their widelygratitude. She also introduces readers
appealing and calculatingly empty, easy to the “Happiness Pie Chart,” where
fixes. Lyubomirsky offers a work far from 50 percent of happiness is inherited,
this, and even addresses the inherent
10 percent is circumstantial, and 40
“corniness” of some of the methods. She percent is directly in our control.