Happiness Now!

Book: “Happiness Now: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good Fast” by Robert Holden

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

After finishing this book, I took some time to reflect upon it. It is a good read. It makes a lot of common sense. Ultimately, it is important to love yourself now – not in the past or some time in the future but now. It is the sacredness of loving yourself that makes you more loveable and special. The world is a mirror. You only can see what you are prepared to see. If you have guilt in your life, you will see guilt. If you see failure, you will see failure. If you see goodness, you will see goodness. To find joy, you must uncover the guilt, the fear, the doubts, past conditioning and your history. True happiness, on the other hand, is an inner power which is “…natural, healing, abundant and always available.”

Interestingly, the EGO can be seen as Edging God Out or Everything Good is Outside. The ego or the conditioned self sees you as being in the wrong; as having something inherently wrong with you. One way of thinking about the ego is to think of a bird flying high in the sky trying to find the sky. Thy are already in it. It is like a fish in water being thirsty.

Robert Holden mentions a lot of psychological schools from Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Fritz Perls, Roberto Assiagolio, R.D. Laing, Janov, Eric Berne and Dr. J.L. Moreno. He indicates what the schools calls the ego and the unconditioned self or spirit. Even Sigmund Freud changed his mind towards the end of his life and said “In the final analysis, we must love in order not to fall ill.” Psychology is finding its soul.

Robert Holden further looks at Eastern Mysticism for enlightenment. He even searches Christianity Sikhism, Islam and Buddhism. He quotes “Search not in distant skies; in man’s heart God lies” and so forth. “Ye are Gods,” Jesus said to the people.

During Robert Holden’s Happiness Project, they did everything to elicit emotion and to deal with it. They remember the truth and let go of the pain. Robert indicates that you need to be able to spend time by yourself and love yourself while doing that.

Mr. Holden, however, has the belief that you can’t do the healing by yourself. I disagree. He thinks you need a counsellor or some sort of way of releasing the emotion. He says “…a true healer helps you to remember and reconnect consciously with your inner light.” Your inner light being the unconditioned self that is loving, free of fear and creative.

He indicates that there are a lot of positive things that happen when you are happy. People will gravitate towards you and will not know why. To be happy, you must first undo your misperceptions, false conditioning and fearful beliefs. It is a road that people can and should travel. It is the journey that matters and not the destination.

The book has a number of poems and sayings that are positive and helpful. The book is a reminder to be happy now instead of a prolonged time afterwards. It is a call to action. I recommend this book for those who wish to pursue more happiness in their lives. It is an anniversary book put out by Hay House.

Tags: Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Fritz Perls, Roberto Assiagolio, R.D. Laing, Janove, Eric Berne and Dr. J.L. Moreno, psychology, self, love, soul, inner light, Happiness Project.

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