Marci Shimoff is the coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul and has been a featured teacher in the international film, “The Secret”. In this book, she has offered 7 steps to stay happy in your life. Marci says that you should take ownership of your happiness. If you are not able to change the events, then change the responses. Complaining, blaming, and feeling shame are some of the habits that rob us of our happiness. If we shift out of the victim game, then we can surely expand our energy and be happier.
Marci shares a piece of research with all readers that can make a difference in our life. She says that we all have a happiness set point like a thermostat setting and no matter what happens to us, whether it’s good or bad, we tend to return to that set point. She writes that as per a study conducted it was found that people who had won the lottery experienced a short-term elation but within a year, returned to the same happiness level they had experienced before. Similarly, people who became paraplegics returned to their original happiness level within a year. As per research, 50 percent of the happiness set point comes from our genetics, 10 percent from our circumstances, and the remaining 40 percent from our habits. Luckily our happiness set point can be increased. Marci has discussed various methods to increase our happiness levels in this book. Having enough sleep, meditation, intake of nutritious food, regular exercising, and reducing caffeine intake are some of them.
Marci has interviewed 100 happy people for this book and from her 100 interviews, she selected twenty-one stories. People in our society believe that happiness is meant by success, wealth, possessions, and good relationships. But after assessing the 100 happy people, Marci concluded that what made them happy was their habits and not the usual parameters set by society. They had qualities of gratitude, openness, acceptance, and most importantly a purpose in life. True happiness is a state of peace and well-being at our inner level, regardless of external circumstances. The happy 100 people understood that events happening in our life cannot be labeled as good or bad. They accepted the events with a belief that everything has a gift or a lesson to offer.
Marci also tells us about how to build up emotional immunity. She has suggested some effective ways to stay out of the range of emotional bullies and happiness vampires who make us feel drained and unhappy.
Overall, the book is very refreshing and enjoyable to read.