The Happiness Trap: Stop Struggling, Start Living

I felt compelled to review this as seeing four stars for a book like this boggles my mind. I've had a generalised anxiety disorder since 15 and had a nervous breakdown five months ago with intense anxiety, I had to be checked in to a mental health hospital to recover, you'd think that I didn't know anything about psychology to get into that state, but I've read an almost silly amount. With this book and other ACT books I am now doing better than ever in my life and am grateful for what I went through, as it led me to a life philosophy I will never give up on, in fact I've only just started living at 24 thanks to this. I must have bought every book with even a grain of wisdom on this whole site! That was just adding to the problem, by constantly telling my brain that this anxiety is not acceptable I was just sending messages of how dangerous this anxiety was and the cycle never broke no matter how much insight I got into my own mind. This book explains brilliantly and in simple terms how to get out of this trap, if you follow the advice and actually act on it then you can't fail to enhance your life. ACT is definitely borrowed from Buddhism which seems to bug some people, like they stole it or something, which is bizarre. I really don't think the Buddha would be complaining about how his wisdom is being passed on in a different way more appropriate for people with genuine mental health problems. And one reviewers mention of this book's "political correctness" warps my mind, I genuinely have no idea what he's even referring to. Also I'd say that any form of therapy that works incorporates something the Buddha said as he essentially did figure out the crux of human suffering, so whether they notice it or not they will be repeating his theories for a modern age. The word buddhism has a stigma, that despite it's efficiency, turns some people off. Therapy has to stay away from that so as not to alienate people. All I can say is that I've bought probably 100 + books on therapy or ancient wisdom or philosophy and gave them my full attention and all that did was make things worse, had I found this book and realised buying books was part of the problem I could have lived a much fuller life up to this point. Russ Harris reads like a genuinely nice, down to earth guy and this book is also great for people without mental health problems that just want to cope with life a bit better. Don't make the same mistake I made!

For me this book serves as a very practical guide to, as the name suggests, living a happy life. I spent 5 years in the military and at the age of 25 left and realised that I didn't really know how to live a happy life. I'd had the job and money but still felt 'unfulfilled', what next. I travelled for 3 years and spent 2 of those years learning about and incorporating Buddhism into my life. Buddhism provided a lot of clarity in life for me as well as extremely useful 'habits' that have improved my quality of life greatly. However, once I returned to the UK I found myself feeling unhappy and unfulfilled once again. Reading Russ's book has helped me understand a lot of the why's to this and be able to do something about it. I think most if not all of the answers and teachings I needed are within Buddhism, but sometimes navigating your way through something like Buddhism can be a slow and arduous task (especially without a teacher). I found the Happiness trap plugged that gap very effectively for me. If I'm honest I felt like I was reading Buddhist literature for most of the book, but in a much easier way to understand for a western brain. It's helped me be aware of thing I wasn't aware of before from Buddhism such as trying to avoid certain feelings and emotions and the challenges that was creating for me in my life. I also thoroughly enjoyed the third part of the book about creating a meaningful life, especially the values part of the book. All in all this is an excellent book that I would highly recommend to anyone who is quite analytical and wants to understand more about the mind, happiness and living a meaningful life. In a quick summary, I'd explain the book as a combination of mindful awareness and practical living training. I think books that are similar to or complement this book are: - The Way of The Peaceful Warrior (more of a story format for someone who is struggling but doesn't want such practical step by step guidance yet) - The Art Of Happiness - Psycho Cybernetics

It is too easy to be gushing with these sort of reviews and claim that a book has changed my life, I will refrain from doing so. However, I have always been one to over think situations, and have always been told by my peers to 'let go' or 'just accept' what is happening to me. I guess I always struggled with actually how I implemented those processes, I didn't know how. This book has several techniques, using something called ACT, which have really helped me to accept what emotions I am feeling, rather than struggling against them. Yes I still get stressed, yes, i still get angry, yes, i still have moments of low self confidence. However, this book equips you with ways that really help you live with these emotions. This is different to other books I have read which claim you must get rid of these emotions, or 'think positively'. To me this book is much more realistic in its scope. After practice, I'm told, you will be able to accept what is happening without really thinking about the techniques or processes. I found this useful. I understand why others may not. If you are a chronic over-thinker, i'd check it out!

I would generally be of the sceptical kind of people who would read a headline such as mine's and immediately class it as covert advertisement. I don't blame you if you do. To be honest, I very seldom type up reviews of my Amazon purchases. But this one clearly deserves a chunk of my time. That so much goodness can be compressed into a 270-page book at a starting price of only one penny for a used edition is exhilarating. I stumbled upon Dr Harris' work in a moment of real darkness in my life. 25 years old, graduated in a degree with honours and about to graduate from a masters, living on my own with wonderful friends in an amazing city of a foreign country, working in a qualified job that attracted awe and respect from parents and acquaintances alike. Yet, for some reason, I started to feel increasingly miserable and blue, and I did all I could to run away from these feelings, telling myself stories about how inappropriate it was that someone as lucky as me was feeling that way. As it happens, these emotions could not be reined in for long, so they finally burst in the form of heightened levels of anxiety and panic attacks. Feeling desperate, I reached out to my close friends for support, and I also sought some tools from self-help books in Amazon. And "The Happiness Trap" had very good reviews, so I thought of giving it a try. Boy, I think I've never spent £7.14 more wisely. Part 1 of the book sets for an interesting journey. Part 2 simply blows your mind: anybody who has ever had trouble with an anxiety disorder or depression will connect with Dr Harris' layman stories and explanations as if he had started to write the book only after returning from an expedition into your own mind. It makes you understand the source of all of your suffering and be more at ease with your thoughts and feelings, as you learn to value them simply for what they are: words and pictures created by your mind. Part 3 is inspirational, a super synthesis of the best coaching contents. I finished the book an hour ago with a stupid smile on my face and I felt the urge to write this review. And because this urge is indeed helpful in building a more meaningful life, for me and for others, I allowed myself to fuse with it (readers will understand my choice of vocabulary best). In summary, if you feel a bit lost in life, you're struggling with depression or anxiety, or you simply want to grow internally and understand your mind better, this book is a MUST. And to top it up, it's designed as a reference book, so it'll always occupy a preferential spot in your bookcase. As Americans would say, a no-brainer!!

After attending an ACT course with the recovery college with nsft. I downloaded this book on my kindle, I printed off all the available free resources from Russ Harris`s webpage. I also downloaded his act companion android app. Which is so valuable when out and about. Don't expect to just read the book in one week and expect yr a magic wand to make yr life better. It's taken me about eight months to work through the chapters. It is really a case of not rushing yourself, downloaded on kindle is The book is easy to read, simple clear instructions but work slow to absorb and practice the exercises. It really does take conscious thought to make it work. I'm still redoing some exercises as things do change as you learn. I myself had never heard of values before. Once I understood what they were about, I realised I knew what I should put down on paper for my values but I didn't write them down. As at the start I was "numb" I wasn't feeling anything due to my ptsd. I've spent the past year working on my recovery journey. Trying to really experience any emotions towards things which would give me an idea of what my true values actually are. I wanted to feel my own true values. I've also used the little red ACT workbook and am reading the reality slap book. Again both are proving to be really good books. I have purchased the softback happiness trap book as I know I will be rereading it over and over again as I work through my recovery journey. Remember, recovery is a journey, there is no destination. Hope you find this review useful. Give this book a try, it's life-changing but only you will know when your ready to commit to the change.

I haven't read all of the book so my opinion is a bit shallow. However I don't get what I have read. The information ties me in knots! I think that the main message is that your thoughts are only thoughts and there's ways to diffuse them. I've tried but it hasn't worked for me yet. I thought the message was going to be a turning point but it just sets a tone of confusion and more struggle. I hope when I get to the end I'll understand the value of the system. For now I found it a bit disconcerting.

An easy to read guide to viewing happiness and contentment in a different way, I found this really uplifting in a simple, thought provoking way. Anyone who has benefited from really good counselling in the past may be aware of the concept of mindfulness but for those who have not the premise is finding simple moments of happiness in small details to change your view of what actually makes you feel good. This helps alleviate the pressure you put on yourself to be happy as the result of the status you hold or the job you have, or whether you are married, have kids or not and the burden of "why aren't I happy when my life is actually not so bad?" What I love most about this book is the way it enables you to understand how you form the thoughts you have about your life that create feelings of depression, to recognise the patterns you create and know how to accept that your feelings are understandable after all, and rather than try to suppress them, you can actually deal with them, and overcome them which is a feeling rarely found once the darkness of "can't cope" sets in. The happiness trap teaches you that when you feel like you are in a hole, you sometimes use the wrong tools to get out, the spade you use to dig your way out is useless when what you need is a ladder. I would recommend it to anyone prone to anxiety, depression and the odd dark day. Also great to share snippets with teens - re-educate the thought process so help them find the little joys in their day.

I have read many good books on mindfulness but this book brings something different. It provides understandable and practical advice on how to train our minds to avoid getting attached to our thoughts; our thoughts are just a version of a story, because that story comes from the voice inside our own head does not mean that it is fact, it is just a perception and we don't need to believe everything we hear ourselves say. For most of us, we are our own worst critics and we cannot get rid of our negative thinking, its in our nature as human beings so its futile to try, but we can train our minds to not let negative thoughts affect us so much - this for me was a light bulb moment. The author writes in a very engaging and straight forward way and he relates some of his own experience which in fact is the same for most of us. He points out that they key to changing our self critical tendency is to practice the techniques in the book, this is important as just reading a load of self help books is not going to effect change - this would be like reading about India but never actually going there! The book is a revelation!