Getting Back to Happy: Book Review

Getting Back to Happy: A Book Review.

One part of this blog is soulful living.  I love talking about healing the body through food and educating others on how the body works, but the goal is that I want people to feel happier.  I believe that happiness won’t come from becoming “healthier” but instead working on our minds and figuring out how we can create a soulful life.  It really isn’t that hard to do a 30-day program or to commit to showing up to gym for 90 days, but what is HARD is changing the negative self-talk and discovering a way to live that lights up your soul.

What makes soulful living so tricky is that, our entire life is the goal. It isn’t something you can do one time and be done. It is an endless journey to navigate and work hard. We will never arrive at the end until our time on earth is up. And that is good because think about it – how boring would it be to NOT strive for something? We live on earth to move forward and to work for what we want and to not do that would be utterly boring.

I want to share this book, because it is a breath of fresh air.  It isn’t a book you want to read quickly, but instead a bit each day as daily reminders on how to get back to happy.

Negative Thinking

Man, it is easy to fall into the depths of negative thinking. And it’s something you must be intentional about to get out.

“If we can learn to think better, we can ultimately live better.”

Marc + Angel Chernoff “Getting Back to Happy” 

There are so many ways we can fall into negative thinking and sometimes it happens without us even realizing it!  So how do we get out?

I suggest reading books like this one to re-train our beliefs.  And diving deep into the belief that we are all in this together. 

“The biggest difference between peace and stress is attitude. It’s all about how your look at a situation and what you decide to do with it.  It’s remembering that there are no certainties in life; we don’t know exactly what the future will bring. So your best strategy for living is to make the best and most positive use of the present moment, even when it disappoints you….”

Marc & Angel Chernoff “Getting Back to Happy” 

Ultimately, bad things will happen, struggles will happen, and we don’t have a clue what will happen next! But learning how to cope with these things in a healthy way will help us all to move forward instead of feeling hopeless. 

It’s up to you to decide how you want to live? Wallow in self-pity? Or pick yourself back up and press onward while we are living on earth.

When Bad Things Happen.

“Every high, every low,and everything in between- has led you to this moment you’re experiencing right now.  This means that you are exactly where you need to be to get to where you want to go.”

Marc & Angel Chernoff “Getting Back to Happy” 

I truly believe that everything happens exactly as it is meant to be. When we stumble and fall, we become clearer on where we need to go.  When we lose someone, we hold our loved ones even closer.  When we go through a stressful and busy season, we savor the time to rest and relax.  It is through life’s hard days, that we strengthen and grow into exactly who we need to become. Just like our muscles need to be broken down to build stronger muscles,so does our life – to become emotionally stronger humans.

How To Build a Happier Life.

“Here’s the truth:goals don’t make positive changes happen, daily rituals do.”

Marc + Angel Chernoff “Getting Back to Happy” 

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with goal setting. I tend to make too big of goals and spend so much focus on WHAT I want to achieve instead of how I can make it happen each day. I have written about this before and it led me to crash and burn-out. I got tired of seeing my goal so far in the distance. 

For example, every day I empty the dish washer. I have NO desire to do this. But having a clean kitchen makes me happy so I do it everyday. And just that simple activity can get me in the cleaning mode so I will get more done.

Or take this blog for example, I set of goal of writing 3 blogs a week.  I try to write a bit each day, either brainstorming, free writing, or editing my work. I don’t have a specific time set aside, which is something I should probably do to make this a more concrete ritual.  Easily I could set aside 15 minutes a day to just zone in and focus on my work. Make it a HABIT!

The book talks about mistakes when it comes to building rituals, which I have made all the mistakes. One of them is making the ritual too big of a commitment. Personally, I have made this mistake often because my eyes are bigger than my stomach.  We are only human, and we can only do so much.  Instead of feeling bad, I remind myself that I set too big of a goal and I recommit by creating a new smaller one. And nothing feels better than successfully completing a goal – big or small!

“Small, repeating,incremental efforts will get you to your goal. It doesn’t happen in an instant,but it does happen a lot faster than not getting there at all.:

Marc and Angel Chernoff “Getting Back to Happy” 

Managing Our Time Better.

This is a good one. So many of us feel that we don’t have enough time to do what we want. We find ourselves overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done.  But we also waste a lot of time or focus on the wrong things.

“We complain we have so little time, and then we prioritize like time is infinite. So do your best to focus on what’s truly important, and not much else.  Pay attention to your goals and keep track of where you want to go.”

Marc & Angel Chernoff “Getting Back to Happy” 

Uh yes…how often do we waste time doing things we shouldn’t do? Or spin our wheels on things that get thrown at us that day? Personally, I know that I easily get distracted.  I end up thinking about other things I could do, and then I find myself doing 3 things at once.  And none of those tasks get done…  I find that creating a daily list of specific tasks is helpful.  Then I make sure I spend time focusing on just these tasks!

Staying Busy to Avoid Being Present.

“We fill our social media feeds and our calendars withneedless busyness to feel more accomplished – to avoid being just ourselves inthe present moment. The Cost? Our peace of mind, our sanity, and our happiness.We inevitably lose sight of what matters most, because our busyness has buriedit with stress and the endless need to be somewhere else, doing something else,as fast as feasibly possible.”

Marc and Angel Chernoff “Getting Back to Happy” 

Yesssssssss. I relate to this line so much.  So often we fill our lives with things we have no desire to do, but instead just don’t want to be left in the stillness.  I have felt the pressure to do more, but when I do – I get very irritable. For me, that is a sign that I am not spending my time where my heart truly wants.  We must be careful with the word busy because why are we wasting our life on things we don’t really want to do? Its up to us to create boundaries and create a life that truly brings us happiness.

As you can see, this book is packed full of wisdom and I only pulled a few things from the first two chapters!!  If you want a book to start off your 2019 with a bang, I HIGHLY recommend this book. My point of this book review was to give you a taste of this book and tell you I give it an A+++++.  I read a lot self-help books and this one has been one of my favorites because it addresses so many problems head on.

Also, comment below and let me know what you think of this post! Do you want to see more book reviews? Do you want me to share more books I love? Tell me! And let me know if you read the book! 

xoxox