Dr. Dan Baker, director of the Life Enhancement Program at Canyon Ranch, has devoted his life to teaching people how to be happy. And apparently, most of us could use a little tutoring. Research has shown that the root of unhappiness--fear--lies in the oldest, reptilian part of our brains, and negative reactions are often dictated by primal instincts. We're literally "hardwired for hard times." In What Happy People Know, Dr. Baker uses evidence from the new science of happiness to show us how we can overcome this genetic predisposition toward negative reactions and lead a truly rich, happy, and healthy life.
In this book, Dr. Baker shares the program that has revolutionized the lives of countless unhappy people, VIP's and regular Joes and Janes alike. First, you'll learn the only two issues that ever cause unhappiness and devise your plan to overcome both of them. Then, Dr. Baker teaches you how to spot the happiness traps, the five doomed ways we try to make ourselves happy, only to dig ourselves further into misery. Finally, he shares his happiness tools, the six simple skills that, when practiced consistently, will inevitably lead to greater optimism, courage, good humor, and fulfillment--in short, to happiness.
"Everyone wants to be happy. So much suffering and illness occur when we look for happiness in the wrong places. In What Happy People Know, Dan Baker distills the best of science and spirituality, sharing with deep and profound wisdom how we can learn to be happy and let go of suffering. Highly recommended."--Dean Ornish, M.D., founder and president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco; ad author of Love and Survival and Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease
"Dr. Dan Baker has created a book that we all have been waiting for. It is a significant, practical, insightful, easy-to-read book filled with nuggets that lead us to the road of happiness."--Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., author of Love is Letting Go of Fear
Contrary to popular belief, we're not born happy and then taken down a peg or two by the circumstances of our lives. In fact, science has shown that the root of unhappiness lies in archaic brain impulses that serve no purpose in modern-day life.
Fortunately, we've also evolved a portion of the brain capable of higher, rational thoughts that can enable us to recognize these impulses. Understanding this and learning how to avoid these happiness traps are the first steps in retraining our reactions and, eventually, our actual brain chemistry. Dan Baker, Ph.D., director of the Life Enhancement Program at Canyon Ranch, teaches you the happiness tools that thousands of his clients and patients have used to successfully avoid these traps and actually learn to be happy.
Identifying the sources of your unhappiness or neurosis can be a good start, but it can't really help you resolve the issues themselves. What Happy People Know takes you to the next step: accepting the past, actively moving toward a future of your own design, and mastering the skills you need to feel the happiness that your life already offers you!
