9 Things Happy People Know
Today marks the launch of my new 8-week online happiness program The Happiness Project. It’s based on the original 8-week program, started in 1992, and subject of the BBC science documentary How to Be Happy. I’ve called this online program The Happiness Project because it features every major principle and practice of my work. It’s my greatest hits album on happiness!
My original 8-week happiness program was tested by independent scientists, selected by the BBC science team, who verified it to be “a genuine fast-track to happiness.” This got everyone’s attention! Since that documentary, the world’s media has interviewed me countless times. I’ve kept a small archive of my favourite interviews, which include interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer for Good Morning America, and Michael Parkinson for the BBC.
Here is a selection of the questions I am most commonly asked as Director of The Happiness Project. These questions and my answers come from transcripts of various interviews over the years. So here it goes! Continue Reading
Why Are We So Obsessed With "More"
This week, a new documentary called The Abundance Code is released. I am one of fifteen people interviewed for this film that takes you on a 90-minute feature length journey from scarcity to abundance. Julia Anne Cairns is the inspiration behind this project. She interviewed me when I was in Australia for an
I CAN DO IT! tour hosted by Hay House. I remember enjoying the interview very much, and I’m thrilled the film is now out. It’s full of real wisdom, and refreshingly free of the normal “hype” that surrounds abundance.
Is there anybody on the planet who does not want to be abundant? Imagine someone turning down an offer of abundance. “Would you like some abundance, ma’am?” “No thanks.” Most rare, I say. The real question is… Continue Reading
For Both the Soul And The Ego
In my interview with Jessica Dibb for the Enneagram Global Summit 2016 going on from June 7th to June 10th 2016, I explore the topic of happiness from both the soul and ego’s point of view. I also talk about The Happiness Contract, which is how the ego tries to deserve happiness: and I’ll introduce nine soul meditations for experiencing unconditional happiness and greater joy.
Here’s a sneak preview of what I will be covering.
The Happiness Contract is a term I coined, and wrote about in Be Happy, to explore your personal psychology about happiness. Your Happiness Contract exists beneath a pile of thoughts at the back of your mind. It’s just a metaphor, but its effects can feel very real. This contract is a statement of belief about how much happiness is possible, and how much happiness is too good to be true. It’s a personal agreement drawn up by your Continue Reading
Practices For Greater Abundance And Happiness
I’m grateful to have given several talks over the last few months on Life Loves You, the book I co-wrote with Louise Hay, because it has helped me to deepen my own inquiry.
In the postscript to Life Loves You, I wrote,
“This book is nearly finished, but it feels like the inquiry has just begun. Each of us has a self-image, an ego that we hope is loveable, but our egos are full of holes. These holes hide buried fears and doubts, and they cast a shadow on the world as we see it. Life loves you asks us to dig deep, to excavate the ground of our being, where our true nature lives. Here is our buried treasure. Here is where we meet our Unconditioned Self. This is the Self that life loves.” Continue Reading
Including 6 Mantras to Bring More Happiness Into Your Life
In the course I often talk about the paradigms of happiness. A paradigm is a pattern of thinking based on concepts, values, and beliefs. Your happiness paradigm, that is, the way you think about happiness, is reflected in your speech and it arranges the shape of what you experience. Hence, your paradigm either opens you up or closes you off from a greater experience of happiness right now.
When I listen to people talk about happiness, I am listening for signs of six popular happiness paradigms. The first four paradigms are commonly expressed by people who believe that happiness exists outside them; the fifth paradigm is commonly expressed by people who believe that happiness exists inside them; and the sixth paradigm is adopted by people who experience happiness as beyond the duality of inner or outer. These people experience happiness as a quality of their essential self.
For each paradigm, I have included a “Red Flag” that highlights a possible block to happiness, and also a “Joy Mantra” that is designed to help you be more open to a greater experience of happiness now. Continue Reading
Self-acceptance is about being honest with yourself. It is the ability to hold up a mirror and see the original truth of who you are, as opposed to learned self-judgments. Thus, one gift of Self-acceptance is that it improves your awareness of your true self (the Unconditioned Self), which, in turn, helps you to be more authentic and fully integrated with yourself. Another gift of Self-acceptance is accountability-the willingness to