The Great Little Book of Happiness: A Guide to Leading a Happier Life by Andrew Marshall.
Category: Self Help
Paperback: 146 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0955936403
ISBN-13: 978-0955936401

"Although we live in a society that has the greatest wealth and material standards it has ever enjoyed, there is a distinct malaise. The malaise is in the lack of genuine happiness and fulfilment, a lack of inner peace and lack of stability. Some cultures with considerably less material wealth than ours may marvel at the technological advancements and living conditions we have but are bemused at the apparent almost total absence of spiritual foundation or values. As a society, we come close to Oscar Wilde’s cynic: we know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Politicians and successive governments have tried in vain to restore the missing quality by imposing standards in education and other areas of life but haven’t succeeded because the problem is not one of outer values but of consciousness. If we want to enjoy quality of life and the richness and abundance of the present moment, we have to take responsibility for our own state of consciousness and do something about it. For certain, no-one else is going to do it for us.

This book is intended is intended as an aid to restoring inner fulfilment and making life happier. To begin with, we look at the causes of unhappiness and of its opposite, happiness. Then progressively we dismantle the obstructions to happiness and build the causes or conditions that lead to a joyful, happier life. Happiness, as we shall see, depends upon the mind and this book contains the essentials for cultivating a state of mind and this book contains the essentials for bringing about a fresh state of mind.

To lead a happy life does not require luck or money. To do the things in this book will cost you nothing except the price of the book - not even that if you have borrowed it - and a little time. All that is required is a little thought and some application. If you truly follow the things suggested, life will become richer, more fulfilling and happier.

Some things may challenge you because there is a need to overcome some old habits of thinking and create new ones but everything in this book works. Everything has been tried and tested. The fundamental principles are as old as time - some from what is sometimes called ‘ancient wisdom’ - but the approach we will be taking is for the modern age. All the techniques and exercises have been used on courses and workshops run by the author and his wife for many years. You can just read the book without doing them but then that’s rather like looking through a travel brochure and not going anywhere. Some people are like that - they just read, listen or watch but don’t actually do anything. I hope you, on the other hand, will travel far.

Please enjoy the book and enjoy working through it."