Friday, March 18, 2005

How To Be Happy

You will thank me for this. -- D.H.

In our Western success-driven culture we are driven from birth, by our parents, teachers, friends, and by our society, that to be successful is the most important thing we can hope to achieve. Unfortunately, "success" in our world is often defined as having expensive clothing and cars, impressive friends, and someone who loves us according to our own personal definitions of love. Sometimes in the real world we fail to acquire all those material things, and -- let's face it -- no one could ever live up to the "love" we desire, as we have defined it. No one could. Don't you agree?

In her wonderful pocket-sized masterpiece, "The Portable Therapist", Susanna McMahon, Ph.D. shows us ways we can transcend our Western "Doing" Model, and learn to accept the events in our lives and the people over whom we have no control, and adopt the more realistic "Being" Model of the Eastern cultures. She writes "Despite the implicit assumption...that you can control your destiny -- success...is not in your control. Luck,fate, and chance all play a big part in determining external success...there is nothing we can do to control them."

The book is easy reading, and each chapter is only a few pages long, making for perfect bedtime study. You'll fall asleep each night feeling better about yourself.

That's what I call real success: Learning to accept and be happy with yourself.

When I began writing this post it was not my intention to sell anything, but as I thumbed through the dogeared pages of her book for more quotes to share with you I realized that Amazon.com could do a far better job than I. Click the link below to read reviews and sample pages from this book that could change your life and show you how to realize the healthy self-esteem you deserve.

Good luck to you! -- Dalton Hammond

the Portable Therapist

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