In this follow-on to his first book, You Can Have What You Want, Michael Neill offers an entertaining, easy-to-read "how-to" book on happiness.
One of the hallmarks of Michael's writing is his ability to take pretty sophisticated stuff and make it simple to understand and put into practice. He uses a blend of personal anecdotes, stories and metaphors, and step-by-step instructions to get his points across.
As with his first book, Michael doesn't take a "woo-woo" approach to the topic. There's no "Angel Therapy" in this book. Michael writes about happiness with rigorous application of applied psychology, yet his style couldn't be more accessible.
The book takes many of the findings of positive psychology and happiness research and rather than just presenting it and saying, "figure out how to do this," he walks you through applying it to your own life.
Part one examines the link between body-state and state-of-mind. Michael gives physical exercises that show you how to control your attitude by controlling your physical body. The exercises can even be done while you're reading.
Part two shows us how the stories we tell ourselves determine our happiness. He weaves in positive psychology's learned optimism research, showing how to change internal stories to be more optimistic and powerful. This section also covers anxiety, fear, and panic attacks.
Part three covers the gamut of our emotions, including self-worth (including a 360-degree feedback exercise to find out how you're perceived by others), gratitude, compassion, attachment to planning, and living a life of inspiration.
All in all, the book's content is excellent. If anything, there's so much here that it's hard to put it all into practice. I've adopted the practices one or two at a time over the last year (I read the UK version the moment it came out) and the improvement in my mood and happiness has been incredible.