"This book will shake up your beliefs about what you are doing with your life so that you can finally push beyond everything that has been holding you back."Rodney Reider, Venture Capitalist & Former CEOFinally, a book about happiness that is uncomfortably honest about the real reasons so many people live life feeling dissatisfied about where they are compared to where they want to be. The author doesn't hold back in cutting straight into the root causes of discontent in life.For decades, authors, academics, and celebrities have pushed concepts such as positive thinking, meditation, morning rituals, and even nutritional supplements as the keys to happiness. They have talked about losing weight, becoming rich, and getting everything that you have ever wanted because these would be the things that would surely bring you a life of pure bliss. What they sold didn't work.This book is different. Instead of regurgitating the same concepts that have been covered over and over, this book offers a new perspective. It focuses on what causes misery in life instead of what causes happiness. By addressing the reasons that you might feel unhappy the author shows you how you can finally be happy. It is a masterful counter-intuitive guide to finding happiness in a world that has seemingly been designed to keep us running on a hamster wheel of discontent.

Anxious Kids offers parents a new perspective on their children’s anxiety, encouraging them to view each episode as an opportunity to empower their kids with the skills to manage anxiety, and thrive. Bestselling parenting author Michael Grose and wellbeing expert Dr Jodi Richardson explain why more children than ever before experience anxiety. In plain language that can be shared with children, they outline the origins and biology of anxiety to make sense of it – key knowledge such as why it happens, the flood of physical symptoms that comes with it, how to calm it down and why each strategy works. Grose and Richardson also give advice on a range of important steps parents can take to develop emotional intelligence, tolerance of discomfort, mindfulness, resilience, thinking skills and flourishing mental health. In so doing, parents can reduce the impact of anxiety, enabling children of all ages to live their lives in full colour.

Emotions are a part of personality and essential to all human relationships, but how well do we understand what they really are? What are the processes by which they occuer and influence us? How do they affect the way we perceive and interact with the world? In The Psychology of Emotions, author Carroll E. Izard provides a timely overview that focuses on the relevance of emotions to our daily lives as he addresses these and other fundamental questions on the activation, expression, experience, and functions of emotions.

What exactly is happiness? Can we measure it? Why are some people happy and others not? And is there a drug that could eliminate all unhappiness? People all over the world, and throughout the ages, have thought about happiness, argued about its nature, and, most of all, desired it. But why do we have such a strong instinct to pursue happiness? And if happiness is good in itself, why haven't we simply evolved to be happier? Daniel Nettle uses the results of the latest psychological studies to ask what makes people happy and unhappy, what happiness really is, and to examine our urge to achieve it. Along the way we look at brain systems, at mind-altering drugs, and how happiness is now marketed to us as a commodity. Nettle concludes that while it may be unrealistic to expect lasting happiness, our evolved tendency to seek happiness drives us to achieve much that is worthwhile in itself. What is more, it seems to be not your particular circumstances that define whether you are happy so much as your attitude towards life. Happiness gives us the latest scientific insights into the nature of our feelings of well-being, and what these imply for how we might live our lives.

In How to Be Miserable, psychologist Randy Paterson outlines 40 specific behaviors and habits, which—if followed—are sure to lead to a lifetime of unhappiness. On the other hand, if you do the opposite, you may yet join the ranks of happy people everywhere! There are stacks upon stacks of self-help books that will promise you love, happiness, and a fabulous life. But how can you pinpoint the exact behaviors that cause you to be miserable in the first place? Sometimes when we’re depressed, or just sad or unhappy, our instincts tell us to do the opposite of what we should—such as focusing on the negative, dwelling on what we can’t change, isolating ourselves from friends and loved ones, eating junk food, or overindulging in alcohol. Sound familiar? This tongue-in-cheek guide will help you identify the behaviors that make you unhappy and discover how you—and only you—are holding yourself back from a life of contentment. You’ll learn to spot the tried-and-true traps that increase feelings of dissatisfaction, foster a lack of motivation, and detract from our quality of life—as well as ways to avoid them. So, get ready to live the life you want (or not?) This fun, irreverent guide will light the way.

For centuries the pursuit of happiness was the preserve of either the philosopher or the voluptuary and took second place to the basic need to survive on the one hand, and the pressure to conform to social conventions and morality on the other. More recently there is a burgeoning interest in the study of happiness, in the social sciences and in the media. Can we really answer the question what makes people happy? Is it really grounded in credible methods and data? Is there consistency in the determinants of happiness across countries and cultures? Are happiness levels innate to individuals or can policy and the environment make a difference? How is happiness affected by poverty? By economic progress? Is happiness a viable objective for policy? This book is an attempt to answer these questions, based on research on the determinants of happiness in countries around the world, ranging from Peru and Russia to the U.S. and Afghanistan. The book reviews the theory and concepts of happiness, explaining how these concepts underpin a line of research which is both an attempt to understand the determinants of happiness and a tool for understanding the effects of a host of phenomena on human well being. The research finds surprising consistency in the determinants of happiness across levels of development. Yet there is still much debate over the relationship between happiness and income. The book explores the effects of many mediating factors in that relationship, ranging from macroeconomic trends and democracy to inequality and crime. It also reviews what we know about happiness and health and how that relationship varies according to income levels and health status. It concludes by discussing the potential - and the potential pitfalls - of using happiness surveys to contribute to better public policy.

Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.