There wasn’t much that was new for me in this book, which compiles lots of mainstream psychological advice into chapters of advice. There were times I disagreed with the author, like when he wrote:

On just about every measure of human wellbeing, data proves that things are much better now than they were in the past.

The advice in that chapter is to be more optimistic. That line was clearly written by a cis white man with money and without disability. Young people today have virtually no hope of buying their own homes, they have to work multiple jobs, autoimmune diseases have skyrocketed, loneliness is epidemic, the environment is in crisis, politics are nightmarish, the world is on fire. Okay, I’ll just be more optimistic for my children.

It was a miss for me.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181687288-the-science-of-happiness" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Science of Happiness: Seven Lessons for Living Well" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1719639914l/181687288._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181687288-the-science-of-happiness">The Science of Happiness: Seven Lessons for Living Well</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5441173.Bruce_Hood">Bruce Hood</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6853961968">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
4.5 stars!<br />Self Help books based in science and research have to be one of my new favorite things. This book not only gives practical advice to feeling a greater sense of happiness in ones own life, but explores WHY we feel that happiness. So many self help books out there rely on a so called "life coach" giving their two cents despite having no real expertise on the subject. <br />While a lot of the advice given in this book has been recommended to the general public a million different times in a million different ways, I can still appreciate the fact that this book explores the WHY in real, tangible ways (funnily enough, exploring the "whys" of life is one of the recommendations in the book!)<br />Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to find more joy in their own life, Lord knows we all need it.<br />*ps-- thank you Netgalley/Storm Publishing for giving me this the ARC in exchange for my honest review :)*
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/147172658-rachel-hollister">View all my reviews</a>

Are you interested in knowing how to rewire your mind in order to increase your happiness? Check out The Science of Happiness.