What is the secret for how to be happy?

If you have ever wondered how to be happy, then you are in the right place to start to find some answers.This website and the Choosing Happier book were created to support people like you to:

• Recognise that the reason that some people are happier than others is largely due to their practiced ways of thinking and their habits.
• Realize that how happy we are can actually be a choice.
• Discover the simple keys for how to be happier.
• Find simple, pragmatic ways to increase your happiness levels that are easy to adopt and practice.

This website was created to further the wisdom and practical ideas that can be found in the Choosing Happier book, as well as being of value to anyone who wants to find greater contentment and joy in life. The website and book are both aligned with Jem’s Happier Planet  Mission Statement.

The Happier Planet Mission Statement

To inspire and enable people to live more content and happy lives so that we all express and experience a greater level of kindness, care and consciousness. In this way, humanity as a whole will be able to thrive in an environmentally sustainable, benevolent, socially just and peaceful way on planet Earth.

To be truly happy in a sustainable, nourishing and life enhancing way, we need to shift from pursuing happiness to discovering and remembering it.

Our modern society as a whole has become rather lost in its search for happiness in material things, brief pleasures or the myth that we will be happier in the future as a result of our achievements. None of these paths are particularly effective and can be quite damaging as can be seen by the ever increasing levels of depression and the fact that general happiness levels have not changed despite massive increases in wealth and income. On the macro level, this acquisition based approach to pursuing happiness has also led to an unsustainable and destructive way of inhabiting our world.

The Goal of this website and the book is to provide resources and inspirations that enable you to live more happily, to be content and find it much easier to be positive and resilient when times are difficult.

Happiness is what we all really want!

Nearly everyone says that they want to be happy or that they want their children, partners or family to be happy. Even when people are focussed on getting things such as money, a bigger house, a new job, a partner, a raise, etc. Behind it we are generally pursuing these things because we hope that they will bring us a greater level of happiness. So, if this is what is really important why not just “cut to the chase” and go straight for discovering how we can be happier right now?

But what is happiness?

In this context, I would describe it as our ability to maintain positive emotions in all situations. Perhaps the most important of which is to be able to be content, as our basic emotional and mental resting state. As a result, we will also more naturally have access to the joy, bliss, ecstasy and delight that should be part of our natural way of responding to the experience of being alive on this awesome planet. But, it is not about pursuing just the highs or about being purely focussed on just our own pleasure and happiness. Rather it is about discovering how to exist in contented and joyful states that we can sustain and that are beneficial for many others and the world around us too.

Choosing to be happier will give you so much more…

If you thought that becoming happier would just result in you smiling and enjoying life more, then you may be in for a few fantastic surprises. There are a lot more benefits to being happier. In various research projects, they have discovered that happier people are

• More productive.
• More successful.
• More creative.
• More likely to earn more money.
• More resilient and adaptable in challenging situations.
• Have better relationships.
• Be healthier and live longer.

What’s not to want???

So How Can You Choose to be Happier Right now?

1. The best thing to do, if you have not done it already, is to get the Choosing Happier book, which was written to make the process of choosing to be happier much more simple and achievable. It will be available as an e-book, paperback book and audio book, so you can be inspired in the formats that you find most useful.
2. If you are on Instagram, then follow the choosing-happier Instagram account. This has regular postings of happiness quotes and random images of things that Jem has found to be grateful for on any particular day (they may just inspire you to look around and find new things to be grateful for in your own environment).
3. Similarly, you may find the Choosing Happier Facebook page interesting to like and visit.

Most important is that you take action

• Get the book and read it.
• Do the exercises (the “My Happiness Journal” workbook should help you be focussed with these)
• Find a “Joy Buddy” to read the book and do the exercises with you (it is always more fun and effective to do these things with others).
• Follow the Choosing Happier Instagram account for daily inspirations.

Choosing Happier is a resource site to enable individuals, groups and organizations to be inspired and enabled to increase their experience of positive emotions on a daily basis. It was created by Jem Friar author of the “Choosing Happier” book.