Roundabout the time Pharrell Williams first reported he felt about as gleeful as a room without a roof, Rick Hanson released Hardwiring Happiness, his 223-page work on contentment, calm, and confidence. And while you may desire to drive a sharpened stake into the heart of that earworm of a song called “Happy,” you may very well want to check this book out. Now make no mistake, it’s got just as much goofy Dr. Feelgood advice as any other self-help release of its lot, but it also makes an immediate impact. Yes, you’ll have to put aside your inner cynic when Hanson implores you to “take in the good” while “growing inner strengths through positive experiences.” But you can do that for a bit, right? Go ahead, clap along if you feel that happiness is the truth.
All kidding aside, the author genuinely wants you to improve yourself using the sticky acronym H.E.A.L.:
- Have a positive experience
- Enrich it
- Absorb it
- Link positive and negative material
The first part is easy because we have countless opportunities to more fully enjoy positive moments every waking day. For example, Hanson shares a letter from a man who carries on about his twice-daily orange snack, and the description is weird beyond all imagining, but you get the point – the process can start with a simple piece of fruit. From there, you install positive thinking through steps 2 and 3 while you let it sink in and “feel it easing you like a soothing balm.” In doing so, you breathe deeply and hold the moment in place for even just ten seconds or so (gotta admit I’ve been doing this and it works!). Hanson calls the last part optional yet powerful as “it uses positive thoughts and feelings to soothe, reduce, and potentially replace negative ones.” The final chapter is dedicated to simple H.E.A.L. exercises regarding satisfaction and connection, all quite practical and helpful.
It was the Greek philosopher Epicurus who believed that “pleasure is the end and aim” and yet we should all note that the search for such will likely always come at a price. (Undoubtedly anyone who’s ever had a miserable job or worked for an unspeakable tyrant for the sake of a healthy paycheck knows this feeling well.) As was recently suggested by Harvard economist Edward L. Glaeser, there’s a reason people still live in a bankrupt and crime-ridden city like Detroit. Life is a series of trade-offs and some among us are willing to sacrifice personal safety for an affordable 5,000 square foot home. So let’s go for it, shall we, whether that means buying a mansion in a war zone or building a hut on an island. Because as Midwestern philosopher Sheryl Crow once so perfectly said, if it makes you happy it can’t be that bad. And thank goodness that song never gets old.