Happy

Everyone says they want to be happy. But that's much more easily said than done. What does being happy actually mean? And how do you even know when you feel it? Across the millennia philosophers have thought long and hard about happiness. They have defined it in many different ways and come up with myriad strategies for living the good life. Drawing on this vast body of work in <i>Happy</i> Derren Brown explores changing concepts of happiness--from the surprisingly modern wisdom of the Stoics and Epicureans in classical times right up until today when the self-help industry has attempted to claim happiness as its own. He shows how many of self-help's suggested routes to happiness and success--such as positive thinking self-belief and setting goals--can be disastrous to follow and indeed actually cause anxiety. This brilliant candid and deeply entertaining book exposes the flaws in these ways of thinking and in return poses challenging but stimulating questions about how we choose to live and the way we think about death.<i> Happy</i> aims to reclaim happiness and to enable us to appreciate the good things in life in all their transient glory. By taking control of the stories we tell ourselves by remembering that everything's fine even when it might not feel that way we can allow ourselves to flourish and to live more happily. <br>