Book Review: Spontaneous Happiness By Andrew Weil, MD

I recently received a copy of the new book Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil, MD to review.


We all do it. If only... If only I made more money... If only we could take a vacation... If only my spouse paid more attention to me, I could be happy!

In my case, If only we could pay off more of our debt so we could move back to Texas quicker!

See? By putting those thoughts into our head, we make it feel like we can't be happy in the here and now. Without those thoughts - many of which really are tangible and sadly, tend to revolve around money - would we, and could we, be happy anyways? Why do we let ourselves fall into the "grass is always greener on the other side" trap?

Yesterday was a beautiful day here. It was sunny and dry (yippee!), so we left for a hike. We stopped at Costco on the way home and had some frozen yogurt. Not only did we get some fresh air and sorely needed exercise, we had fun. There were no "if only!'s" - just here and now. We had no time frame to follow, no concrete plans.

I had previously seen Dr. Weil's name branded about on the Internet, so I was familiar with him a little bit before reading this book, although I had never really paid much attention to all that he said. If Spontaneous Happiness is indicative as to the rest of his ideas, I'm going to have to start reading more. I needed this book. I am guilty of letting the depressive, dreary weather here in Washington really get to me. From short term strategies to long term goals, this book had ideas and gentle reminders to nudge me back into a happier state of mind.

Another thing in the book that I really agreed with was "limiting information overload". We here in the US spend so much time glued to TVs, computers, and smart phones that we don't really disconnect. When I talk about heading into the woods and hiking or camping to others, crickets tend to chirp. lol Our personal family goal for 2012 will be to spend more time completely disconnected from technology, and spend more time reconnecting with our world.

If you too are feeling that something is lacking and stopping you from being happy... that you need a change, even just a gentle push, I suggest that you pick up a copy of Spontaneous Happiness even if it's just from the library, and see if there is some ideas to help you too be happy now - not tomorrow, not next week, not even next year - NOW.

Spontaneous Happiness by Andrew Weil, MD is a hardcover mental health book published by Little, Brown and Company. It is 288 pages long. The suggested cover price is $27.99, but Amazon has it available for $18.47 as of this posting. It is also available as an e-book for the Kindle and other e-readers.

I received a copy of this book in order to read it and share my thoughts on it. All opinions are my own, and not that of the author(s) or publisher.