Author: Dr. Henry Cloud
Info: Copyright 2010: Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning.
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): ✮✮✮ 1/2
Where Acquired: Library Checkout
Synopsis: Cloud, a Clinical Psychologist, explores thirteen secrets of happiness along with tips on how to tap into them. Pulling from Scripture, psychological research, and case studies, the author attempts to make the case that the individual is responsible for his own happiness.
Favorite Quotes:
Sonja Lyubomirsky, one of the leading happiness scientists, puts it this way: "People who are inclined to savor were found to be more self-confident, extroverted, and gratified and less hopeless and neurotic. . . . Those skilled at capturing the joy of the present moment--hanging on to good feelings, appreciating good things--are less likely to experience depression, stress, guilt, and shame." - pp. 59-60.
Living in the present makes your stress go down, and your happiness go up. Even if the present is sad, to embrace those feelings is part of having them pass. - p. 65
God has not constructed us to be fueled by accomplishments. He has contructed us to be fueled by love. - p. 103
Emotionally, the problem with unforgiveness is that you are actively, consciously and unconsciously generating negative feelings daily in your heart and soul by holding on to a past offense. - p 168
To forgive requires that you name the offense, feel the feelings involved, talk about the pain and the anger, and then grieve it. It has to be embraced in order to be worked through. - 171
The Positive:
- As someone who has dealt with depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder, it was refreshing for the author to acknowledge mental disorders and the severe symptoms accompanying them. Cloud was very careful to advise those dealing with such disorders to seek both medical and psychological assistance and not try to take his book as a cure-all.
- Cloud works to debunk two prevalent ideas: 1) Circumstances dictate happiness, and 2) The "set point" of happiness--the belief that you cannot be any happier than a predetermined, capricious inner wiring of happiness.
- The combination of scientific research meshing with Biblical application is refreshing. Also, the emphasis on clinical research that focuses on positive mental health traits, rather than only dealing with a plethora of devastating disorders and negative emotions is a pleasant surprise.
- Cloud uses examples from his own life experience, not just case studies of others.
The Negative:
- The beginning of chapter nine rubbed me the wrong way. Not only was it the author's shameless plug for his book on dating, but it was very insulting. He compared two single women who he was counseling. He was very insulting in his description of the woman who he felt didn't hunt for a man as stridently as the other. No, I don't care that woman he favored ended up getting married and with a child. It was tacky for him to assume that the women should do the hunting, plus he was such a jerk about it.
Conclusion:
Overall, this was an enjoyable quick read. In the future, I would like to purchase a copy of this book as a reference.
