Robert Holden - Be Happy!: Release the Power of Happiness in YOU

be happy

release the power of happiness

in YOU

Robert Holden, Ph.D.

HAY HOUSE, INC.

Carlsbad, California New York City

London Sydney Johannesburg

Vancouver Hong Kong New Delhi

to

Bo

Love

Holden

CONTENTS

It is said that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. We are all students, and life always has another lesson to teach us. When Robert Holden asked me to write a foreword for this book, I said, Sure. I expected to fly through the book and write something quickly. Little did I know that I would become so immersed in the course that it took me several days to read the book and do the exercises.

It was an eye-opening experience to read this book as I was encouraged to go deeply into myself to discover and begin to release the un-noticed pockets of resistance I had to being happy (truly happy).

Wow! What a powerful book this is. You have a big treat in store for you. And the payoff is joy. Joy and happiness for each of you. Do yourself a favor and make sure you do all the exercises. You will learn things about yourself that you were not aware of. Good things, freeing things. At the end of this course you will like yourself so much more, even love and adore yourself. That would make anyone happy.

I thought I was a happy person and I was. Now after completing the course, I am happier on a deeper, quieter level. I also notice that I am happiest when I am being grateful. Thank you Robert. This student was definitely ready for you, my latest teacher. I love learning. I know that the week I leave the planet I will be enrolled in a new course learning something new.

Dear reader, read on. You have an amazing experience ahead of you. Just think how wonderful it would be if everyone on the planet would experience their own happiness. No more wars. No more greed. No more getting even. Life would be filled with laughter, kindness, and love.

I am so proud to welcome Robert Holden to our Hay House family.

I am ready to enjoy my life today.

Louise L. Hay

Founder of Hay House

I have written this book to give you an experience of what it is like to attend my eight-week happiness course, which is the signature event of my work with The Happiness Project. My deepest wish is that this book will assist you in your inquiry into happiness and bring a greater sense of joy and love to every area of your life. My invitation to you is, therefore, that you dont just read the book, but take the course.

The first eight-week happiness course happened in the summer of 1992, which was three years before I founded The Happiness Project. I posted a dozen flyers on bulletin boards in local hospitals and health centers advertising a course on happiness that I described as a support group for peoplewho want to be happy. The invitation was to meet for three hours a week, over eight weeks, to explore the psychology of happiness. Together we would create a space to examine what happiness is, what happiness is for, what blocks happiness, and how we can be happier.

In the first week, we had a group of 20 people that was made up of three doctors, four psychologists, five nurses, six journalists, and just two members of the public. My idea had certainly created some interest. Within weeks, we had a waiting list of over 500 people. The response of the health authoritys chief administrator to this popularity was to close the course. It has got too big, she said. Fortunately, her boss, the Director for Public Health, was very supportive. She was convinced of the positive power of happiness, and she was eager to see if people really could learn to be happy.

Not everyone liked the idea of the happiness course. Some psychologists and doctors were particularly vocal in their objections. Early on, two damning articles appeared in the local press. One article was written by a psychologist who argued emphatically that happiness couldnt be taught. His main argument was that there is no evidence to be found that proves happiness is teachable. In my reply, I asked him for any evidence to the contraryany references to courses that had tried to teach happiness and failed. He couldnt find any. Neither of us knew of anyone who had run a happiness course before.

The other article quoted a Christian doctor who accused the health authority and me of practicing devil medicine. Why? Because the happiness course syllabus featured meditation exercises. The headline for the article read, Satanic Worship on the NHS. I feared my experiment to teach happiness would now be stopped. Fortunately, the Director for Public Health came to my support again. Curiously, attendance at the happiness course doubled at the next session. Are you here to learn how to be happy, or are you searching for some new spells? I asked.