Dr. Russ Harris - The Happiness Trap: Stop Struggling, Start Living

Dr Russ Harris has written an easy to read, practical book on how to manage the many challenges life presents us. A great read, with strategies galore.

Dr Rick Kausman, Author of If Not Dieting, Then What?

It seems so much easier to find the meaning in life and get on with living after reading Dr Russ Harriss book. Full of helpful strategies and common sense ideas, The Happiness Trap is a wonderful journey of reassurance for anyone who is troubled by worrying feelings, nagging anxiety and moods of despair. As a psychologist who works with such people, it is wonderful to be able to recommend this book. I use the strategies myself and they really do work!

Dr Mandy Deeks, Psychologist, The Jean Hailes Foundation for Womens Health Author of Life Begins at Menopause

Dr Russ Harris skillfully leads the reader on a path along which we may pick up and embrace the tools for living a rich, full and authentically meaningful lifea life wherein real happiness truly resides. The Happiness Trap is a book for alltherapists and clients alikeit makes the skills of mindfulness accessible and applicable to everyday living.

Christine Burke, Psychologist BA Dip Ed, M Ed (Counselling Psychology)

Happiness is an elusive state. Highly valued, relentlessly pursued, rarely experienced. Ironically, the harder we try to buy, seize, or closet happiness, the less likely we are to be happy. Indeed, even talking about how we can be happy often leaves us with a sense of dissatisfactionthe happiness trap. This is why Dr Russ Harriss book is so useful. This book is about practical and effective ways to understand, to accept, and to embrace the world as it is. Acceptance is the foundation from which happiness grows. The evidence-based techniques and skills taught in this book will strengthen your ability to accept, will help you develop the courage to change the things that can be changed, and will further develop the wisdom to know the difference. I highly recommend this to you.

Dr Anthony Grant, Psychologist, Director of Coaching Psychology at Sydney university, Author of Its Your LifeWhat Are You Going To Do With It!

This is a highly readable and original book. It goes against much of the cultural mainstream by arguing that directly trying to be happy may actually make you miserable. The book offers an alternative roadmap, one that helps you avoid emotional detours and guides you towards a life that is rich, full, and meaningful. If you feel like you are not living up to your full potential, this is the book for you.

Dr. Joseph Ciarrochi, School of Psychology , University of Wollongong

Introduction

Just suppose for a moment that almost everything you believed about finding happiness turned out to be inaccurate, misleading or false. And suppose that those very beliefs were making you miserable. What if your very efforts to find happiness were actually preventing you from achieving it? And what if almost everyone you knew turned out to be in the same boatincluding all those psychologists, psychiatrists and self-help gurus who claim to have all the answers?

Im not posing these questions just to grab your attention. This book is based on a growing body of scientific research that suggests we are all caught in a powerful psychological trap. We lead our lives ruled by many unhelpful and inaccurate beliefs about happinessideas widely accepted by society because everyone knows they are true. On the surface, these beliefs seem to make good sensethats why you encounter them again and again in nearly every self-help book you ever read. But these erroneous beliefs are both the cause of and the fuel for a vicious cycle, in which the more we try to find happiness, the more we suffer. And this psychological trap is so well hidden, we dont even have a clue that were caught and controlled by it.