Title: Mindscaping: A Practical Guide For How To Be Happier
Author: Donovan Jenson
Genre: Happiness, Self-help, Self Improvement
Book Blurb:
Are you happier now than you were last year?
Most people haphazardly chase happiness, guided by vague, empty platitudes like:
Choose happiness.
Happiness can only be found when you stop looking for it.
Happiness is always within you.
These sound profound but lack clear action steps. Results are inconsistent. How do I choose happiness? Where is happiness within me? This book shows exactly how to shape your mind for happiness, health, and wellbeing.
Readers can expect to:
Understand happiness, how it’s produced, and how to increase it
Discover a simple metaphor for how shaping your mind is similar to landscaping
Master techniques for managing troublesome thoughts, negative feelings, and challenging situations.
Learn how to link actions with happiness and purpose, then execute them
Explore 100+ reflection questions and 40+ exercises targeted at increasing happiness
Mindscaping is not the one true path to happiness; it’s a framework for designing your path to happiness, based on well-researched and proven techniques. Happiness is too important to leave to chance. What’s stopping you from investing a few hours into learning the lifelong process for producing happiness?
My Review:
This book illustrates how one man dealt with depression. He provides step-by-step instructions for others to follow. That is admirable on the face. That this book can apply to many people is the question.
The book comes across as an undergraduate psychology textbook. The theorems stated are generally based on biases the author believes. An example of this is that people aren't naturally angry but can be naturally depressed. The human race is incredibly complex, and many are naturally who they are. It would be near impossible to rule out any possibility in the myriad options of the human mind.
The book also states that multitasking is bad for the mind. Another attempt to denigrate what great minds have been doing for millennium. Some people cannot multitask. Some people are able to do five or seven things exceptionally well at the same time. A strong mind is again impossible to define or pigeonhole.
This book may work for students of psych who have hit their nadir in emotions. It may require a person with a lot of time on their hands to be able to take part in the suggested methods. There is one section that requires the reader to answer more than 100 questions to get an understanding. That is more SAT than self-help.
If you are at a complete loss emotionally and have a lot of time and a strong understanding of psychology, then this book is for you. Worthwhile as a memoir of how one person helped themself. In general theory, the concept is sound. It is very difficult to bring this to the level of general understanding for many people.
My Rating: 4 stars
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Author Biography:
It’s common to overhear individuals speaking about how much they hate their job, another person, or some other facet of their lives. While life is never perfect, why do so many of us allow ourselves to be miserable with certain parts of it? I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself, passively allowing habits, people, and circumstances to limit my happiness. As we transcend primal needs, I believe many of us are missing essentials tools and information to achieve holistic happiness.
Over the past few years I’ve worked hard to cultivate my mindset toward positivity and growth. The process is constant and at times has been extremely difficult, but I find myself becoming more happy as I improve. When I reflect on my journey, there are certain tools and ideas that have fundamentally changed my life for the better and I wish I had encountered them earlier.
My writings are my commitment to constantly research these tools to happiness and share my findings with anyone who can benefit. We all deserve to live our best possible lives. I want to continue developing and help everyone else along the way. I know the kinds of resources you encounter make all the difference and I aim to make them more available. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please let me know.
Background: I’m a Utah native who has long been interested in human development and health. I double-majored in psychology and health policy, graduating Magna Cum Laude through the Honors College at the University of Utah. In my free time, I enjoy playing soccer, making music, writing poetry, and discussing philosophy.
Social Media Links:
You can contact him at www.howtohappy.com www.instagram.com/thehowtohappy www.youtube.com/howtohappy
Reviewed by: Mr. N