10 Jan Living from the source of lasting happiness
I’m not sure if it’s available in Australia yet but apparently Deepak Chopra has just published a new book called: “Power Freedom and Grace: Living from the Source of Lasting Happiness”. A friend of mine over in the USA, who publishes an Happ-E newsletter and coordinates a number of Happy Clubs, writes…
I am so pleased that Dr. Chopra’s latest book deals with lasting happiness. Dr. Chopra begins this book by relating a question he asked a sick patient at the beginning of his career as a medical doctor. “Why do you want to get better?,” he asked. The male patient said, “Doesn’t everyone who is sick want to get better? Dr. Chopra told him that is true but wanted to know why he wanted to get better. The man replied, “to make money!” Dr. Chopra asked him, why do you want to make money? The man replied, ‘so I can pay for my son’s education, so he can have a successful carreer. After asking the patient this question repeatedly, the man finally said: “Because I want to be happy!” Dr. Chopra has asked the same question to many of his patients with the same answer.
Dr. Chopra writes: “Happiness seems to be the goal of all other goals, and yet most people seek happiness in a roundabout way. In 1999, I presented a class on Happiness at Sacred Heart University. I began the first session of each class by asking the students what was important to them. I would list everyone’s comment on the black board. The answers included, money, family, security, health, and many more, then, I would go back to the person who raised the comment and ask them why it was important to them and how it made them feel. Every single person I have done this with inevitably has arrived at happiness, as their reason for valuing what they thought was important to them.
Dr. Chopra states: “Why not make happiness our primary goal? Why seek happiness through all these secondhand means?”