Happiness NOW - How to Be Happy in a Sad, Mad World

By Steve M Nash

How to Be Happy in a Sad, Mad World?

Imagine being repeatedly reminded that happiness is an inside job; that no matter how you feel about yourself, or how crazy (or dangerous) the outside world appears to be, you can still be happy NOW.

Imagine 7 questions, the answers to which help point you back to the happiness within; help you see for yourself how you "get in your own way" of a happiness that is naturally, and unconditionally yours.

Imagine, for example, being invited to trust in (and notice) the ebb and flow of life more; to understand that doing so opens you up to a happier life - simply so.

Introducing Happiness NOW! - How to Be Happy in a Sad, Mad World:

A book that asks you to examine your internal life, and reflect on what you notice as honestly as you can.

A book that is inspired by the Inside-Out Understanding first shared by Sydney Banks.

A book that can be summed up by these inspirational words:

• "Only those who seek within, get to discover their true unconditional happiness." – Edmond Mbiaka
• "Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect. It means you're able to look beyond the imperfections." – Author Unknown
• "Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get." - Dale Carnegie

So why not allow yourself the experience of being happy now, and stop waiting for "being happy when" - and all via this transformative Happiness NOW book!

Get your copy now! (And don't forget to rate and review.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve M Nash
• Release date: Nov 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215037706

Book preview

Steve M Nash

Happiness NOW!

How to Be Happy in a Sad, Mad World

First published by Steve M Nash 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Steve M Nash

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

Steve M Nash asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Steve M Nash has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

The information given in this book should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical advice; always consult a medical practitioner. Any use of information in this book is at the reader’s discretion and risk. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any loss, claim or damage arising out of the use, or misuse, of the suggestions made, the failure to take medical advice or for any material on third party websites.

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Contents

Introduction to Happiness NOW

Q1. Are You Thinking Too Much?

Q2. Are You Being Gentle?

Q3. Are You Noticing Life’s Ebb and Flow?

Q4. Are You Letting Go and Letting Be?

Q5: Are You Seeing Through Problems?

Q6. Are You Listening Enough?

Q7. Are You Trusting In Life?

Happiness NOW: Conclusion

About The Author

Reader BONUS

Introduction to Happiness NOW

All I can guarantee you is that as long as you are searching for happiness, you will remain unhappy. – U.G. Krishnamurti

What do I mean by Happiness Now? How can anyone be happy in a sad, mad world? How will this book on happiness reveal anything new to the reader that they have doubtless not read elsewhere?

Ah, these are good questions. Questions I hope to answer for you here in this introduction, as well as throughout this entire book.

For now, the good news is that there is no step-by-step how to when it comes to being happy now. That’s because happiness is the default setting for human beings, our natural state, and part of the factory settings (an expression my mentor, Michael Neill, was wont to use). Which means you can’t work towards being happy in the future, and happiness doesn’t depend on what happened to you in the past; you can only be happy now.

This is, paradoxically, also the bad news – for those who like to feel in control, anyway.

As is understanding properly the answer to this question: whose sad, mad world are we talking about here, anyway? The world of Coronavirus variants, climate change crises and human conflicts of an ever-varying kind? Or… oh-so-compelling world of you?

About Happiness NOW

Simply put, Happiness Now is the default state of being human. A happiness that is experienced now, or not at all. A happiness that comes with no conditions, expectations, or requirements.

Happiness Now is simply the antidote to Happiness When: that enslaving belief that you’ll be happy when.

You’ll be happy when you get to start that amazing long-term relationship, for example; or when you get to live in that fabulous dream house, you’ve always imagined; or when you get to have your own children. It could be when you finally get that promotion at work, or that new job offer; or when you become a six-figure business owner; or even when you get to be pain free and healthy again.

Me? I’ll be happy when I get more people to buy (and adoringly review) my books – hah!

We all have our when, then. But here’s what to notice about when. When always happens in the future, and never now. And you can’t live your life in the future.

You can try to do that, I guess – to feel good in the moment by conjuring up pleasant thoughts of some future event. But this thinking of yours has a life of its own – ever noticed? – and it could as easily decide to entertain you instead with a particular unpleasant thought from your past, or some dark foreboding of that same future event. Now your cool contentedness has transformed itself into angsty and depressed, again – oops!

This is what’s known as living in your head – in the unreal, mood-dependent, and often wild imaginings of your mind – rather than in the moment-by-moment realness of NOW.

Yes, Happiness Now is where it’s always at. It’s always available. It’s always here. And it’s always inviting you to remember this, always inviting you to use your feelings as signposts – feelings you can then get curious about. And the following seven guiding questions can serve that curiosity:

Are you thinking too much?

Are you being gentle?

Are you noticing life’s ebb and flow?

Are you letting go and letting be?

Are you seeing through problems?

Are you listening enough?

Are you trusting in life?

This book will explore all seven of these guiding questions as they relate to Happiness Now, and it will get you to examine your own answers to them. And it will do this using my occasionally flowery and poetic prose, using the carefully chosen inspirational words of others, as well as using a few brief (mostly personal) illustrative stories.

It will ask you to notice if and how your experience of life changes, moment by moment, when you investigate these questions for yourself. You really can’t take my word for this, after all. You have to see it for yourself – or not! – for this book to have any transformative effect on you. This is your life we’re talking about here, remember – not mine.

The ONLY Sad, Mad World That Exists?

How to be happy in a sad, mad world. First, please note that the subtitle of this book is a statement, and not a question. Second, note also that the sad, mad world refers to the relative, subjective world that you experience rather than a so-called absolute, objective world we might think is being experienced by all of us.

There is no such thing as reality, remember, just perception.

Seven billion and counting human beings then, seven billion and counting perceptions of reality.

This is a book about your perceptions, and what you make of them, that is all.

Whether those are perceptions of the impact of climate change on the planet, for example; or they’re perceptions of the fight against terrorism, inequality and prejudice; or they’re more personal perceptions about how successful (or otherwise) you are in life.

What you perceive can trouble you, can transform you into anxious, doom-and-gloom inactivity – and be not much use to the trouble you perceive – or you can take responsibility for your perceptions, can find some way to do your best to help.

Or you can oscillate somewhere in between these two extremes of victim and protagonist. Whatever! You are going to die sooner or later after all – remember? Being born has always been a certain death sentence; an incurable disease. Just sayin’!

So this is a book about experiencing happiness despite everything that’s going on in the world, in your world. Your world: the only world that can matter to you, the only world you’ve ever experienced, and the only world that exists for you.

Yes, your sad, mad, happy, crazy, lovely world.

This book is about you and your world alone. I hope you see that. The questions posed then are for you, and you alone to answer.

About the Origins of This Book

I based this book on an online program I created in 2018 called Remembering the Happiness Within. This program was itself based on a 7-part email-course I created a year earlier called How to Be Happy – an online course inspired by the Inside-Out Understanding, as first shared by Sydney Banks.

And it was the fictional comic John Shuttleworth, no less, who indirectly influenced the book’s