Author researches happiness, shares findings in book

Posted by Elena del Valle on June 27, 2008

Happy for No Reason book cover

Photo: Marci Shimoff

Since she was a young girl Marci Shimoff has been trying to understand happiness. As an adult with an established national reputation as a speaker and author she decided to pursue this quest by asking the 100 happiest people she could find about their lives. From their responses and her research on the subject she and her co-author Carol Kline, outlined a seven-step process she shares with readers in Happy for No Reason 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out (Free Press, $24.95).

The 320-page hardcover self-help book was published in early 2008 and immediately began selling at a brisk pace. In the book, divided into three parts, she discusses happiness and how readers can develop seven happiness habits that may lead eventually to enhanced feelings of well being. Each chapter includes one case study from the Happy 100 individuals, some of them celebrities, Shimoff interviewed.

Her suggestions include looking after body, soul and relationships and working toward higher goals beyond an individual’s well being. She emphasizes that money alone doesn’t make people happy.

In Part I, Happiness That’s Here to Stay, there is an introduction and two chapters, Happy for No Reason… Really? and Practicing Happiness. Part II, Building Your Home for Happiness, is chapters 3 to 9 in which she describes developing happiness habits in: The Foundation, Take Ownership of Your Happiness; The Pillar of the Mind, Don’t Believe Everything You Think; The Pillar of the Heart, Let Love Lead; The Pillar of the Body, Make Your Cells Happy; The Pillar of the Soul, Plug Yourself In to Spirit; The Roof, Live a Life Inspired by Purpose; and The Garden, Cultivate Nourishing Relationships.

Part III, Happy for No Reason Ever After, includes the final chapter, The Happy for No Reason Plan for Life, as well as Recommended Resources, Acknowledgments, Giving Back and bios of the authors and the Happy 100.

Shimoff, one of the authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul, authored six titles in the series, including Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul. According to promotional materials, those books have sold more than 13 million copies worldwide in 33 languages and have been on The New York Times bestseller list for 108 weeks.