A course in happiness: an authentic happiness formula for well-being, meaning and flourishing

April 28, 2011 - PRLog -- "A course in happiness, meaning, motivation, and well-being: how to be happier, purpose-driven and flourish" (http://www.iswb.org/) is a well-being book written by AmAreWay.org founder Frank Ra.  "A course in happiness" offers tools to assess one's well-being; approaches to live a happier, purpose-driven and flourishing life; and formulas to measure the outcomes of joyful living, both on an individual and social level.

"A course in happiness, meaning, motivation, and well-being" (http://www.amazon.com/course-happiness-authentic-well-being-flourishing/dp/1456374133) is different from other well-being books, because it offers a framework which is, at the same time, coherent enough to be easily remembered and implemented, and also flexible enough to be applied in different context and aspects of life. When it comes to research about happiness and meaning, there is a balance to reach between making the topic accessible, and keeping the information accurate. Two ways the author decided to address this opportunity are using the acronym AmAre to explain what facilitate joyful living, plus to speak in terms of degrees of happiness-facilitation when it comes to external factors.

The first eleven chapters of the book are based on AmAre, an acronym which stands for "being":
- Aware and Accepting
- Meaningful and Motivated
- Active and Attentive
- Resilient and Respectful
- Eating properly and Exercising

They also address questions like “Is happiness an inside job? Or does it depend on external factors?” by thinking in terms of degree of facilitation. “Some events are like a weight” says Frank, “making harder for people to fly; some are like a lift, facilitating people's happiness. However,  considering even the way human beings discern between weights and lifts is subjective, happiness is about attitudes and choices, it is not a place to reach through external factors”.

Other chapters are devoted to measuring the external outcomes of living happily, both on a personal and social level; to showing the connection between Consciousness and Science of happiness, and how to start Shifting paradigms to facilitate joyful living. Appendix offers examples of how to apply AmAre to relationships, peace, etc.; short Inspirations; Suggested readings; a wrap-up to put all together with an action plan.

Some of the several topics covered in the book are:
- Happiness is a way of living
- Power of context
- Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis
- Being aware of awareness: consciousness matters
- Free-will is a fact, if we are mindful
- Subjective Well-being implications for public policy and international relations
- Hot, mild, cool SWB agents, objects, actions
- Evolution explains a lot about our instincts, Meme a lot about our customs
- The real Da Vinci Code  
- The need for more research and critical thinking

The author of the book, Frank Ra, is a Dharma instructor, has been coaching and working in eCommunication since late 1995; he studied Dharma, Business, and graduated in International Relations and Diplomacy. He is Italian, has spent most of his adult life in North America, England and Estonia, and travelling around the World. He settled in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Frank says:  “While every situation requires a specific approach, experience showed me there are common basic approaches to life. I summarized it with AmAre. This is the journey I want to share with readers; there will be ups and downs, merry time and times to learn lessons from. Together, we can make the best of here and now.

I now understand this journey of happiness started long time ago, at least with my grand-parents, who showed by example to my parents what love and having a family means. My parents brought this lesson to life, and took care of me. Then, I started to grow, with my happy moments, fun, doubts and mistakes. Learning from the lessons my ancestors passed along, and from personal experience, I decided to consolidate my happiness – to make it durable, not only a short run on the hedonistic treadmill – and to share it with my partner and everyone who wants to share this journey”.

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http://www.iswb.org/ is devoted to living joyfully. AmAre stands for "being": Aware and Accepting; Motivated and Meditating; Active and Attentive; Resilient and Respectful; Eating properly and Exercising. In Italian, it means "to love"; in English, interconnectedness: (I)Am (we) are.