What I recommend next is for you to write down three things, each of which is backed by research:įor instance, I will let go of… the text I sent to my sister that I regret.

So when you wake up, you’re not going to know what to do. You might need to buy an alarm clock, which, don't worry, is only $5 at Walmart. That appears to be a community but it's not. When you wake up in the morning, I don't want your cell phone near you. Number one: My two-minute morning practice. What are some practices to help train our brain toward happiness and joy? The reason it's called Our Book of Awesome is because I've tried to create the sound and feel of a community of people around you in practice. The Harvard Study of Adult Development has shown that the number one driver of our long-term happiness is community connection. We must train our brains to be happy first, thinking of happiness as a habit or a practice.

This is the model I was taught: If you do great work, then you have big success, and then you will be happy. Neil, you say that “we get to decide” when it comes to how we think and if we wake up and will be put in a good mood. “The spirit of Our Book of Awesome is to congeal this community of people around the world and celebrate the simplest, smallest pleasures that make life great.” Pasricha’s belief, which he walks us through here, is that in the face of all the media-fed negativity, we still have a choice to look to the joy-and we do this by seeing the beauty in the tiniest of moments. (He started blogging about this more than a decade ago, which resulted in his wildly popular blog and subsequent books). It’s extended from Pasricha’s personal mission to lift himself out of hard times. The book includes hundreds of overlooked and underappreciated moments woven with positive anecdotes from people around the world.Īt its core, Our Book of Awesome underscores our need for connection and empathy. A “dart trying to pop the negativity bubble,” as Pasricha describes it, Our Book of Awesome is a guide for refocusing on the simple, accessible joys that surround all of us: watching people dance snorting while laughing drinking from the hose.

Here’s the good news: We can find the light-and Pasricha has provided a beacon for doing so with his new book Our Book of Awesome: A Celebration of the Small Joys that Bring Us Together. “According to social media, the world is constantly ending.” “We live like kings, but none of us are happy,” says the bestselling author, who believes the constant negative news feed is suffocating us. Humanity is in pain, and the irony, Neil Pasricha points out, is that we’re surrounded by abundance unlike ever before. We’re seeing unprecedented rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide, and loneliness is forecasted as the next big epidemic. Before we get to the good news-and there is good news!-here's the tough stuff: So many of us are hurting.

The book of awesome by neil pasricha