A New Happy Year!

January 4, 2008
BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

Happy New Year to you my dear friend. Thank you to all of you who sent me notes about this column. It really means a great deal to me and I want you to know how much I appreciate receiving your e-mails.
I would like to recommend a great book for you to read to set your New Year off in the right direction. The book is called Happiness Now! by Robert Holden, Ph.D. This book was originally published 10 years ago and was republished under the name Happiness Now! by Hay House, Inc in 2007. Hay House is a wonderful publishing company and publishes many books of spiritual value. You can tune into HayHouseRadio.com to hear many authors talk about their work. Dr. Holden has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

I just finished reading this wonderful book and put it aside. At 4:40 on New Years Eve, I received a phone call from Rabbi Pliskin who was in Jerusalem, Israel. It was 11:40 in Israel time and he called to wish me a Happy New Year. He mentioned that he was reading the book, Happiness Now! by Robert Holden. He said that he was almost done reading it and loved the book. I told him that I had just finished reading the book and I really love it as well. We both thought it amazing that we were reading the same book at the same time.

Rabbi Pliskin mentioned to me that he thought that Robert Holden would make a good guest on our Virtual Happiness Club meeting. This is a phone interview meeting, that people listen to on their phones once a month, while a live interview is taking place. I told Rabbi Pliskin that I had the same thought. Once again, we were amazed at our similar thoughts on our favorite subject, which is happiness. Rabbi Pliskin is the author of more than 22 books on the happiness subject matter. In my opinion, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin wrote the best book on happiness, called Gateway to Happiness.

On New Years day I woke up wondering how I could get in touch with Dr. Robert Holden to invite him to do an interview. I opened my e-mail and saw a response to my Happiness Newsletter, sent out twice a month. There, to my astonishment was an e-mail response from Dr. Holden to my newsletter. It contained a phone number and everything I needed to get in touch with Dr. Holden who lives in England. When the universe conspires to help you do something, I think it is time to do it.

Here is an excerpt from the book Happiness Now!: "Every form of unhappiness is a manifestation of fear. Thus, fear and unhappiness are inextricably linked --- they are the same thing. Unhappiness is born of fear and it gives birth to fear. When we give our power to unhappiness, we automatically side with fear, and we automatically become very afraid of everything."

With all this concentration on Dr. Robert Holden, I decided to dedicate this article to him because of the wonderful work he is dong to promote happiness awareness. He has written 8 other books and is the director of The Happiness Project. His happiness knowledge, insight and wisdom are truly remarkable and well worth discovering and learning for yourself. If you want to read a great book on happiness this year, I recommend Happiness Now!

Another powerful wisdom-filled reminder from this book is: "Decision is power! Decision, above circumstance, is the key to happiness now. Know, therefore, that your decision counts. You really can decide what sort of a day to have today. In fact, you already have. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can happen without your decision."

Our next Happiness Club meeting will be a presentation called: "Happiness: the Evidence" by Dr. Mark K. Setton. Dr. Setton will talk about the dramatic upsurge in scientific studies on happiness during the last two decades, the conclusions they have found, and what this means for you! Dr. Setton is an Associate Professor of World Religions and Chairman of the Martial Arts Studies Program at the University of Bridgeport. The meeting will be held on Thursday, January 17, 2008 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Fairfield Public Library, in the Rotary Room at 1080 Old Post Road. Meet some wonderful people using happiness in their lives. Admission is free; everyone is welcome.

Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club and can be reached at PrintLRK@aol.com. The website is www.HappinessClub.com.