You can't buy happiness, so why not grow your own? All you need is a piece of fertile ground (your beautiful mind) plus some hardy seeds of wisdom, creativity, and plain good sense. In this inspiring new collection from the pages of O, The Oprah Magazine, more than 75 warm, wise, and insightful contributors write about beating the blues, dropping the weight, kissing fear goodbye, making your dreams real, and putting your best face forward (with a little help from the right haircut, of course).

O's Big Book of Happiness offers you more than 100 wonderfully written, empowering articles that will turn your life around, whether you're fighting loneliness, illness, self-doubt, or a crisis of faith. World-class writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and political leaders, such as Alice Sebold, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Swados, Richard Branson, and Barack Obama, open a window on the life lessons that have galvanized them and set them on the road to joy. Among the in-house experts offering advice and comfort, financial adviser Suze Orman defuses the minefields of money management, and life coach Martha Beck clues you in on how to handle your most intractable critic—you!—while Dr. Phil sheds light on the push-me-pull-you confusion of intimate relationships. Be prepared for unconditional honesty and reality-based solutions, even if you think you've hit bottom and there's no place left to go. As Oprah writes in one of her essays, "Everything in life happens to help us live."

Have you ever wondered :

• What's the secret to getting in shape—and staying that way? Rebecca Skloot tells you how to trick your brain into actually craving diet and exercise (page 10), while O's Mental Health Kit offers therapist-tested techniques for getting your life back in balance (page 46), and Oprah discusses how the best healthcare begins with self care (page 61).

• When your worst-case scenario finally happens, how do you carry on? Onetime war correspondent Geraldine Brooks writes that a diagnosis of cancer, which she once feared more than terrorist bullets, proved to be a path to grace (page 36). Beverly Donofrio tells how she endured a rapist's violent attack by refusing to say yes to despair (page 74), and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg explains how to make those crucial human connections that are guaranteed to melt away loneliness and refresh your faith (page 149).

• Are there any surefire ways to sidestep relationship pitfalls? O's writers investigate an exciting new therapy that could keep you from falling for that bad-news guy—again (page 172)—and a nontalking cure that just might save a compassion-starved marriage (page 180). Lauren Slater explores the price some of us are willing to pay for love—even when it has four legs and a tail (page 214).

• How's your brilliant career going? O's in-the-trenches experts tell you how to soothe the savage boss (page 226) as well as take a risk, reconnect with your wildest ambitions, and embark on the professional life youÕve always dreamed about (page 232).