Marci Shimoff

I hate pretty much all self-help books but this was recommended to me by my therapist. It did have some excellent points on changing your thinking so as to change how you feel so I was able to take quite a bit away with me and leave the fluffy "white light" stuff behind. I might actually break down and buy the book.

Women have many roles in their lives - daughters, wives, mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers - well, you get the idea. This group of stories progress through those stages showing how a woman's spirit can change and grow with the "adventures" of time.

Never having been a mother, it amazed me that my favorite sections were those about motherhood. One story told of a woman asking her friend if she should have a baby? Her friend's thoughts ran the gambit of all she had been through with her own show more children in seconds and replied to her friend that she'd never regret it. The other story that made me laugh was made up of supposed want ads for the requirements of the job of "mother". Newborn mothers should like to rock, be light sleepers, early risers, willing to work all shifts with no vacation time. Mothers for toddlers should be athletes in top condition with quick reflexes and boundless energy, patience, knowledge of first aid, - a pediatric nurse with an Olympic background was deemed a perfect candidate for the position. The other ads were just as amusing.

There were also stories of how women adjust to the changes as we get older and lose those we love whether they are parents or other family members. Some are amusing, make you laugh while others cause your eyes to fill with tears as you empathize with the writers.

I have to admit that the last few months for me have been difficult but when I read the inspiring stories in this book, my spirit was lifted and I feel that I can go forward again. It was a perfect time to read this book and set me back on the path of life's joy and beauty. show less

This is an inspired and inspiring book, an essential book.

In these times of impending ascension, it is imperative that we all open our hearts. This book is a key factor for us to achieve this goal.

In part II The Love for No Reason Programme Marci presents various doorways, one for each chapter, each doorway representing one of the seven chakras. She provides two love keys for each doorway together with useful exercises. She also includes many personal stories, told in the first person, to show more illustrate her theme. (I really enjoyed these stories, all of them.)

Throughout the book she cites innumerable “Love Luminaries”, renowned, extremely loving persons, who have succeeded in opening their hearts. Some of these are well-known, others less so.

Marci presents innumerable valuable techniques by which we can open our hearts. She includes scientific evidence to back up her statements. Obviously, learning to love oneself is essential, and there is a complete chapter devoted to this.

One of the techniques I most enjoy is that of “beaming” love to people. I have previously just sent love mentally, but now I’ve learnt to beam love from heart to heart. I’ve been in ecstasy all day from doing this – it really opens the heart and makes it ache in a wonderful way. It is a delightful technique.

I’ve personally discovered that one can beam to large groups of people at once for an even stronger effect (on oneself). Marci states that if you beam love to dogs they notice (people generally don’t) and look at you interestedly. I tried out the technique on a dog walking with its master in a park. The two were at least 100 metres away, perhaps more, on another path than myself, but the dog immediately turned its head and looked at me intently, as I continued beaming to it, until we’d moved away from each other. Even the dog’s owner noticed that it was unusually interested in me, for apparently no reason.

This book is an absolute delight, the most enjoyable book I’ve read, perhaps ever, and also one of the most important. It is one I shall have to purchase. It’s also a wonderful idea for a gift. show less

General Background and Overview
Happy for No Reason is... well, pretty much what it says it is on the label. Subtitled "7 Steps to being happy from the inside out", the book is a journey through the aspects and characteristics of life that Ms Schimoff believes are necessary for someone to be 'happy for no reason', based on common responses from the interviews with the 'happy 100' - 100 people she believes are 'truly happy'.

Good Stuff
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. While much of it wasn't show more new ground, a lot of it was worthwhile to revisit - if only to remind myself that I did actually already know it.

Granted, much of what the author talks about feels like common sense to me, but that might well be because I've been reading in the self-help/self-improvement genre for going on a decade now, so I've probably internalised many of the concepts and principles (at least intellectually - I'm not always so good at putting them into action). But I know there are people out there for whom trying solution-focussed thinking rather than complaining or blaming, taking responsibility for moving forward, searching for the lessons in the tough stuff, questioning your own assumptions, looking at what's going right and giving some attention to that as well, and trying to get some mind-body-spirit balance into your life are all new concepts.

I also found the life stories of the 21 people whose tales actually appear in this book interesting - often moving - and generally inspiring. And I like the fact that there's a recognition that while some of the answers might be simple, that doesn't make them easy - that it's OK to move forward with lots of little small steps that are basically in the right direction: rather than the expectation that the book should be used as some kind of 7-step program that will absolutely turn the reader's life around if they just do it right.

Bad Stuff
That being said, I do find myself wanting to apologise for the book in places as well. It's by one of the authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and by one of the contributors to the movie "The Secret"; with the same kind of underpinning self-help industry/Law of Attraction foundation as they have... so if that sort of newaginess raises your hackles or just leaves you cold or bewildered, I'm going to take a punt and say this book will too.

There's also a lot of what I'll call 'fringe science' (and what others might less charitably call 'pseudo-science') cited throughout the book that will likely make anyone with a scientific background either froth, squirm or both - things like Dr Masaru Emoto's water crystallisation experiments, or like the Institute of HeartMath's studies. I'm pretty much willing to just go with these things on the basis that, like the bard said, "There is more in heaven and earth than is dreamed of in your philosophy" - but I fully understand that not everyone's quite so easy going around the scientific method, and that it will probably be a turnoff for more scientifically-oriented minds than mine.

Ratings and Recommendations
Overall, I definitely enjoyed Happy for No Reason, and I will be adding many of the books in its extremely wide-ranging bibliography to my To-Be-Read (TBR) list, and possibly even buying myself a copy of the book to work through some of the exercises within it. In terms of recommendations though... I have this sneaking suspicion that many of the people who would most benefit from putting a few of the practices within it into action are going to be the ones who are most turned off by the fringe science and newaginess within it - which is a shame, because even if you don't take the underlying principles within it as gospel, there are still some damned useful exercises and practices in there.

I'm going to give the book an 8/10, with a note that other people who read it might well have a very different response to mine; and that's perfectly OK too. show less