Hector's Search For Happiness

As you probably know, I usually write a post every other day, but since I plan on spending time with my husband tomorrow, I thought I would write a post today. Yay for you!

This post is another book review because I'm good like that. No really, it was an easy read at less than 200 pages. The book is called Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord. It's about a psychiatrist (Hector) who goes on a trip around the world to understand what makes people happy or unhappy. It is written in a children's book fashion to keep it simple and light, but it has some real insights about happiness. One of my favorite insights was when Hector visited an old monk in China. He and the monk went for a walk through some beautiful mountains and the monk said, "True wisdom would be the ability to live without this scenery, to be the same person even at the bottom of a well. But that, it has to be said, is not so easy." I like this quote because it basically says that a person can learn to be content and happy even if all that person sees is the darkness at the bottom of a well. Even though the monk said that is not easy to achieve, I still think it is a comforting thought.

Hector writes down lessons he learns about happiness as he travels. He comes up with about twenty-three lessons, give or take. Some of these lessons include - Lesson#1: Making comparisons can spoil your happiness. Lesson#2 Happiness often comes when least expected. Lesson#8 Happiness is being with the people you love. Lesson#13. Happiness is feeling useful to others. Lesson#20 Happiness is a certain way of seeing things. I won't go into all the lessons because you can just read the book yourself. Also, not all of the lessons are things that a person can control. Therein lies the only thing I didn't like about this book - It doesn't really tell you HOW to be happy. It goes into great detail about WHAT makes people happy, but not much detail about how to be happy if you don't have the things that make people happy. For instance, Hector visited a professor who studies happiness, and the professor said "some people have more of a gift for happiness than others." In other words, some people are born with a better ability to see things positively. My question is, what then can someone do who is not born with that ability? The monk said it could be achieved, but how?

So in the end, the book was fun to read and helpful in reminding you what is important in life and what may help to make you happier. But, it is not meant to be taken too seriously and does not have all the answers to happiness. So read it, enjoy it, take what you can from it, but don't expect it to make you deliriously happy.