Joy on Demand - a relaxed review

I received this book on December 27. It was a gift from Project Happiness, because I completed the Happy Scavenger Hunt during November. 

For those who do not know, I am a teacher at University of Craiova, Romania and I coordinate a Marketing Circle for my students. In the above pic, I am with my students, at the end of the meeting. It is mostly nonformal education, extending beyond marketing and economics topics to volunteering, No Hate Speech Movement, CSR and so on. 

So, I have to say that I follow Project Happiness for a long time and I really love what they do: May calendar, AWEgust challenge, the Happy Scavenger Hunt, the EQ calendar in January and many others. I love their newsletters that motivate me and give me a boost of energy every day. 

So, when I saw I am one of those who won the book Joy on Demand by Chade-Meng Tan, I was really very happy or joyful in order to be in equilibrium with the book :)

I finished reading the book while I was using my stationary bicycle so I realized I can listen to some music, cycling more and reading faster. I was so amazed by the book and I finished it in two days, before New Year's Eve. I also realized that I am so lucky I know English (not as a native, but still, I understand it very well and I sometimes think in English). I read it as if it were in Romanian :) 

Really love it :) It made me smile and joyful

Even if I finished it so fast, I learned lots of things and exercises meant to increase your joy and your travel here on Earth. For example, you can do some minor exercises/reflections that will improve your life:

1. Breathe and be aware of that breath. This is simple, start with just one breath. 

2. If you use to complain a lot, reflect on this: the Universe is so big and your worries compared to that are nothing. So, let them go: your worries, your envy, your hate or other negative feelings you have

3. Belive in the virtuous cycle and spread this among your friends and people you know

4. Think of mortality. You will not leave forever but now, in this moment, you are ALIVE, so live.

5. The best moment is NOW and the best place is HERE. So, enjoy it!

6. Every hour when you are at school or at work, choose two persons and think that: I want you to be happy. You do not have to say it loud, only in your mind. It does not matter if you know them or not. Just think in a loving way about those people. 

There are lots of formal and informal exercises for meditation because the book is about how to integrate meditation in our lives. It is easy, challenging and life changing. You can bring joy into your life even in suffer. 

I really recommend this book because it is easy to understand and apply, it has lots of cartoons, funny ones and Meng is Meng: He was working at Google between 2000 and 2015. His job title was Jolly Good Fellow and he even had some courses at Google helping the other employees in reducing stress and increasing their inner peace and clarity of their minds. Other books written by Meng are: Search Inside Yourself (I really want to find this book), How to Master Your Mind in 100 minutes. 

I am really grateful for this book and I want to congratulate the team behind Project Happiness for the wonderful things they are doing and also to thank Meng for singning the book for me. 

I wish you all a Happy New Year with joy on demand and this can be brought into your lives through many ways: one of them is being kind and grateful.