Have you ever felt that something about your life isn’t quite right? Not dramatically wrong. Just slightly off. As if things would be better if you were a bit more focused, a bit calmer, a bit more on top of things. Director of the Harvard Study of Happiness, Dr Robert Waldinger draws on decades of research and contemplative practice as a Zen priest to reflect on a gnawing question: is this all there is? He shows that the problem is often not what’s happening to us, but how we relate to it. When we treat every feeling, thought or experience as something to improve, life begins to feel like a series of problems to solve. But there is another way. This book offers a radically simple shift: learning to meet life as it is, rather than constantly trying to make it better. Through short reflections and practical exercises, Waldinger introduces a way of living that is calmer, more open and more connected – even in uncertainty. Because the good life isn’t something we arrive at once everything is fixed. It’s something we learn to recognise, moment by moment.
