Mindful Monday: ACT & The Happiness Trap

I’m a very inquisitive and open-minded person and super keen to learn all perspectives, uses and methods of implementing mindfulness.   I love to discover, listen and learn all possible ways and means out there that might lead to obtaining a good balance of mind, body and spirit and that ultimately assist in achieving wellness,  happiness, and becoming the best possible version of ourselves.  At the same time, I have been meaning to find out a bit more about the book ‘The Happiness Trap’.  I had heard of it and wondered if it recommended the use of mindfulness within its pages.

Well, my investigations led me to the book’s author, Dr Russ Harris.  His background is in medicine.  He qualified as a doctor in 1989 at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK.  He migrated to Australia in 1991 and set up practice as a GP in Melbourne.  As a GP he became increasingly interested in the psychological aspects of medical illness (and increasingly disenchanted with writing prescriptions).  Ultimately this interest in human psychology led to a career change and he now works in two different yet complementary roles: both as a therapist and as an executive coach.

An internationally-renowned ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) trainer, Russ travels all around Australia, and internationally, providing workshops and training for a wide variety of professionals, and he regularly presents at both national and international psychology conferences.

The Happiness Trap (his best selling book) has introduced ACT to many thousands of people around the world, and has now been translated into seventeen different languages.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) gets it name from one of its core messages: to accept what is out of your personal control, while committing to action that will improve your quality of life.   The aim of ACT is to maximise human potential for a rich, full and meaningful life, and YES – it does incorporate the practice of mindfulness!  Go HERE to read more about the ACT view on mindfulness and more about ACT in general!

So let’s meet Russ and listen to him introduce us to ACT.  Trust me it’s worth every bit of the 9 minutes and 36 seconds of viewing!  Ok – maybe go make a cuppa first and then come back and settle in for a listen. I’ll wait for you – promise! 😉  ….  ok hit PLAY!

The other video’s they refer to can be found HERE.  You can read a lot more about Dr Russ Harris & ACT (including loads of resources and information on more of his books) at his websites – ‘The Happiness Trap – Stop Struggling, Start Living’ and ‘ACT Mindfully’.

The self-help book ‘The Happiness Trap’ claims to show you groundbreaking ways to:

• handle painful feelings far more effectively
• escape the grip of self-defeating habits
• rise above your fears, doubts and insecurities
• find more fulfilment in your work
• build more satisfying relationships and, above all,
• create a rich, full and meaningful life.

Well gee I reckon we could all do with a little help with some, if not all, of those dot points!!  So after my little investigation, why YES, I am interested in reading the book and learning more about ACT.  Why not?!  I’ll add it to my wish list and report back once I’ve read it!  😉

Have you read The Happiness Trap?  If yes, what did you think?  Have you heard of ACT before?  Any of those dot points above jump out at you?  What did you think of the video?

Ciao for now,

 [ This post is linked up with One Mother Hen‘s #OpenSlather ]