How to Be Happy (Or at Least Less Sad) - A Creative Workbook

I originally bought this for a friend of mine who gets pretty down in the dumps. She has a lot of challenges in her life, so I thought this workbook might be something she could use to try to feel a little less down on her bad days. After thumbing through it, I've decided to order a second copy for myself!! It is witty, clever, and thoughtful but down to earth and realistic. I get blue from time to time and stress out over things (don't we all!!) and think this book could help see me through those days and weeks. There's a good amount of space to use it as it's intended (to write/draw in) but is not a huge book. I'm looking forward to working my way through the exercises and hopefully, finding myself a little less sad.

This book really impressed me. It's not too serious, but filled with good ideas to lift your spirits and work through depression. The format is different from most things I've seen and I really find it user-friendly.

I originally bought this for a friend of mine who gets pretty down in the dumps. She has a lot of challenges in her life, so I thought this workbook might be something she could use to try to feel a little less down on her bad days. After thumbing through it, I've decided to order a second copy for myself!! It is witty, clever, and thoughtful but down to earth and realistic. I get blue from time to time and stress out over things (don't we all!!) and think this book could help see me through those days and weeks. There's a good amount of space to use it as it's intended (to write/draw in) but is not a huge book. I'm looking forward to working my way through the exercises and hopefully, finding myself a little less sad.

This book really impressed me. It's not too serious, but filled with good ideas to lift your spirits and work through depression. The format is different from most things I've seen and I really find it user-friendly.

This book gives a lot of focused attention to your negative thoughts (why you are unhappy to begin with). It also has a negative way of getting to your positive actions. It has a fee swear words. There are a lot of black pages (which I know is trendy), but this adds to the books overall dark mood. In general, I was looking for something to lighten the mood and I felt more depressed after looking through this book.

So this journal is good. I may have purchased it without doing enough research on it though. In my opinion, it would be great for people who have chronic depression, or are going through a hard time in their life. I believe that young adults could get the most benefit. The only problem that I had was that I am not depressed. I was trying to find something that would help more with anxiety, and this does not. I still filled out a few pages just to try it out, but I suppose I an just going to keep it around until I have a sad day maybe.. I'm not really sure about it for myself, but yes, I believe that this has the potential to help people who are sad cope, and possibly become happier by realizing what it is that is keeping them in a dark place, but this book DOES NOT HELP WITH ANXIETY. (all caps because I want everyone who is looking for a journal for self help to get what they need, and/or are looking for). Great product, just not for me.

Not what I expected, even with the previews. Would not be good for someone who is EXTREMELY depressed. There are a lot of pages that focus on WHY you're sad, the worst was "What's the worst that could happen? Draw or write about it on the next page". This is an awful awful idea for a person who is already thinking of the worst.

This doesn't actually help if you have severe depression. It actually made me worse. It makes you think about "what makes you happy," and when you find that the answer is "nothing," you get real frustrated real quick with this stupid book. I guess this is fine if you're normal or have mild depression, but I found it ridiculously unhelpful.

I truly think this book is wonderful. The opening quotes, the foreword, and the author's intro really do a great job of setting up the idea that "a book can't fix you," and I think that's so important. "One Weird Trick To Cure Depression" is always a load of baloney, and the author is very up front about knowing that is true. *round of applause*

I blew through the first 10 or so pages and was really feeling great afterwards! I mean it! And I'm currently in an overall great place mentally, so I do not think this book is just for sad people! I'm happy to have this book now, but a little sad that I didn't have it when I was sad because I know it could have helped me help myself :)

If you are sad or if you are happy or if you like drawing and writing prompts, then I 100% recommend this book.

The activities are helpful, easy-to-follow distractions when you're sad. So I'm really welcoming them during this dreary winter as I nurse myself back from a breakup.

Unfortunately the book is printed with low quality ink that smudges all too easily. Colour over the lines? Smudge. Sweaty palms? Smudge. Write something on the page (which is the whole point of a workbook)? Smudge, smudge, smudge. The ink rubs off on the page you're working on and the ones behind it (i.e. the ones on which you make an imprint). After filling out a sheet, I have to flip the page over and use an eraser to rub off all smudges and imprints.

Not what you want from a workbook, right? If the book were a bit bigger/longer and of better quality, it would easily get four or more stars. Great potential -- I'd love to see a longer reprint with better quality ink.

This could have been great, except for a confusing start that turned me off to it completely. Beware, the questions come AFTER the pictures. I found it confusing and that caused me to start out focusing on my negatives instead of my positives.

I really enjoyed this book. It passed the classic Litmus test of books for me: "Would you want to gift this book to someone else?" Yes, definitely. I am not really one to partake in exercises...I don't do well with workbooks or study guides. I don't write in a journal regularly even though I know it's immensely helpful. Hell, I don't even take my vitamins every day. However, every little blurb felt reassuring to me. Like clicking on an article that was interesting, but over and over, and not like on Facebook where there is 1/8th content and 7/8th ads. That's becoming the norm now, it seems, and it makes books like this all the more refreshing.

I am quite surprised by the overwhelmingly positive reviews here. The questions that guided one for self analysis were common and I hardly found anything creative. Not recommended for anybody who had read more than two self help books about happiness.

Great little book with tons of activities to inspire creative thinking. I'm looking forward to spending some time on myself, and getting to know the person I am now. As a mother, it's easy to lose touch with yourself, I'm looking forward to finding myself again.

This book definitely helped me see a different side of things and helped adjust my perspective when I was feeling really low on myself while going through a break-up. Highly recommend this book to lift your spirits. It's pretty activity-based so just know that this isn't a book you read. There's reading but just here and there, and it's nice to break it up by having to write or list things out.