Who doesn’t struggle with all the negativity in life? The news are full of it! We prepared for Climate Change and now a pandemic hit. COVID-19 put the lifes of many upside-down. Budget cuts! Layoffs! Furloughs! When you were asked to summarize the challenges of your friends and colleagues in these times, your report has good chances to sound like amagendon. Is it really like that? Dr. Lynda Ulrich dares to state it’s all our own making and we have the power to change it! She has just published her book Happiness is an Option which I read and review in this post.
- Brief Introduction of the Book’s Author Lynda Ulrich
- Lynda Sees the Positive when Life Throws a Curveball
- Conclusions on Happiness Is an Option
Disclosure: The book by Dr. Lynda M. Ulrich entitled Happiness is an Option was given to me by RLM Public Relations for review. The post is not endorsed by them nor the author. I wrote the review entirely myself and it represents my own 100% honest opinion about the book.
Brief Introduction of the Book’s Author Lynda Ulrich
Dr. Lynda Ulrich is a woman in midlife married to her highschool sweetheart who was a talented sportman with the potential and was offered a contract for the big league. She has a three kids, one already graduated. Today she and her hubby are dentists. She is also a hobby artist creating life-size dinosaur plastics and loves to read. Sounds like you and me except for her husband’s ticket to make big money because he could handle a ball better than most other guys! Here is what makes her special all by herself. She is the founder of a growing multimedia positive news platform called Ever Widening Circles. The goal of that web site is to spread positive news instead of misery despite reporting honestly about the actual conditions.
Lynda Sees the Positive Even When Life Throws a Curveball
The book bases on her huge life experience which differs strongly from Jane Doe‘s. You think “yes, she is the wife of a dollar millionaire.” No’ she isn’t. On the contrary. Despite the offer to make big money, they chose to see the world after graduation from college. They faced poverty when traveling in Europe, but felt blessed learning about the different cultures and European history. She also traveled many Asian countries to learn about their social culture and lifestyle.
After graduate school, Lynda and her husband founded a family. One of their kids was born as a pre-mature. So pre-mature that doctors had no hope of a positive outcome, whatsoever! She and her husband saw the positive of their little one born after only 23 weeks of pregnancy (40 weeks are normal). The little girl being there, right then in that very moment was enough to make them happy. They still enjoy the presence of their now adult totally normal daugther.
Lynda sees the positive of the internet despite all its bad news and social media that drag you down. According to her, the internet is similar like the Industrial Revolution. Recall that time brought a lot of good like the sewing machine, which led to cheaper clothing for the masses; it also brought bad things like child work and underpayment of women as well as unemployment of seamstresses and tailors (see this post on the history of sewing clothes).
The internet on one hand side makes our lifes easier than before. Think for instance, filing your taxes, reading a review about a fashion item, looking up which downcoat is best for your climate zone, or finding out why clothes release sparks. Therefore, Lynda’s hypothesis is that you can use the internet to make you happy. She claims most of us use this technical evolution the wrong way! Actually, she is right! Recall Elliot Carvat, the media mogul in the Bond movie Tommorrow Never Dies. He said
Give the masses what they want. – Elliot Carvat
Conclusions on Happiness Is an Option
Did you know that when you and your bff google the same keywords, you will receive quite different results? All these SEO algorithms, likes, loves and cookies have only one purpose: To serve us what we are looking for. It’s all about money. The search engine owners want their readers to use that engine again. This means that they try to predict what you are looking for – based on your previous searches, likes and digital finger- or footprints.
You get what you like.
Why do they want you to make their search engine your default? Ads! It’s all about selling ads. Remember most people believe
Money makes the world go round.
Wasn’t it conservation of angular momentum? Anyhow! Dr. Lynda Ulrich invites you to her Happy Challenge. See the white background of the dalmatiner, not the dark spots. Change your “like” behavior on social media and news. Doing so will lead to getting served things you enjoy reading and that won’t drag you down, but lift up your spirit. It’s like adding a pop of color to improve your mood on a rainy day. Are you in to try it out?
SEO serves you what you liked.
My conclusion? Reading the book was 100% worth my time. A Must-read when you want to improve your being happy. You can buy her book at Transcendent Publishing for many more tips on thriving instead of surviving in the Era of the Internet.
It’s still an amazing world.
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More Reviews of Selfcare Books Because Happiness Is an Option
Review of The Glow Up Journal
Paul Wharton: Pulling It All Together – Review
Photos and diagrams: N. Mölders
© 2013-2023 Nicole Mölders | All rights reserved
This is very very cool. I love finding new books on happiness and positivity. Not only have I not heard of this one before, I’m also totally new to this concept of creating more happiness through your online presence/footprint. I mean, we’ve all heard that overdoing it on social media can be unhealthy, but it sounds like this book takes it on from a new, deeper, and more technical level. I’m excited to check this one out!