Contents

Cover

Title Page

Epigraph

Introduction

0. Why?

1. No Straight Lines

2. Want to Be Happier in 5 Easy Steps?

3. Unhappiness Is Simple

4. The Gift of Fear

5. Golden Girls

6. Death Trap for Dependencies

7. We Carry a Lot Through Our Lives

8. When Less Is More

9. Loving a Bottomless Pit

10. How We Spend Our Days Becomes Our Life

11. Putting Yourself First Is Not Selfish

12. When Was the World Fair?

13. You’re Going to Die

14. Who Are You?

15. We All Have Our Stresses

16. Pave Your Own Road—There’s Less Traffic

17. Don’t Sabotage Yourself

18. Time Heals All, But Not on Your Schedule

19. A Lesson from 50 Cent

20. You Can Be Whatever the Fuck You Want

21. Lonely Is a Feeling, Not a Circumstance

22. Don’t Trust Everything You Feel

23. Things Get Overwhelming Quickly

24. I Don’t Know You

25. Hukam

26. Money Is a Funny Thing

27. A Fear Overcome Is a Strength Acquired

28. Trust Your Wings

29. You Have Reasons to Be Miserable

30. Fluffy Pillows and the Truth

31. Is It Ignorance or Apathy?

32. Comparisons Are Killer

33. High Expectations and Low Patience

34. Help Those You Love the Way You Love

35. Let’s Talk About Your Beliefs

36. Allow Your Heart Some Character

37. The More We Let Go, the More We Gain

38. Heartbreaks Are Essential

39. Another Lesson from 50 Cent

40. People Are Expensive

41. Sometimes We Need to Suffer

42. Falling in Love with Learning

43. Fewer Expectations, Fewer Disappointments

44. Fitting in Is a Pointless Activity

45. Ghostbusters

46. You Can’t Save ’em All

47. It Hurts to Care Sometimes

48. Which Emotions Are You Feeding?

49. You Can’t Protect Your Bubble

50. You Have to Do What’s Best for You

51. The Religion of “Want”

52. Don’t Let Someone Else Write Your Story

53. Depending on Luck Is for Suckers

54. I Met This Girl Once . . .

55. Don’t Know Yourself, Can’t Be Yourself

56. Oh Man, How Scary It Is to Ask for Help

57. Are You Happy?

58. Regrets Are Stupid

59. Nobody Fits In

60. All My Mothers

61. Only Boring People Get Bored

62. One Promise of Life Is that It’s Going to End

63. Love Is a Gift Not a Loan

64. Self-Pity Is Self-Sabotage

65. Worms of Validation

66. Which Way Is Your Spiral Headed?

67. How Do Others See You?

68. You Decide Your Worth

69. The Storm Is in Your Mind, Not in Your Life

70. Put That Heart on a Leash

71. Are You in It to Give or Receive?

72. Fight!

73. You Need to Forgive

74. Labels Are Dehumanizing

75. Celebrate Your Scars

76. Validation Is a Helluva Drug

77. Fake It ’til You Make It

78. Baby Steps Add Up

79. You Only Have So Much Time

80. Don’t Infect Yourself with Negativity

81. Words Are Weapons, If You Allow Them to Be

82. You Are a Work of Art in Progress

83. Losing a Piece of Ourselves

84. Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself

85. What’s Right and Wrong?

86. Embrace Your Challenges

87. How Rarely They Think of Us

88. Love and Logic Won’t Hold Hands

89. Smile to Feel It or Conceal It?

90. Killing Expectations Births Happiness

91. What’s Taking Up Space in Your Life?

92. Living the Width of Your Life

93. The More Love You Give, the More You Get?

94. The Only Constant

95. No Minimums on Appreciation

96. Who Holds the Key to Your Happiness?

97. Starting Is the Hardest Part

98. Don’t Hold Yourself Back

99. Happiness Is Not a Place

100. Some Folks Are Addicted to Misery

101. The Most Important Chapter in This Book

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher