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BOOK REVIEW

‘The Happiness Project’

Written by Gretchen Rubin

Reviewed by Rajam Ramamurthy, MD

Author Gretchen Rubin quotes writer Robert Louis Stevenson as saying,
“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” In her
book “The Happiness Project,” Rubin writes about her efforts to bring hap-
piness to her life.

The author is married to Jamie, a tall, dark and handsome man who is the
love of her life. Rubin has two delightful daughters. She is highly educated, a
lawyer who gives up a lucrative law practice to write, and she becomes a suc-
cessful author with two bestsellers to her credit. Bring happiness to her life?
You have got to be kidding, lady, I thought as I picked up the book in the At-
lanta airport and read the reviews, a little about the author and the opening
pages. I bought the book and raced to the gate to sit and read.

What grabbed me were the next few sentences: “… Often I sniped at my
husband or the cable guy. I felt dejected after even a minor professional set-
back. I drifted out of touch with old friends … listlessness, free-floating guilt.”
Rubin’s book fell into the category of books I stole time to read when I should
have been doing more urgent things such as answering e-mails.

“The Happiness Project” resonated with me, and I think many who read
San Antonio Medicine will feel the same. In launching her happiness project,
Rubin took up a phase of it every month. Some activities, such as clearing clutter or changing shopping habits will probably grab us
women, as these tasks by default do fall on us, employed or not. But the book is filled with well-researched and referenced statements
to which everyone can relate.

Her July project was to buy some happiness. She writes: “In particular, I kept seeing the argument money can’t buy happiness, but
it seemed that people appeared fairly well convinced about the significance of money to their happiness.” A 2006 Pew Research Center
study in the United States found the percentage of reported happiness increased as income rose, from 24 percent for those earning less
than $30,000 per year to 49 percent for those earning $100,000. Could it be possible that there is some reverse correlation: Happy
people become rich faster because they’re more appealing to other people and their happiness helps them to succeed? This chapter was
particularly informative. A sense of growth is so important to happiness that it’s often preferable to be progressing to the summit rather
than to be at the summit. Rubin’s argument for growth in the happiness project is thought-provoking.

One statement in the book stuck with me. Happiness, some people think, is not a worthy goal; it’s a trivial American preoccupation,
the product of too much money and too much television. They think that being happy shows a lack of values and being unhappy is a
sign of depth. It vaguely reminded me of an Indian philosophical statement wherein you strive to reach a state of equanimity where
you are neither happy nor unhappy. Will I ever forget the day when Sridevi and I ran to her grandfather to announce that we jumped
off the highest level of the spring board in the swimming pool, and all I heard was a grunt from him? We were both 8 years old; a bravo
and a pat on the head might have created two Olympic athletes.

It takes energy, generosity and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, Rubin says. One fact of human nature is that people have a
“negativity bias.” In a marriage, it takes at least five good acts to repair the damage of one critical destructive act. With money, the pain
of losing a certain sum is greater than the pleasure of gaining that sum. Distraction is a powerful, mood-altering device. When you feel
unhappy, find an area of refuge. These and many more thought-provoking statements push you to keep reading. Happiness is in you.
Rubin has used a method to feel it. Why not seek yours?

Rajam Ramamurthy, MD, is a member of the BCMS Communications/Publications Committee and
2004 BCMS president.

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