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A Practical Guide to Happiness: Think Deeply and Flourish
Apply the wisdom of philosophers to become a happier person. What is happiness? What makes you happy?Is there more to life than happiness?Learn to cultivate your taste for pleasure, free yourself from the various disturbances of life, and overcome irrational expectations that cause distress. Go with the flow and rediscover the joy of existence.Filled with exercises, tips and case studies, this Practical Guide will enable you to see happiness in a new light, with the help of the world’s greatest minds
161 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 5, 2012
132 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Will Buckingham
31 books182 followersWill Buckingham is a writer, academic and traveller with an MA in Anthropology and a PhD in Philosophy. He has published books in several genres, including philosophy and fiction for children and adults. His latest book is "Hello, Stranger: How We Find Connection in a Disconnected World" (Granta 2021).
Born in the UK, he has worked and travelled all over the world. He co-directs Wind&Bones, a social enterprise that explores how writing can help us connect and reconnect, and is currently based in Dundee, Scotland.
Born in the UK, he has worked and travelled all over the world. He co-directs Wind&Bones, a social enterprise that explores how writing can help us connect and reconnect, and is currently based in Dundee, Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 7, 2020
not bad. Its not a book that will explain how to be happy, it just describes the different types of happiness. Explains why I hate some self help happiness books. Not my type of happiness. Interesting read. he reviewed and summarized different philosophers, etc and their definition, their discoveries, their types. From Buddha Gautama, to Epicurus to Thomas Moore to Confucius. I learned.
August 10, 2025
Introducing Happiness - A Practical Guide by Will Buckingham
10 out of 10
It does not seem as if this book has attracted a vast audience, but it should have and staying optimistic – which is one element of happiness – maybe it will get more traction, but notwithstanding the number of copies sold, there are many, if not most chapters of the guide that will be useful for readers, from reference to classics like Aristotle, whose wisdom is used to explain that ‘Happiness is the highest good because we choose happiness as an end sufficient in itself…the highest form of happiness is a life of intellectual contemplation…and we should look for The golden mean as a solution for many problems, including where to find happiness, Will Buckingham giving a model of extremes and where we should position ourselves.
The new science of positive psychology is mentioned, the notion that Subjective Well Being aka SWB can be measured, the correlation between poverty and unhappiness, which is not found at high levels of wealth, where a doubling of income will not translate in significant changes in life satisfaction, due in large part to the Hedonic Adaptation phenomenon…a threshold has been established – I guess around $ 65k per year in Alabama and north of 110k in San Francisco, per year – which is the figure at which people can live comfortably and passing that does not contribute to major improvements in happiness levels, on average…
This excellent guide has the advantage that in a limited time – about four hours and including some breaks in the text – the reader is offered insight into definitions, various philosophical schools and major luminaries, their perspective on happiness, with important conclusions and often amusing quotes, which do not diminish, but on the contrary highlight the fact that there are rules that we can apply and get far in our quest – albeit one key is to avoid seeking happiness, which most often comes as a byproduct, as in the example of playing the accordion…a man has learned that accordion players are happier and started trying to learn, only to find he is actually upset that he has not made progress and the moral here is that people are happy to do what they like, not what they force themselves to do…living in a democracy helps, also the trust that individuals have in others reflects the SWB levels of different countries, as in there is a high trust in Norway and low in Eastern Europe which is mirrored by their low life satisfaction levels, respectively…
It is more than unfortunate that this immensely useful book does not have a Wikipedia page and overall, appears to have attracted little, if any attention from major publications and a sizeable audience, that could benefit so much from learning about various perspectives of ancient and more modern philosophical schools and the science of positive psychology, in a compact, easy to read opus, with stories that include Thomas Aquinas and the flying donkey, the importance of uselessness, the latter exposed in the tale of the tree that survived for a very long time, because he worked to be useless, while the others have been cut down, on account of their utility…
We can learn about the essence of the epicurean, stoic, cynic and other thinking, the tremendous change that their image has suffered through millennia – quite a few of the names have changed significance to the point where we consider epicurean to mean shallow, stoic to lack fun and there are so many other misconceptions in a world invaded by false news, conspiracy theories, Qanon and idiots that worship the Orange fool – but this guide is more than indicated when we have questions on the Buddhist take on happiness, importance of meditation, with the example of the happiest man alive, the monk with an unseen before brain activity, Matthieu Ricard…religion is included and Thomas Aquinas is the one who insists that earthly happiness is limited and we need to think of God as the source of eternal bliss – on the other hand, there is the argument of Nathaniel Branden in his Psychological Effects of Religion, which argues that these effects are devastating and kill joy on earth for multitudes… http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/p...
We have an immense lot to learn from this book and the doctrines it briefly touches on – yes, many will say it is too short to be serious, but in a world where people do not have the time, I say this is extremely relevant – readers find about ataraxia, the notion that the cynics looked at dogs and their happiness and they have had a keen and interesting disregard for conventions – which in small or adequate doses could be so beneficial, not by masturbating in public like Diogenes, who famously told Alexander the Great to move away, because he was blocking his sun – positive psychology studies have demonstrated that the rules proposed by stoics, among others, are correct for fame, material goods do not bring happiness – there is a change in SWB for the very poor though – and we have to look at what we can change and what does not depend on us and adopt a more serene, ataraxic attitude.
Flourishing would be the key to lie satisfaction, and Martin Seligman has proposed the formula PERMA – Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Achievement – in his book Flourish http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/11/f... which comes down through the ages to Aristotle, who advanced the Golden Mean, a rule that is analyzed and explained by Will Buckingham, who gives examples of middle of the road solutions, in situations like…what is the extreme for financial perspective – he does not use these words, but it is how it comes to my mind – where you can be stingy and prodigal at the ends of the spectrum, but it is best to be liberal and wise in the middle…the same for friendliness, where one can show an excess that would result in a harassment case or be indifferent and cold at the other end and it is best to show the right proportion, at the right time…
Honest Will Buckingham is open about the ‘secret’ and explains the various types …Aquinas says that true happiness can be found only in God’…’, we can nourish our lives, we can do things to improve our wellbeing’ according to Positive psychology ‘we can free ourselves from the various vicissitudes of life’ as Epicurus thought – he has also said ‘Send me a pot of cheese, so that I may be able to indulge myself whenever I wish’-Stoics instructed us to ‘overcome irrational expectations of life that cause us distress’…as conclusions from the schools and thinkers…Aristotle ‘attaining to excellence by avoiding excess’…cynicism – ‘living naturally, questioning conventional morality, becoming cosmopolitan’…stoicism ‘understanding the nature of things and according our expectations with necessity’…Aquinas – ‘recognizing the limitations of worldly happiness, divine grace as an aspect of happiness’…Buddhism ‘understanding the causes of suffering, meditation as a means of cultivating calm’…Confucius – ‘ritual as a way of bringing harmony and order to our lives’
Positive psychology is referred to, with its multitude of tests, discoveries and let us end with an amusing quote
“It was George Bernard Shaw who famously said that you should not do to others as you would wish to be done to - the famous 'golden rule' of moral philosophy - because they might have other tastes.”
10 out of 10
It does not seem as if this book has attracted a vast audience, but it should have and staying optimistic – which is one element of happiness – maybe it will get more traction, but notwithstanding the number of copies sold, there are many, if not most chapters of the guide that will be useful for readers, from reference to classics like Aristotle, whose wisdom is used to explain that ‘Happiness is the highest good because we choose happiness as an end sufficient in itself…the highest form of happiness is a life of intellectual contemplation…and we should look for The golden mean as a solution for many problems, including where to find happiness, Will Buckingham giving a model of extremes and where we should position ourselves.
The new science of positive psychology is mentioned, the notion that Subjective Well Being aka SWB can be measured, the correlation between poverty and unhappiness, which is not found at high levels of wealth, where a doubling of income will not translate in significant changes in life satisfaction, due in large part to the Hedonic Adaptation phenomenon…a threshold has been established – I guess around $ 65k per year in Alabama and north of 110k in San Francisco, per year – which is the figure at which people can live comfortably and passing that does not contribute to major improvements in happiness levels, on average…
This excellent guide has the advantage that in a limited time – about four hours and including some breaks in the text – the reader is offered insight into definitions, various philosophical schools and major luminaries, their perspective on happiness, with important conclusions and often amusing quotes, which do not diminish, but on the contrary highlight the fact that there are rules that we can apply and get far in our quest – albeit one key is to avoid seeking happiness, which most often comes as a byproduct, as in the example of playing the accordion…a man has learned that accordion players are happier and started trying to learn, only to find he is actually upset that he has not made progress and the moral here is that people are happy to do what they like, not what they force themselves to do…living in a democracy helps, also the trust that individuals have in others reflects the SWB levels of different countries, as in there is a high trust in Norway and low in Eastern Europe which is mirrored by their low life satisfaction levels, respectively…
It is more than unfortunate that this immensely useful book does not have a Wikipedia page and overall, appears to have attracted little, if any attention from major publications and a sizeable audience, that could benefit so much from learning about various perspectives of ancient and more modern philosophical schools and the science of positive psychology, in a compact, easy to read opus, with stories that include Thomas Aquinas and the flying donkey, the importance of uselessness, the latter exposed in the tale of the tree that survived for a very long time, because he worked to be useless, while the others have been cut down, on account of their utility…
We can learn about the essence of the epicurean, stoic, cynic and other thinking, the tremendous change that their image has suffered through millennia – quite a few of the names have changed significance to the point where we consider epicurean to mean shallow, stoic to lack fun and there are so many other misconceptions in a world invaded by false news, conspiracy theories, Qanon and idiots that worship the Orange fool – but this guide is more than indicated when we have questions on the Buddhist take on happiness, importance of meditation, with the example of the happiest man alive, the monk with an unseen before brain activity, Matthieu Ricard…religion is included and Thomas Aquinas is the one who insists that earthly happiness is limited and we need to think of God as the source of eternal bliss – on the other hand, there is the argument of Nathaniel Branden in his Psychological Effects of Religion, which argues that these effects are devastating and kill joy on earth for multitudes… http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/p...
We have an immense lot to learn from this book and the doctrines it briefly touches on – yes, many will say it is too short to be serious, but in a world where people do not have the time, I say this is extremely relevant – readers find about ataraxia, the notion that the cynics looked at dogs and their happiness and they have had a keen and interesting disregard for conventions – which in small or adequate doses could be so beneficial, not by masturbating in public like Diogenes, who famously told Alexander the Great to move away, because he was blocking his sun – positive psychology studies have demonstrated that the rules proposed by stoics, among others, are correct for fame, material goods do not bring happiness – there is a change in SWB for the very poor though – and we have to look at what we can change and what does not depend on us and adopt a more serene, ataraxic attitude.
Flourishing would be the key to lie satisfaction, and Martin Seligman has proposed the formula PERMA – Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Achievement – in his book Flourish http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/11/f... which comes down through the ages to Aristotle, who advanced the Golden Mean, a rule that is analyzed and explained by Will Buckingham, who gives examples of middle of the road solutions, in situations like…what is the extreme for financial perspective – he does not use these words, but it is how it comes to my mind – where you can be stingy and prodigal at the ends of the spectrum, but it is best to be liberal and wise in the middle…the same for friendliness, where one can show an excess that would result in a harassment case or be indifferent and cold at the other end and it is best to show the right proportion, at the right time…
Honest Will Buckingham is open about the ‘secret’ and explains the various types …Aquinas says that true happiness can be found only in God’…’, we can nourish our lives, we can do things to improve our wellbeing’ according to Positive psychology ‘we can free ourselves from the various vicissitudes of life’ as Epicurus thought – he has also said ‘Send me a pot of cheese, so that I may be able to indulge myself whenever I wish’-Stoics instructed us to ‘overcome irrational expectations of life that cause us distress’…as conclusions from the schools and thinkers…Aristotle ‘attaining to excellence by avoiding excess’…cynicism – ‘living naturally, questioning conventional morality, becoming cosmopolitan’…stoicism ‘understanding the nature of things and according our expectations with necessity’…Aquinas – ‘recognizing the limitations of worldly happiness, divine grace as an aspect of happiness’…Buddhism ‘understanding the causes of suffering, meditation as a means of cultivating calm’…Confucius – ‘ritual as a way of bringing harmony and order to our lives’
Positive psychology is referred to, with its multitude of tests, discoveries and let us end with an amusing quote
“It was George Bernard Shaw who famously said that you should not do to others as you would wish to be done to - the famous 'golden rule' of moral philosophy - because they might have other tastes.”
January 27, 2021
Enjoyed this more than I thought - I expected something self-helpy, but it's actually an overview of the philosophy of happiness, covering thoughts from the Ancient Greeks, Aquinas, Utilitarianism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, etc. Lots to ponder on.
November 28, 2018
This is an excellent book that looks at the question of happiness from a philosophical angle. It touches all the major approaches to happiness ranging from Epicurean, Stoic and Cynics to Buddhists, Confucian and Zhungzhu. The treatment is not superficial and one can sense the general import of each approach.
The structure of book is great with practical exercises, tips, case studies etc embedded in the main text. Overall I found it a very pleasant read and wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone interested in happiness, and beyond.
The structure of book is great with practical exercises, tips, case studies etc embedded in the main text. Overall I found it a very pleasant read and wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone interested in happiness, and beyond.
November 10, 2023
This felt like a research paper into various philosophies of paths of life rather than a book with "a practical guide" in the title. I hated it. I absolutely hated it. The author says "if you remember one thing" four different times that I highlighted, and outlines key figures, and I really feel like this title does not go with the book in anyway. It feels like a guy mansplaining philosophy to me. Congratulations on 15+ chapters of listing the different philosophers and philosophies you know.
September 25, 2019
Interesting and enjoyable
Interesting, informative, easy to follow. A good introduction to many different philosophers and their interpretation of happiness. A refreshing change from all the so called happiness experts.
Interesting, informative, easy to follow. A good introduction to many different philosophers and their interpretation of happiness. A refreshing change from all the so called happiness experts.
July 2, 2020
Not a how to book
This book doesn’t tell you how to be happy it just gives the different philosophies and philosophers’ view and let you decide. There is no real way to measure happiness. It’s subjective to the individual.
This book doesn’t tell you how to be happy it just gives the different philosophies and philosophers’ view and let you decide. There is no real way to measure happiness. It’s subjective to the individual.
February 10, 2021
Very easy to read, nice small compact book. This is an introduction to happiness in the point of view of different philosophies throughout time from stoicism to daoism, the cynics etc, was a very engaging and easygoing way to be introduced to basic philosophy concepts on happiness.
July 2, 2025
This was an interesting read. It offers a short overview of different philosophical schools of thought on happiness. It was enjoyable but not particularly in-depth, which could be for the better depending on what your previous background is with philosophy.
October 22, 2018
An excellent introduction to what happiness might be, why it matters to us and what some of the great philosophers/thinkers have said about it.
February 20, 2019
I actually found this to be an interesting introduction to the philosophical concept of happiness, how to get it, and is it the most important thing?
April 18, 2019
Short book on the topic of happiness according to different philosophers.
November 21, 2020
This book isn’t a self help book. It is culmination of about 10 different philosophies about Happiness, ranging from Aristotle to Confucius. This book isn’t life changing, but it was a good summary of different philosophies and left me with a few things to think about.
January 6, 2014
3-4 stars. This book has a wide rating range as the rating it receives will very much depend on why you're reading the book, and how much else you've read on the topic.
As a short introduction to the philosophy of happiness this is a 4-star read. Easy to understand, with well defined concepts and extremely well-explained ideas.
However, I was really hoping for more in-depth explanations on each of the philosophical schools (especially stoicism), thus my 3-star rating.
Buckingham is a great author - eminently readable. He's taken all of these philosophical schools and broken down each into 10-page chapters. We go through Aristotle, the Cynics, Stoicism (shoutout to Epictetus!), Thomas Aquinas, Buddhism, Confucius, Zhuangzi, Epicurus and more.
However, the book is bogged down by overly simplistic "ask yourself" sections, definitions and biographies, which slow down the book and make it seem like an intro-level philosophy textbook.
It's possible that in the print version of the book these sections are less intrusive, but in ebook form I found it annoying and not well-formatted.
As the subtitle states, this is a very practical book. Each school of philosophy is paired with thought experiments and questions to ask yourself, as well as activities you can do to explore the validity of the philosopher's ideas on happiness. The list of Further Reading materials is short, but very comprehensive.
This book suffers from its brevity, but that is also what makes it such an easy and fast read.
Recommended for those who are interested in philosophy, the philosophy of happiness, basic breakdowns of famous schools of philosophical thought, and those interested in mindfulness.
As a short introduction to the philosophy of happiness this is a 4-star read. Easy to understand, with well defined concepts and extremely well-explained ideas.
However, I was really hoping for more in-depth explanations on each of the philosophical schools (especially stoicism), thus my 3-star rating.
Buckingham is a great author - eminently readable. He's taken all of these philosophical schools and broken down each into 10-page chapters. We go through Aristotle, the Cynics, Stoicism (shoutout to Epictetus!), Thomas Aquinas, Buddhism, Confucius, Zhuangzi, Epicurus and more.
However, the book is bogged down by overly simplistic "ask yourself" sections, definitions and biographies, which slow down the book and make it seem like an intro-level philosophy textbook.
It's possible that in the print version of the book these sections are less intrusive, but in ebook form I found it annoying and not well-formatted.
As the subtitle states, this is a very practical book. Each school of philosophy is paired with thought experiments and questions to ask yourself, as well as activities you can do to explore the validity of the philosopher's ideas on happiness. The list of Further Reading materials is short, but very comprehensive.
This book suffers from its brevity, but that is also what makes it such an easy and fast read.
Recommended for those who are interested in philosophy, the philosophy of happiness, basic breakdowns of famous schools of philosophical thought, and those interested in mindfulness.
July 3, 2012
In the world of happiness books, there seem to be three main types:
1) Self help - 'how to make yourself happy'
2) Critiques of self help
3) Philosophies of happiness.
'Introducing Happiness' by Will Buckingham somehow manages all three. He lays out the landscape of people's thinking about happiness for the last three thousand year, from Epicureanism to Buddhism to contemporary Positive Psychology. And while there's lots of philosophy, it is lightly done and easy to read, whilst at the same time giving lots of opportunity to try out the different approaches. But he also critiques these various approaches, showing how they often contradict each other, and also sometimes contradict other ideas about what is important in life.
By the time I finished this book, I don't think I felt particularly 'happier' than I did at the beginning. But I did feel that, even though I'm sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes stressed and sometimes relaxed, overall, I'm really doing fine as I am. And that's a rare thing for a book marketed as 'self help' to achieve.
1) Self help - 'how to make yourself happy'
2) Critiques of self help
3) Philosophies of happiness.
'Introducing Happiness' by Will Buckingham somehow manages all three. He lays out the landscape of people's thinking about happiness for the last three thousand year, from Epicureanism to Buddhism to contemporary Positive Psychology. And while there's lots of philosophy, it is lightly done and easy to read, whilst at the same time giving lots of opportunity to try out the different approaches. But he also critiques these various approaches, showing how they often contradict each other, and also sometimes contradict other ideas about what is important in life.
By the time I finished this book, I don't think I felt particularly 'happier' than I did at the beginning. But I did feel that, even though I'm sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes stressed and sometimes relaxed, overall, I'm really doing fine as I am. And that's a rare thing for a book marketed as 'self help' to achieve.
June 7, 2012
A great, non-preachy, thought-provoking guide to some of the major world philosophies of happiness. This book doesn't promise to make you happy, but it certainly offers a great deal of insight into how we might change our perceptions of what happiness is, and how we might achieve it. I know Will IRL and this book is just like having a conversation with him. He introduces some tricky concepts and ideas in an accessible way and with good humour. Recommended.
July 5, 2016
Not a cheesy self-help book as one might suppose: much more a great overview of different philosophies about happiness and what it takes to lead a fulfilled life. It's not the one advice you get (because it doesn't exist) but a pool of theories to get you to thinking and find your own truth. Also liked the thought exercises and background stories of the philosophers covered in the book.
February 26, 2013
A refreshing antidote to self-help books that promise everything and deliver nothing. This is a quirky, often humorous but also learned and reflective book that does not allow itself to be confined to the genre in which its publishers have tried to imprison it.
April 3, 2020
Was hopeful this would be a good read! It felt like more of a middle school humanities class, learning different life philosophies. An interesting read but I wish I knew what I was getting myself into before I read it.
March 27, 2016
The book was helpful.
July 28, 2017
Loved the theme of the book! But it's too much information! If you really wanna absorb the content you must read calmly and write it down...
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews