The Happiness Diary: Practice Living Joyfully by Barbara A. Kipfer guides you through various self-reflection exercises and prompts to connect with the potential for happiness that already exists in your life. It’s designed to be used as a notebook and written in, and each page is beautifully illustrated.

I’m always a tad wary of happiness-promoting books/articles, because the message that people just need to choose happiness is a) annoying, and b) not particularly relevant for people living with mental illness. However, this book doesn’t take that stance. It’s also less about happiness as a transient emotion and more about an attitude of joy towards the positives that are available to us.

The book tries to help you find your own way in identifying the things that are meaningful and valuable for you, and find all the little sources of happiness you might not be noticing. It doesn’t provide instructions or give you a recipe for happiness.

Mindfulness is one of the major topics in the book, but instead of coming at it from a meditation-focused angle it’s presented more in terms of slowing down and savouring what’s going on in the moment and what you’re experiencing through your sense. The book encourages you to find pleasure in the simple things in life.

There are list prompts, mind mapping, self-reflection prompts, exploratory questions, life mapping, gratitude journalling, writing prompts, and mindfulness exercises, among other things. There is a challenge to develop a media reduction plan.

The book encourages us to think about how we can connect with the people in our lives, and offers prompts around sharing positives with others.

The reviewer copy of this book that I got was an ebook version, but this is definitely the kind of book where you would want to get the paper version so you could write in it. The ebook version is still beautiful, but I doubt in can do justice to the paper version.

I absolutely love this book. It really is brilliant .

It's title doesn't do it justice at all, it's so much more than a happiness diary.
This book is a happyness guide, a journal, a gratitude diary, a minfullness guide. It's a guide to a happier, better, calmer more focused self.
This book is a dream diary, and a doodle pad, a note book and a motivational guide.
All this is tied together with thought provoking exercises, cheerful bright illustrations and meaningful quotes.

As soon as i finished reading the digital version I went and ordered the paperback.

I would give this 10 stars if I could.

This book has some (a lot) of easy exercises and cute/pretty illustrations. The book is also down-to-Earth and easy to understand.

I really enjoy reading personal growth on topics such as happiness. I really love journals on the topic of happiness especially those with lists. This is hands down one of the best I have seen. Cheery colors, lots of different topics to fill in. Very enjoyable.

What a nice, enlightening surprise this journal was. Very thought provoking, engaging, and resourceful, it’s filled with prompts, exercises, and happiness tidbits. It’s certainly a great gift idea as well, even for yourself. It’s has helped me to work on my happiness, practice joyful living, and encouraged me to be kinder to myself. I am ‘happy’ I read and participated in this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Fair Winds Press for this lovely ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nice little workbook and can use these types of ideas outside of the book - mind mapping, pie chart for example. Talks about a few things, but allows reader the room to write as much as needed. Nice jump off point if you like how the author set up the pages.

Honest and in-depth advice for reaching your full potential. This advice is presented in easy to follow language that can be broken up and applied in pieces at a time.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Everyone, including me, can use some more happiness in their lives so I requested to read The Happiness Diary: The Practice of Finding and Savoring Things to Be Joyful About by Barbara Ann Kipfer.

The Diary is not a book to read in one sitting. It is a journal in which you are given different activities to improve your happiness. Some are reflective exercises. Other suggest an journal prompt to complete then review after a specific time period - days, weeks, months, or more. Rereading your entry allows you to see how your life, goals, and happiness have changed during that time period.

It offers different ways to help express your happiness. It encourages you to try all of the techniques to find which one or ones are preferable to you.

One of the entries I have been doing for years. For homework for a Positive Psychology class, you needed to think of 3 good things that happened that day. It is a great exercise.

One of my favorite entries is the Newness Challenge. It suggests you try something new every day for a month. I have been trying to learn something every month for years. It is challenging but fun.

Review published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 3/17/19.


https://philomathinphila.com/2019/03/17/the-happiness-diary-barbara-ann-kipfer/

What a fun book! The Happiness Diary is a great resource to help cultivate your happiness. Accompanied by lovely illustrations, this book offers journaling opportunities with prompts, inspirations, and exercises that will help the reader to focus, relax and reflect on the things that make them happy.

The Happiness Diary will help you be happier in all aspects of your life, with suggestions on how to increase those happiness levels. I agree with other reviewers that this book would be a wonderful gift.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

The Happiness Diary by Barbara Ann Kipfer

Practice Living Joyfully – Exercises, Reflections and Journal Prompts for Finding Happiness

This book LOOKS happy from front cover to back. Each page has illustrations, simple activities and ideas to find personal happiness and then increase it. I have to say that with a husband who teaches emotional intelligence, leadership and mindfulness I did not really find anything new for myself to incorporate into my own journey but did come away with some ideas to put into my daily journal that will enhance it. If you are looking for in-depth information on happiness and mindfulness with explanations and definitions then this book is probably not for you but if you would like a simple book that will encourage you to think and look into your life a bit then this might be the perfect book to keep by your bedside and do an activity in daily or weekly for awhile and see how it impacts your overall happiness quotient.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto – Four Winds Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

I’ve noticed a large number of similar journals in bookstores recently, and I think this is one of the best I have seen. With lots of interactive exercises to bring more mindfulness to your life, and to help you move away from a life that is all routine, it can definitely unlock more happiness in every day. There are exercises for gratefulness, awareness, and unloading some of the clutter that weighs us all down in life. I highly recommend this book.

What a lovely dairy. The Happiness Diary by Barbara Ann Kipfer is short, sweet and delightful. The author encourages us to daily walk the path of our own type of happiness. The exercises are useful and easy. I found the pie chart, mindmapping activities and mindfulness reminders especially practical and useful. Five stars!

The Happiness is a vibrant workbook where you can work through a variety of journaling and other activities to help realize the happiness in your life.
I enjoyed this diary. The drawings were whimsical and the bright colors made me happy. I enjoyed doing the activities; they helped me see what was already in my life and how to grow my happiness. I did think some of teh activities were repetitive, but over all i was pleased and happy that I did this diary.

I'm a big fan of living with intention. To me, this means being clear about many different areas of my life and aware of the choices I am making and paying attention to the way those choices impact me both day to day and cumulatively.

Being happy is something that doesn't come as naturally to me as it might to others. My natural state is lower than average and I have a tendency to remember the negative more strongly than the positive. So this is an area where I make a lot of extra effort to be even more intentional.

This book is the perfect tool to do that with. This is not a "reading" book, it is a "working" book. You have to work with it, live with it, think and take the time to really be intentional. It has eight different sections from definition to focusing on present moment to changing your brain to capturing the small things, etc. There are future looking exercises, ones that encourage repetition, ones that you revisit in intervals of time, etc.

Some of the exercises encourage introspection and you can do them in one sitting. There are others that are about making future commitments. And then there are ones that are about remembering the past or the present. Ones that encourage practicing new behavior and ones that encourage practicing new ways of thinking.

There is a wide variety in this book and while my digital copy didn't allow me to take advantage of the beautiful way this book is laid out for writing, the prompts and exercises are all easily transferable into your own journal. It's not about the looks (though it's so pretty too) it's about the content.

This book will be my close companion all throughout 2019 encouraging me to be intentional and thoughtful about my life so I can welcome more happiness (or be more aware of the happiness that's already there.)

with gratitude to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

A book to promote happiness an interactive book where you can journal write your thoughts feelings emotions.This book is beautifully illustrated ,it would make a perfect gift for anyone you want to spread share happiness with.#netgalley #quartobooks.

Positive, thought-provoking, useful, and perfect for those who tend to give great advice and direction to others, but never seem to heed it themselves. A wonderful tool for self-discovery, growth, and contentment in your everyday life. I highly recommend it and will likely give it as a gift to someone dear.

I love this book its really useful if you trying to know a bit more about yourself or put your life in review. Really encourage everyone to get it .

A delightful workbook that considers all things happiness related. The book has a pleasing layout with attractive graphics. The first section has plenty of pages for you to fill in, analysing what happiness means to you.
It them moves on to more suggestions for activities to increase your happiness levels, including, mind-mapping, journalling and creative writing. There are sections on practising mindfulness, making bucket lists and highlighting the positives.
This would make a lovely gift book.

I loved everything about this diary! It's packed full of suggestions and activities to explore how to be happier in all aspects of your life from gratitude and mindfulness to de-cluttering and unplugging. There's something in here for everyone. I particularly enjoyed the whimsical doodles and the helpful instructions and digestible chunks of knowledge about happiness and mindfulness.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Fair Winds Press for allowing me to view an advance copy of this diary. All opinions are my own.

It’s a beautifully done illustrated book, one you want to have if you are in a spiritual journey or in help of some soul searching. I loved the color palette, very soothing. Made me remember autumn leaves. Highly recommended