How to be a WELL BEING: Unofficial Rules to LIVE Every Day
By Dr. Andy Cope, Jim Pouliopoulos & Sanjeev Sandhu
Published by Capstone, July 2020
Paperback original and e-book, £10.99
ISBN: 9780857088673
Context
The world’s mental health was already wobbling, then along came COVID. With it, came new words (‘furlough’, ‘shielding’, ‘lockdown’), new phrases (‘you’ve got to unmute yourself’), new behaviours (social distancing, sneezing into your elbow) and new fashions (PPE, manufactured by Burberry)
Almost overnight, it became a lot harder to be a well being.
As lockdown eases and we creep back to normal, there’s good and bad news:
The bad news is that the new ‘normal’ has not yet formed. And the good… the new normal has not yet formed!
Which gives us a chance to shape it.
The book
HOW TO BE A WELL BEING is founded on Cope’s PhD (he’s actually the UK’s only ‘Dr of Happiness’) but the big words have been sifted out and replaced with humour, common sense and fun. Cope and his co-authors introduce a new set of rules that work for the post-COVID world.
Sidestepping some of the unanswerables (What actually was the best thing before sliced bread? Why are there life jackets under plane seats instead of parachutes?) our intrepid authors take on the challenge of staying upbeat in a world that’s hell bent on knocking you sideways.
Written as a potpourri of quirky, interesting, challenging and counter-intuitive, the brand new rules of life are designed to be downright run. The reader will learn:
- Why Monday is the new Friday
- Why your smartphone is making you stupid
- That we’re all superheroes who have accidentally learned to be normal
- Why being busy and being productive are two entirely different things
- The absolute truth about money and happiness
- Why it pays to have regrets
- The importance of acting your shoe size rather than your age
- How to take charge of your own mental health
- How to flourish in a world that’s trying to beat you up
Be warned – don’t mistake their light touch for light content. The trio are deadly serious about happiness. Plot spoiler alert: ‘Memento mori’ – remember death. No more MESSING around. No more wasting time. It’s time to focus on what’s most important and take giant strides towards human flourishing.
