The Happiness Trap

How to Stop Struggling and Start Living

By: Russ Harris

Narrated by: Russ Harris

Free yourself from depression, anxiety, and insecurity, and instead build a rich and meaningful life with the updated and expanded edition of the world’s best-selling guide to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Over 1 million copies sold!

In The Happiness Trap, Dr. Russ Harris provides a means to escape the epidemic of stress, anxiety, and depression, unlocking the secrets to a truly fulfilling life.

Updated and expanded by 50 percent in its second edition, this empowering book presents the insights and techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), covering more topics and providing more practical tools than ever before. Learn how to clarify your values, develop self-compassion, and find true satisfaction with this bigger and better guide to:

• Reducing stress and worry
• Handling painful thoughts and feelings more effectively
• Breaking self-defeating habits
• Overcoming insecurity and self-doubt
• Building better relationships
• Improving performance and finding fulfillment at work

New topics include activating self-compassion; how to deal with loneliness, grief, and trauma; how to work with difficult behaviors like people-pleasing, perfectionism, and procrastination; and how to make difficult decisions.

The Happiness Trap is for everyone. Whether you’re lacking confidence, facing illness, coping with loss, working in a high-stress job, or suffering from anxiety or depression, this book will show you how to build authentic happiness, from the inside out.

©2008 Russ Harris (P)2022 Shambhala Publications

Truly awesome

Chalk full of practical ideas and steps to more fully live with purpose. I can’t think of another book that has more value per chapter. Definitely tops my self help book list.

Great book with helpful applications!

I thought this book was well balanced between theory/science and personal examples and practical application.

Really great practical book

Loved the author’s candor and encouragement. Helps break things down into digestible pieces. I am planning on reading his book on relationships too!

wonderful book!

Great content, performed well. I use a lot of these principles and techniques in my coaching practice

Amazingly useful book with a great and seamless reading

The book is amazingly useful with lots of information regarding the underlying structure of the ACT framework and how it is meant to be used and improve your well-being.

While I loved the content and personally have been recommended this book by my therapist I gotta admit, the book is so filled with practices and "exercises" that need your full attention that it might get annoying at times (since you often have to pause it to wait for the time to focus on them).

Also while those exercises are very useful, they might seem funny, evident or even silly. I, as Russ, would advise the listener/reader to do them as described without skipping. At least try them, most of the times they do have a small impact and you start to understand the logic behind them (even if they seem irrelevant); even when they seem to be useless, at least you can find some fun in having done them, and maybe that's a way to tell the "reason-giving machine" that not everything has to be done for productivity and sometimes silly stuff is fun.

I had to read this for school but I’m not mad about it

I really enjoyed this book, and I definitely found some of the concepts very helpful and universal. It was one of the required texts in my positive psychology class and compared to the 8$ paperback, I definitely felt that this was worth the double price just due to the convenience as well as having a digital copy. I can see myself listening to this a couple more times to really absorb all the different techniques in this book.

It’s really helped me accept a wedding coming up that I have to attend or face consequences that don’t align with my values (my bfs family will think I’m shitty for not going). I’m starting to get excited about what I can control like what I can wear, nails, hair, makeup etc. and not dreading the event as much and seeing family and having drinks. Still couldn’t care less about the wedding but maybe another listen will help me feel more excited for the people getting married (I just really don’t like them -just shy of hate- and I feel bad that I’m just not happy for them at all) I’m tempted to try a lot of the exercises in the book just for this.

Saved my life!

It was a phenomenal read! I play this audio book to fall asleep and feed my subconscious mind the information as well instead of falling asleep to TV. I even gave my hard copy to someone who I believe needed it more than me at the time and she was very grateful!

Good book for people with anxiety and depression

This book was recommended by a therapist, I can't thank him enough for this recommendation. ACT resonated more with me than CBT.

This is a book for anybody who wants to live a happier life.

Absolutely Fantastic

I don't think there is any way Russ could've made this 2nd edition any better. I've been familiar with his work for several years, both professionally and personally, and I believe this is his best refinement of ACT yet.
I only wish this were required reading in every middle school in the civilized world.
Thanks, Russ, for everything.

Well worth the listen.

The author writes in an understandable way and entertainingly narratives the book. I plan to recommend this book to clients.