Think Happy: Instant Peptalks to Boost Positivity - Hardcover

KAREN SALMANSOHN is the best-selling author and book packager of more than 25 books for adults and tweens with more than 1 million copies sold. She has worked as an image consultant, serving clients such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Oxygen Media, and L'Oreal. She has been a featured happiness expert on the Today show, The View, CNN,Fox News, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and has written for Psychology Today, Mind Body Green, Positively Positive, and Huffington Post. She and her work have been covered by the New York Times, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Time, Marie Claire, Fast Company, InStyle, Self, ELLE, and the New Yorker. She speaks widely on how to increase happiness, creativity, and productivity, most recently in a TEDx talk, "Fun Is a High Performance Fuel."

INTRODUCTION

Words are powerful things. It’s actually appropriate to call words “things”—even though you can’t see words.
 
After all, words have weight. They can drag you down.

Words have height. They can lift you up.

Words have length. They can last a lifetime.

We have to be wildly watchful of the words we use—knowing that once these words go into our heads, it’s super hard to get ’em out of there! I know that eventually the words I use most often to talk about my life will become either a supportive inner voice or an inner bully.

Ditto with the words we say to others. Our words have the power to lift people up—or put them down. Our words can inspire confidence—or obliterate it. And so we must choose our words wisely. Over time, the words of all the various cheerleaders and critics we’ve had in our lives become our inner cheerleaders and inner critics. Basically, we gotta watch the words we think, speak, and listen to—because eventually these words create the world we see!

With this in mind, I’m excited for you to start using this book, so you can begin giving yourself the right words, at the right time. I call these motivating words “instant peptalks.” I recommend using them on a daily basis—or an insomniacal 3 a.m. basis. 

This collection of positive peptalks will quickly become your favorite go-to tool for whenever you need a little extra oomph and support.

The facts: A range of neuroscientific studies support how positive affirmations, when consistently repeated, can wind up sinking into the subconscious mind—thereby affecting a person’s sense of self and their behavior.

The advantages of these 50 instant peptalks over regular ol’ affirmations: These peptalks are far catchier and more logically convincing than mere affirmations—making them more liable to linger in your mind. Like a catchy song you can’t stop humming, you will find yourself instinctively playing these peptalks in your head as helpful reminders to keep on moving forward.

The result: When used regularly, these peptalks will change your neural pathways, so you are more inclined to think optimistic thoughts, which lead to positive habits, which lead to a positively happier life!

My mission: This book will become your “inner power tool” for staying strong, confident, and happy—no matter how much you-gotta-be-friggin’-kidding-me life throws at you! A quick flip-through will help you find the right words to say during a challenging time, to yourself or to a loved one.

Throughout my life I’ve experienced how the right turn of phrase can be very powerful. When I was a child, my mom used to say: “If you do what you always do, you’ll get what you always get.” Such a simple phrase—yet it has continued to influence me throughout my life. Now as a mom myself, I use this exact peptalk with my son! In fact, all of the peptalks in this book are awesome to use with children. They’ll permanently absorb these uplifting words—then wind up growing up with an inner cheerleader as their inner voice—instead of an inner fearleader.

As Muhammad Ali once said: “It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”

Or as I like to say: “Sometimes you gotta fake positivity till you make positivity.”

These mindfully crafted peptalks have served me well to stay strong and full of faith in all that life has to offer. I hope they’ll also bring you impenetrable resilience to keep moving forward—and upward!