Book review: ‘The Little Book of LYKKE: The Danish search for the World’s Happiest Peopl
Alison Laycock
This was the perfect book for me to read at this time in many ways. The main reason is that I wanted to read it before I travel to Denmark later on in my travels. It was also a great way to stat my journey as it focuses on happiness and how interactions with others in the form of kindness and curiosity can help our happiness as well as that of others.
For me, travel and having new experiences within new cultures is always part of my happiness. I’m a very positive and optimistic person throughout my daily life, however that doesn’t mean that the people around me are positive at all and therefore getting away can offer me an escape in many ways.
Throughout reading I found myself smiling at the examples of kindness and helping other through interactions around the world. I loved a lot of the examples provided and they certainly made me think of what can be done in the UK to combat loneliness or lack of empathy amongst people.
There were people referenced who I have never heard of despite their work in the UK. Do you know about the Free Help Guy for example? I hadn’t heard of him but have now made contact asking if he would do an interview for the blog so perhaps we’ll learn about him and his work together. Feel free to check him out as I found him on twitter and there was a Facebook and a website link too.
Another one that stood out was the idea of linking up older people with young families so that families can have a ‘grandparent’ helping and the older people who don’t have grandchildren or don’t live close enough to them, can also enjoy an interaction with young children. Brilliant idea!
This book is great to just read but even better to get you focussed on considering what makes us and others happy. I’m completely in agreement that our happiness is extremely important to our health both physical and mental. If you want a book to make you smile throughout it then this is definitely one worth trying.
I’ve also contacted the Happiness Research Institute which is where the author is CEO and have asked for a visit when I’m in Copenhagen and again I’m hoping to do an interview for the blog.
Now the book is finished, I’ll be passing it on to someone else and am almost jealous of the read they have coming up!
Let us know if you have already read the book and share your thoughts with us.