Handbook of Happiness - Reflections and Praxis from Around the World

This book contains contributions from diverse perspectives and traditions that focus on reflections and happiness practices. It addresses diversity in happiness and eastern and western thoughts and practices by contributing authors from around the world from varied backgrounds. The book provides ample avenue for readers and researchers to broaden their horizons and deepen their understanding of various aspects of happiness culturally and conceptually. It opens opportunities for exploring and understanding how happiness can be practiced, experienced, taught, and learned in various contexts, thus assisting both educators and interested readers to create opportunities for themselves or their students to engage in diverse and creative happiness explorations. This book is a crucial resource for teachers, educators, students, and researchers involved in the science and practice of happiness. It enables them to find new avenues to understand happiness from different perspectives, understanding inner and outer spaces and other dimensions of happiness. It serves as an essential reference for academicians in related fields of psychology, such as cross-cultural, social, and developmental, as well as in the upcoming field of happiness studies.

List of contents

Happiness research in the psychological perspective: Thoughts of an optimist.- Blissful space within and without: Explorations through mandala and vastu.- Self-architecture for sukha: Mind++ for integral wellbeing.- Harmony Theory: Positive Organisation with Philosophical Foundations.-  Public health as a paradigm for happiness: Understanding vaccine impact.- Linguistic and cultural exploration of Indian concept of happiness.- Gross National Happiness: The interdependent domains of happiness.- New economy for happiness.- Happiness & hope in education.- Interdisciplinary perspectives on social-ecological wellbeing.- Post-capitalism: Towards social and ecological wellbeing.- The constant of happiness and comparative ecologies.- The economics of happiness: An exploration for guiding principles.- What if Happytalism becomes the next step of human existence.- From Stress to Happiness.- Is there a positive correlation between forgiveness and happiness?.- Happiness: Developing skills for meditation.- A multidisciplinary approach to understanding wellbeing in dying.- Communication, happiness & wellbeing.- The economics of happiness: An experience from Ladakh.- Characteristics of happy people. 

About the author

Saamdu Chetri, a pilgrim of love and compassion, was born in a cowshed in remote Bhutan. After working for 25 years in the private and development sectors and five years in the first democratically elected Prime Minister's Office as Head of Good Governance, he instituted the GNH Centre as one of its founding members and headed it for five years. In his 35 years of life's working journey, he has been teaching, consulting, and speaking at various international and national occasions on various topics, including in the House of Commons in the British Parliament, Senators of Philippines, among others, and dozens of universities and colleges in the world including India. He has many interviews with all kinds of media and wrote three books with several contributions to many books. Since December 2017, he is engaged as Visiting Faculty (Professor) at the Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, IIT Kharagpur, India, and his mindfulness journey continues. He is a recipientof Lord Buddha Peace 2016 from Samata Sahitya Academy, and he is reflected in the 100 Prominent People of Modern Bhutan, 2008, in the book by Dr. C.T. Dorji. He is dearly referred to by BBC as a Happiness Guru.

Tanusree Dutta has been working as Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi. Prior to this, she has been working in other prestigious Institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Rajasthan, Banaras Hindu University, etc. Dr. Dutta had obtained her postgraduate and doctorate degrees from Banaras Hindu University and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2000 and 2004, respectively. She has research publications in peer-reviewed national and international journals, which have been cited in manuscripts and books of national and international repute. She also has her credit to an edited book entitled 'Bias in Human Behaviour' and a book on 'Neuromarketing in India: Understanding the Indian Consumer'. Apartfrom academics, she has also been actively involved in conducting various training programs and consultancy assignments for different companies.

Manas Kumar Mandal is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He is also Adjunct Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc, Bangalore. He was formerly Distinguished Scientist and Director-General of Life sciences in DRDO, India. He holds a Ph.D. degree in psychology from Calcutta University, India; completed his postdoctoral research as Fulbright Fellow, USA, and NSERC Fellow, Canada. As Visiting Faculty, Dr. Mandal completed his tenure at Harvard University, USA; Kyushu University, Japan; and Aachen University, Germany. Dr. Mandal specializes in the areas of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Sciences. He has his credit to 14 books and over 100 research papers in international and Indian journals of high repute. This research is cited in more than 300 international journals and books with over 5000 citations.

Priyadarshi Patnaik is a Professor at the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, and Chairman of Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, IIT Kharagpur. He is also Secretary of Nehru Museum of Science and Technology, IIT Kharagpur, and Rector's Nominee of Technology Students Gymkhana, IIT Kharagpur. His areas of research include Relationship and Well-Being, Visual Communication, Music and Emotion, Communication and Culture, Media Communication, Translation, and Digital Humanities. He has authored and edited more than 14 volumes of text, reference, and creative work. He has a number of research papers, translations, poems, short stories, illustrations, and photographs in many national and international journals.

Product details

• Assisted by: Saamdu Chetri (Editor), Tanusree Dutta (Editor), Manas Kumar Mandal et al (Editor), Manas Kumar Mandal (Editor), Priyadarshi Patnaik (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 19.08.2023
• EAN: 9789819926367
• ISBN: 978-981-9926-36-7
• No. of pages: 519
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 28 mm x 235 mm
• Illustrations: XX, 519 p. 23 illus., 10 illus. in color.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology; Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Psychology: general, reference works