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Our Digital Dependence
Happiness Unleashed is a practical 90-day guide that helps readers break free from limiting habits and conditioning while cultivating greater awareness, intentionality, and lasting happiness. How does this book build on the ideas you introduced in Unplug Your Robot?
Unplug Your Robot explains how our thoughts, beliefs, programming, and routines stifle our happiness and well-being. Those things act like a robot within us that interferes with who we really are. The good news is, we can unplug our individual robot and take control of our own happiness. The Happiness Unleashed playbook takes the ideas in Unplug Your Robot to the next level. It offers bite-sized, playful strategies to bring more happiness and fulfillment into each day. The structured, 90-day format provides a specific, actionable (and amusing) roadmap to break free from automatic thoughts and behaviors to create a more joyful life.
Some of your exercises encourage readers to change familiar routines. Why can small changes have such a powerful effect on our awareness?
The minute we interrupt a familiar routine, we instantly become more alive and more present. Our routines and habits – while initially helpful – require only a small portion of our total awareness, which means we’re not fully there. It’s the robot in us that mechanically goes through the motions. Our morning routine, for instance, might be an efficient way to get us up and out the door, but how much joy is in it – waking up at the same time, eating the same breakfast, showering and shaving the same way, in the same order each time?
When we interrupt our routine with a small change like brushing our teeth with our non-dominant hand, we get an immediate jolt of awareness. Suddenly, we have to pay attention. You can try this for yourself. The next time you brush your teeth, use your non-dominant hand. It’s hilarious. You simply cannot do it robotically. It requires your full attention and presence; otherwise, you’ll find yourself with toothpaste all over your face.
Mixing up our routines and breaking up patterns with small changes is a quick and simple way to spice up our day and enjoy each moment.
Why do you believe setting boundaries around technology and digital distractions is important for well-being?
It’s absolutely critical. Much of our physical health, as well as our mental and emotional well-being, depends on it. Repeated studies have shown how our digital dependence contributes to low energy, poor sleep, depression, anxiety, ADD, loneliness, obesity, and overwhelm. Some studies suggest that the average adult (in the Western Hemisphere) checks their phone 150+ times per day, sleeps with it next to the bed, wakes up during the night to check it, and even sends texts while on the toilet. This is insane. This unhealthy relationship with our cell phone leads to a highly scattered, reactive, isolated, and passive way of living.
It doesn’t have to be that way. If we look back at some of our happiest moments, we’ll notice they have several things in common. Our happiest moments tend to be active experiences, where we are focused and fully in the moment. Those moments rarely include a smartphone, television screen, or laptop. When we set boundaries and are intentional with our use of digital devices, we regain control of our time and our daily peace and calm.
If someone only had time to begin with three practices from Happiness Unleashed, which would you recommend?
One of the most impactful practices is to optimize the first 60 minutes of our day. I call it the “power hour.” Whatever we do (or don’t do) during that first hour sets the tone for the entire day – and often determines how focused, productive, and joyful we will be.
If we check our phones first thing in the morning, for instance, we are programming ourselves to be reactive to other people’s agendas all day long. If instead we were to engage in more intentional activities such as stretching, meditating, or going for a short walk, we start our day from a centered, peaceful, and focused place. From that place, anything is possible.
If your schedule doesn’t allow you an uninterrupted 60 minutes in the morning, you can still reap the benefits with a 30-minute – or even 15-minute – practice to jumpstart your day. Stretch while you are still in bed. Write down five things you are grateful for. Think of three ways this week will be amazing. Carving out time for yourself first thing in the morning – even if just 15 minutes – offers a huge return on investment for your own daily happiness (and for that of everyone around you).
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We’ve all been there. We convince ourselves that if only we were to get that promotion, that perfect partner or that ideal house, then we would be happy. Then we could relax.
It’s a lie. Happiness isn’t out there. In fact, happiness is closer than you think.
Maybe you’ve tried vision boards and gratitude lists. Perhaps you’ve attempted to change your mindset. You might feel happy in moments here and there, yet despite your best efforts, lasting happiness eludes you.
You can change that.
You can live each day with energy and enthusiasm. The Happiness Unleashed playbook will show you how. It contains instant mood boost techniques, practical tools for improving your daily happiness and well-being, as well as powerful practices to:Jumpstart your morning to get the most out of your day
Upgrade your happiness baseline
Rewire your brain so you can change what you think
Calm your thoughts so you can feel at ease
Build the life you want
Tap into and experience the happiness that is already here, regardless of your health, finances, stress level, workload, relatives or other circumstances. With the Happiness Unleashed playbook, you’ll get the tune-up you need to boost your energy, brighten your outlook and live the life you were meant to.
Scroll up to get your copy now.
Happiness Unleashed is the fourth book in the Dare To Be AwareTM series. Find out more about Karin Kiser’s books, retreats and gifts at KarinKiser.com.
Happiness Unleashed: Your 90-Day Playbook for a Life of Meaning and Happiness that Lasts
Karin Kiser’s Happiness Unleashed is an interactive 90-day guide to developing a more intentional, engaged, and joyful way of living. Designed as a companion to her earlier book Unplug Your Robot, it explores how conditioning, habitual reactions, mental chatter, and social programming can restrict a person’s natural capacity for happiness. Kiser’s central idea is captured in the concise statement, “Happiness is a process.” Rather than treating well-being as a reward obtained through ideal circumstances, she presents it as a state readers can cultivate through repeated choices, greater awareness, and purposeful action.
The book’s 90-day structure turns that philosophy into a practical program. Each brief entry introduces a “playbit,” Kiser’s term for an activity or concept to explore, followed by prompts, exercises, anecdotes, or quotations. The practices range from reshaping morning and evening routines to journaling, meditation, movement, gratitude, laughter, physical connection, digital boundaries, self-love, and the examination of limiting beliefs. As the book progresses, its focus expands from immediate mood regulation to deeper questions involving purpose, relationships, intuition, identity, and personal responsibility. The closing entries revisit earlier practices and encourage readers to decide which ones will become part of their lives.
Kiser’s conversational voice gives the material warmth and accessibility. She often uses humor, personal stories, playful dares, and deliberately unusual activities to move readers beyond passive reflection. Her statement that “This isn’t another to-do list. It is a playbook, a book of play” accurately describes both the format and the book’s guiding spirit. The recurring invitations to experiment help create continuity across the 90 days, while the book’s quick-reference sections make useful practices easy to revisit. Its combination of short readings and immediate application also suits readers who prefer personal development material in manageable daily portions.
Happiness Unleashed succeeds as a participatory workbook that asks readers to practice its principles. Its approach blends familiar wellness habits with spiritual concepts, visualization techniques, belief work, and Kiser’s recurring metaphor of “unplugging the robot.” Readers who commit to the daily activities will find a substantial collection of methods for interrupting automatic behavior and directing attention toward meaning, connection, and appreciation. The result is an energetic and highly structured guide that treats happiness as an active relationship with everyday life.
Pages: 220 | ISBN : 978-1733575959
