Code to Joy

Happy, as his suns fly
Through the heavens’ magnificent plan
Run, brothers, your race
Joyful, as a hero to victory.
–from “Ode to Joy,” Friedrich Schiller

How I wish I could take credit for that clever post title. Alas, I can’t. However, I can tell you about the book I just finished reading by that title, authored by Drs. George Pratt and Peter Lambrou, with John David Mann. The inspired title refers to the four-step program and five pathways they developed to bring more joy into their patients’ lives.

Let’s face it. There are lots of books and blogs out there about happiness. That’s what this blog is about, after all, and I’m working on a book to add to the already overcrowded shelves devoted to this topic. So why do we keep reading and writing about joy? Because, I think, it’s what we all want.

Luckily, the very act of focusing on happiness, through reading, talking, thinking, or writing, seems in some way to contribute to its discovery and enhancement. And ultimately, regardless of our path through faith, science, meditation, exercise, or any number of “steps,” we all end up at the same place, although we might use different vocabulary to describe it – in the present moment, connected to each other and to the universe.

So it is with Pratt and Lambrou, both clinical psychologists, who, through extensive study of a wide spectrum of research as well as their own clinical observations, have distilled a simple and immediately useful process for identifying and clearing out habitual limiting thought patterns, and substituting new and healthier thinking habits. This is very much like what I call giving ourselves permission to be happy, by substituting counter beliefs for the shadow beliefs that block our joy. They go on to add methods by which the new thinking habits can become a solid and permanent foundation for our lives, the “and Staying There” part of my blog title.

Their process is grounded in cutting edge knowledge about the neuroplasticity (my new favorite word) of our brains. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that our brains get permanently and irrevocably hard wired at a young age, it turns out that you can indeed teach an old dog new tricks. That is, you can transform some of those early “imprints” that do not serve your well being in your life now, by building new neural networks that do. This is great news if your brain, like mine, has seen its younger days fade into the distant wake. My own experiences fifteen years ago of transforming my life from one based in fear to one based in joy bear out the truth of their assertions.

Interestingly, the book that most reminded me of Code to Joy was not another one of the psychology/science books on joy, but rather The Joy of Living, a book by Youngey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Buddhist teacher who blends similar modern scientific research with ancient wisdom of meditation. This is best reflected in the following passage from Code to Joy.

“In the largest sense, all ill health and unhappiness is about disconnection, and health and happiness is about connection. This is ultimately the purpose of [the process in this book]: to help clear away the barriers and impediments to experiencing a full sense of connection – with your true self, with others, and with life.”

A Course in Miracles teaches that fear comes from our mistaken perception of separation. All the limiting beliefs identified by Drs. Pratt and Lambrou are in some way based in this fear. Using the simple techniques in this book, we can correct that mistake and reconnect with the joy that always shines in our souls.

And if I didn’t already like the book, they sold me by using one of my favorite quotes from Star Trek. Remember the Borg’s fateful announcement? “Resistance is futile.” The authors use this in the sense that although it is futile to resist our habitual brain patterns, it is entirely possible to transform them, a premise with which I entirely agree.

Besides, anyone who quotes Star Trek as an authority is okay with me.

related post: The Joy Book Club; Resistance is Futile