A Wellness Guide to Happiness: Advice

By Kevin Klix

Best-selling novelist Kevin Klix dives into an infamously elusive debate that has baffled the fabric of just about every single human's psyche since the start of our existence: "What makes us happy?!" His heartfelt voice and brutally honest take on often controversial subjects — such as choosing the right employment, dating and befriending the right, non-toxic people, prioritizing the seemingly un-prioritize-able, and picking a religion and/or philosophy that meshes well with your distinct worldview — will make your personal transition into obtaining a peaceful, healthier lifestyle much more seamless, and much more fun, to effectively achieve! And all written in the form of simple, easy-to-read advice! So ask yourself this one question: Are you ready for a happier life?!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Klix Artwork Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386364825

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About the Author

Copyright

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the author constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the author at [e-mail]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

The information contained in this book is not to be construed as medical advice. It is an account of my personal experiences and my interpretation and understanding of the various treatments and therapies I encountered, received, or rejected in my search to find healing. It is sold with the understanding that the author or publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Dedicated, with love,

to everyone out there

having a hard time.

And to my darling mother,

who always asks me,

"Write something positive

for a change!" XOXO.

Also by Kevin Klix:

FICTION

Biflocka

A Lion in Your Number

Elevator Music

Skateboy

The Student

No Lives Matter

NON-FICTION

Stop Unreality

Beautiful Nihilism

Note to Reader:

In the paperback version of this book, there are several blank, lined pages at the very back where you can take personal notes, if need be. . . . But if you’re reading on an e-book, I encourage you to grab a notepad. Just a suggestion. I hope that you enjoy! :’-)

A Wellness Guide to Happiness

{ advice }

Kevin Klix

Chapter 1:

Who am I?

If I am to be a person who is going to show a level of authority on what makes a person happy, why it happens, and how to sustain those feel-good feelings, I presume you as the reader are entitled to know my credentials, a little bit about myself, and why I think I am worthy of your beautiful, word-scanning eyes—and not to mention your time and/or hard-earned money!

First thing’s first: I am not a doctor. I am not a counselor. I have done zero motivational speeches—or any major speech for that matter—upon writing this manuscript, and I don’t particularly plan to ever do one. If you desire such a product or author of that particular authority, I will be the first to tell you this isn’t the book for you, and I will not be offended if you walk away from this, now, and not let me waste your time. I fully understand your standpoint.

This out of the way, and for those who care to continue, I want to say that I do not care about making beaucoups of cash from this book; in fact, I am to try and make everything as cheap as possible in the production process to pay for the book’s advertisement to spread the word of its contents. If it does produce a buzz and I do end up with a bit of extra money, that would be a byproduct of the goal in question: to help bring an end to the unhappiness of at least one individual.

My goal is that simple. I just want to make this to help one person. Just one. That is all. And at the end of this book I will give my personal e-mail info to give to you, this possible one person I’m helping, if you would like to reach out to me for whatever you want to say. Hearing from readers is ultimately what I strive for in this endeavor. In conclusion of that, the hierarchy of what I value is this:

Help just one individual,

Connect with that individual, and have a (hopefully positive) discussion with them,

Use book proceeds for advertisement to spread the word of this book and to make its contents known,

And if the book produces a slight buzz within a chosen community of people, and I do make a bit of money, the accomplishment and justification of the book’s worthiness or subjective value will give me great pride in my pursuits.

Achieving just one of these would be a lovely thing within both my writing career and in myself as a person. No expectations, though—all for the love of spreading what I deem to be helpful advice.

Now that you know that I’m not some degree-holding professional, that I’m not out solely to take your cash away, and that in my heart of hearts I want to be a do-gooder, I will explain what I do have to offer.

I have been through hell and back in my life, which I will get into more detail within this first chapter. But basically I’ve been through poverty, I’ve been through a horrible heart-break, drugs and alcohol, depression, anxiety, severe mental health problems, doubt in myself and my abilities, insecurities, trust issues, existential dread, and I’ve even been through Baker-Acted hospitalization. Obviously not every single wide spectrum of the problems going on, and I’m not saying I’ve had the most absolute terrible life, but I’ve had quite a few experiences.

Part of this book project has to do with me diving into the world of philosophy and somewhat finally identifying myself as a real philosopher. I ultimately want to experiment and know what really drives a person and makes them perceive their lives as being of inherent quality: what makes them happy, and why that is. Obviously happiness is a serious topic, or else there wouldn’t be so many books on the concept of happiness.

But then what separates me from all the other motivational-speakers, accredited doctors in all of America’s lovely fields of medicine, Self-Help gurus, etc., etc.? Honestly, my answer is very straight-forward: I’m probably exactly like those people—in the sense of intent, not credentials. The difference is that I’m a firm believer in trying my absolute hardest in being both honest and transparent with people, and being as objective as I possibly can with as close to zero possible bias as likely. So for that I always try to fact-check myself and be mindful of everyone’s situations when trying to discuss difficult topics that (lets face it) are not easy to articulate precisely because life is situational, obviously.

I’ll try. Not going to be an easy task. But it’s worth a shot.

All people have biases—I understand that (and you should understand that, too)—so for that just being a human makes me automatically sway towards what I think it helpful based on my past experiences. Everyone is different. We all have opinions. So for that, take what I say and simply be open-minded to it. Take it all with a grain of salt. I encourage you to do your own research on my words and determine your own opinion on whatever subject I dive into. I think that’s only fair. I’m not a know-it-all by any regard.

Who knows? Maybe you can message me and let me know something I never knew before! The point in that what I offer you in these pages is honesty, good and bad. I want to not just give you unicorns and rainbows in these pages, giving simple advice on just simply smiling or faking it until making it, as they say. I don’t find that helpful. I want to make something you can pick up multiple times and refer to and actually feel safe inside, be able to breathe in, and say to yourself, This book gets it.

Again, I’ll try. Not going to be easy. But I’ll give it a shot.

But enough with my rambling. What I’m going to do is tell you about myself, what I’ve been through personally, so you can get an idea of who I am as a person, what has drove me to my ideals, and to know I’m not some shmuck. It would be nice for everyone to have a friend, and friends tell friends about themselves. . . . So for that, lets get started with the lame, eye-roll-worthy drama that is my personal life!

NOTE: For the readers that would like to skip ahead to just the writings related to happiness advice, I won’t be offended if you skip Chapter 1’s remaining subchapters ahead, and just strictly read the other chapters within these pages. The following in this chapter is somewhat long/detailed. You’ve been forewarned!

1.1 Childhood

Born native to South Florida in 1992, I was privileged enough to arrive to this lovely planet called Earth whilst in the middle of a little ole category-5 storm called Hurricane Andrew. One of the worst storms in Florida’s history, currently, causing massive devastation to Floridians of all walks of life through no fault of their own, except by being in this area of the planet. Beaches, bikinis, constant tans, all-year-round Summer, perfect weather, and not to mention the best fish money can buy! That’s Florida. Lovely place. Take the bad with the good, though, as they say. . . .

But to top off my less-than-ideal initial arrival into life by coming into a terrible storm, my father, a screen guy, had shattered the ball of his elbow, doing repairs in the Miami area after the storm had passed. He fell off a screen enclosure aluminum beam (elbow-first, obviously) only a few feet and onto cement ground.

Just a few feet. No big deal.

*shrugs*

He was hospitalized, metal plates in his elbow, and zero ability to be fully mobile in his right arm for the remainder of his life, the doctors had claimed. I spent the first few months of my life as an infant going back and forth between my house and staying in my father’s hospital room, due to complications with the storm and my mother wanting my father to see his newborn, if possible (though I stayed for days at a time sometimes without much communication stimuli, a critical need with newborns, I’m told—but hey, what can you do?). My mother would have to travel both ways to see us. Loss of money with my father being unable to provide, and lots of aggravation within our family. Mother was now a new mom again and had to deal with the stress of all that, along with my father.

In other words: I didn’t have a fantastic arrival into what we call Life. But luckily, when both me and my father were back home (me obviously sooner than him, of course), my mother and father said to their kids: Your baby brother is here! And they all were so excited! Constantly wanting to hold me, everyone: dad, brothers, sisters. My mom saying, Give me back my baby! half-jokingly, when taking me back from their seemingly amateur baby-holding hands.

That household of mine was very excited to have me.

My father had a son and daughter; my mother, too, had a son and daughter. They both got out of marriages that didn’t work out for one reason or another until they eventually met each other and got married. Technically speaking, in my household, my brothers and sisters are half-brothers and -sisters . . . though I don’t see them or treat them in that way. So it was my mother and father and their 4 kids, add me as 1, you get a 7-person family if you do the math. Not the biggest, but not the smallest either. And boy! did all of us have extremely different personalities. But we somehow managed to grow up as normally as possible, and not die by way of strangling each other’s necks!

My dad, though, my dad was somewhat of a huge issue. After the hurricane and his injury was addressed, he had some movement back in his arm. Granted, it was not like it was before his injury, but it was much better than the doctors had anticipated. Still, the bills didn’t stop in our household, so he had to get back to work. After his injury, he took up heavy drinking and smoking. Once, my mother asked him to please pick up my younger sister after school. He agreed. When time came to, he was still at home. He never left. My mother got a call from the police asking if someone would pick up her daughter, please, they are closing the school gates and needed your daughter off the premises. After picking up my sister and coming home to see my father at the computer, playing video games, drinking beer, and all around being what most women would consider the ideal father/husband (kidding!), she got in his face and told him about himself and why he was S-wordy father. That’s just to give you an idea of the kind of guy he was.

Though it wasn’t all bad—people have it ten times worst than me. I had great Christmases, Thanksgivings, Trick-or-Treats, and Easter Egg Hunts. I have lots of fond memories growing up; but honestly, in regards to my biological mother and father’s relationship with each other whilst they were married, I cannot recall a single memory of them happy together and not fighting and/or bickering back and forth about God-knows-what at the top of their lungs. That is sad, but true.

1.2 Grade school

When I speak of grade school, I typically do not speak of elementary school, a time when my depression and anxieties virtually did not exist because my child’s mind was oblivious to the negativity around me, purely because of ignorant, beautiful youth. Is it possible to reenact that blissful ignorance without being both too ignorant and still responsible and happy? Is it possible to be an adult and not have to succumb to constant negativity in life? These are the questions that I slowly was brought into. Extremely