Programmed For Unhappiness | Exposing The Untold Truth

By Rebecca L Norrington

How happy are you? Can other people hurt your feelings? Can other people offend you? Can other people disappoint you? Do you blame other people for how you feel? Do you blame your circumstances for how you feel? On a scale from 1-10, how important is happiness to you?

 

There's nothing wrong with accumulating wealth, titles, celebrity, achievements, accolades, trophies, medals, "likes," and millions of followers. But it's time to tell the truth. None of the above, without exception, equates to happiness.

 

Programmed for Unhappiness promises to disrupt and revolutionize the masses' search for the elusive state of happiness. This book is uniquely controversial for two significant reasons: It emphasizes self-responsibility and self-awareness. More importantly, it targets 55 programmed behaviors, levels 1-3, that have been proven to subtract from a person's happiness, inner peace, and contentment.

 

Happiness is a practiced skill and Programmed for Unhappiness shares exactly what to practice with readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rebecca L Norrington
• Release date: May 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224790999

Book preview

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to Tina Dianne Smith, who succumbed to brain and lung cancer a couple of years before publication. Tina and I met in 2018 at the Sunset Bar in Roseburg, Oregon. I was singing and dancing to a song from the 80s playing on the jukebox when a woman sitting at a small table having lunch with friends began singing along. At that moment, Tina and I, strangers at that moment, formed a rare bond.

Tina loved to eat crab, play with her cat Midnight, and smoke Camel cigarettes. Before the diagnosis, we shared long, intimate conversations about life and relationships. Like a best friend, she told her deepest secrets that, to my knowledge, no one knew. Toward the end of her days, Tina enjoyed sitting on the front porch listening to windchimes and watching the hummingbirds feed.

The last time I sat with Tina on the porch, I could sense a finality about our visit. Before I left, I held her face and gently planted kisses all over her cute bald head. We instinctively knew our moments together were ending, and we wept as we hugged each other for the last time.

Tina, I am eternally grateful for what you taught me during our last moments together. Despite having only six months to live, you showed me how to enjoy life with acceptance, humor, and grace . . . even while facing the final curtain.

SPECIAL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Nathan M. Norrington

You are the reason I needed to change.

Ccid E. Cartwright

Words aren’t enough. I love you.

Forget everything that you think you know.

—Doctor Strange

Marvel Studios 2016

Happiness is a practiced skill.

—Rebecca L. Norrington

MY DEAR READER,

The moment you’re born, you are given a name, a nationality, a religion, a gender, a race, and a culture. Then, the rest of your life is spent identifying and defending those deep-seated programmed beliefs.

The truth is, you are more than your name.

You are more than your race.

You are more than a religion, a nationality, or a culture.

You are even more than your gender.

Yes, my dear reader, you are much, much more.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

MY DEAR READER,

IN THE BEGINNING—THE GIRL WITHOUT A NAME

Back Story

The Secret

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 UNHAPPINESS IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF HUMAN SUFFERING

A Moment In The Life Of A Toxic, Selfish, Delusional, And Unimportant Happiness Specialist

The Evidence Is Real

Need More Evidence?

The Evidence Continues

CHAPTER 2 YOU ARE PROGRAMMED

Who Are You?

The Real You vs. The Programmed, Conditioned, and Brainwashed You

A True Story

Being You Without Apologies Takes Courage

We Are All Doing the Best We Can

Tips to Discover Who You Are

Accept Yourself Without Shame or Guilt

Solutions Needed to Discover Your True Self

Regardless of What You Were Programmed to Believe, You Are Not Your Thoughts

The Solution

Are Our Thoughts the Enemy? 

Reasons for Suffering

The Solution

Is It Possible to Be at Peace with Negative Thoughts and Stories?

CHAPTER 3 IT’S TIME TO CHANGE

Changing Others

The Solution—Be a Star, Not a Planet

CHAPTER 4 55 PROGRAMMED BEHAVIORS THAT SUBTRACT FROM HAPPINESS

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

26 Non-Programmed Behaviors That Add To Happiness

The Storms of Our Lives

The Solution

CHAPTER 5 COMPARING YOURSELF TO SOMEONE ELSE

The Solution

CHAPTER 6 I’M OFFENDED, SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

The Solution

CHAPTER 7 THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-AWARENESS

How Do You Practice Self-Awareness?

The Program of Guilt and Obligation

CHAPTER 8 THE TRUTH ABOUT WANTS & DESIRES

The Solution

CHAPTER 9 THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR EGO

Who’s Driving Your Car?

Unwanted Moments Are Inevitable

Stop Using the Word Because

CHAPTER 10 SELLING DISSATISFACTION FOR PROFIT

What the Life Coaches, Motivational Speakers & Gurus of the World Don’t Want You to Know

The Solution

Why Money Doesn’t = Happiness

Would Life Be Better If You Had More Money?

CHAPTER 11 HAPPINESS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Difficult People are a Myth

The Solution

Your Emotions Are Your Responsibility

CHAPTER 12 THE TRUTH ABOUT ANGER

Reacting vs. Responding

Blame

Inner Peace

CHAPTER 13 HOW LIES ARE TOLD AND THEN SOLD

Self-sabotage and Blocking Abundance

Human Manifestations and Vision Boards Don’t Work

Forget Your Legacy

The Solution

When You Find Your Purpose, You’ll Be Happy

CHAPTER 14 ADDICTIONS THAT ARE NEVER DISCUSSED

Let’s All Worry Together, It’s Normal

How to Eliminate Disappointment and Heartbreak Forever

Regurgitating Stories That Make People Feel Bad

Watching the News

Addicted to Fear

Story Time

The Truth About Fear

Living In The Future is Another Addiction

The Solution

CHAPTER 15 IT’S NOT THE STORY, IT’S THE SEASON

CHAPTER 16 HAVING A CAUSE SUBTRACTS FROM HAPPINESS

The Solution

IN CONCLUSION

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS #1-10

ADVANCED HOMEWORK #1-10

ASK REBECCA

~rln QUOTES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

THANK YOUS

REFERENCES

IN THE BEGINNING—

THE GIRL WITHOUT A NAME

Because of the progress in race relations we experience today, it’s hard for some in younger age groups to imagine the racial climate in the United States in 1955. That year, as in prior decades, race relations between blacks and whites were, at best, strained and, at worst, extremely volatile. Two significant events happened on December 1, 1955: on a crowded bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to obey a bus driver’s command to give up her seat for a white passenger, an action which sparked the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott that eventually led to the modern Civil Rights Movement; and, a little girl without a name was born on a cold, damp winter day in Los Angeles, California.

The little girl was one of nine babies delivered that day by a third-year medical student at Los Angeles County Hospital, also known simply as County, where the city’s underprivileged and minorities began their lives. Delivery of the baby was quick and easy, with no complications. Addie Williams’ fifth of six children she would eventually bear was newly born.

Addie gazed at her baby girl’s tiny frame and face, void of feeling overjoyed about her new arrival or of feeling any maternal instincts for her daughter. Instead, she was consumed with shame, guilt, and embarrassment. It was as though she’d just been caught for an unthinkable crime and was now sentenced to a life in prison.

Back Story

Addie was a young, beautiful, troubled, and uneducated black woman. At sixteen, she found herself pregnant and forced to marry Ed Williams, a kind young black man she would eventually disrespect with each passing year. Before the birth of this baby girl, Addie and Ed raised four children. Addie’s baby, born on December 1, 1955, was the result of an unholy union, a business proposition, so to speak.

Howard Solomon was the owner of the garment factory where Addie worked. He was a white man with a wife and children of his own, and he paid Addie to have sex with him. It was a mutual arrangement for several months before she got pregnant. When Addie told Howard she was pregnant, he gave her $400 and a command to get rid of it. Instead of using the money for an abortion, Addie purchased a car and found another job. Knowing there was a fifty-fifty chance the child could belong to her husband, she kept this secret for nine months until the baby girl was born. Now, her nine-month bi-racial secret was out, literally and figuratively, staring her in the face. Addie was sick with panic.

At first glance, Ed Williams knew the newborn wasn’t his. The baby’s complexion was fair, almost white. This wasn’t the first time Addie had broken her vows. But this time, she had crossed all boundaries of decency and forgiveness by having an affair with a white man. Feeling humiliated and betrayed, an angry Ed threatened Addie with divorce before leaving her hospital room.

I can only speculate about the thoughts that tormented Addie on that day. In reality, her life and her stability were crumbling with every moment of this baby’s existence. The child’s presence alone would initiate a lifetime of stares, questions, and explanations. Her family was being threatened, threatened by an innocent baby without a name.

After a couple of days, she contrived a solution to her problem. There was no way in hell Addie was going to allow this tiny creature to ruin her life. The nameless baby had to disappear, had to vanish from the face of the Earth—or at least from her life. But how?

Addie decided to put the baby up for adoption, and her husband agreed. However, it wasn’t going to be that simple. For nine months, Addie had publicly carried this baby in full sight. All of Addie’s relatives, both in and out of state, knew she was pregnant. How was a newborn baby going to disappear without an explanation? Two weeks after the child’s birth, the solution came to mind.

The Secret

It was another cold, damp afternoon, much like the day of the birth, when Addie and Ed packed up all of the newborn’s belongings. It was amazing how much had been accumulated during the pregnancy. The crib, clothes, bottles, and toys were quickly packed and hauled out of the house during one predestined afternoon while Addie’s four other children attended school. It was exactly two weeks after her birth when the baby girl, without a name, left her first home.

Jackie Williams was Addie’s oldest daughter. She was sixteen years old at the time of the birth of her baby sister. Jackie had been excited about the arrival of the newest member of the family. She developed a daily routine of running home from high school to care for her newborn sister, and Addie was always grateful for the break. However, this particular day was