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  • The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary

  • Written by: Catherine Gray
  • Narrated by: Catherine Gray
  • Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)

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The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary

Written by: Catherine Gray
Narrated by: Catherine Gray
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Publisher's Summary

From the Sunday Times best-selling author.

We're told that happiness is in the extraordinary. It's on a Caribbean sun lounger, in the driving seat of a luxury car, inside an expensive golden locket, watching sunrise from Machu Picchu. We strive, reach, push, shoot for more. 'Enough' is a moving target we never quite reach.

When we do brush our fingertips against the extraordinary a deeply inconvenient psychological phenomenon called the 'hedonic treadmill' means that, after a surge of joy, our happiness level returns to the baseline it was at before the 'extra' event.

So, what's the answer?

The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary theorises that the solution is rediscovering the joy in the ordinary that we so often now forget to feel. Because we now expect the pleasure of a croissant, a hot shower, a yoga class, someone delivering our shopping to our door, we no longer feel its buzz. The joy of it whips through us like a bullet train, without pause.

Catherine Gray was a grandmaster in the art of eye-rolling the ordinary and skilled in everlasting reaching. Until the black dog of depression forced her to rethink everything.

Along the way, she discovered some surprising realities about the extraordinaries among us: that influencers risk higher rates of anxiety and depression, high rollers are less happy and huge frothy weddings increase the likelihood of divorce.

Learning how to be exalted by the everyday is the most important lesson we can possibly learn. In Catherine Gray's hilarious, insightful, soulful (and very ordinary) next book, you may learn to do just that.

©2019 Catherine Gray (P)2019 Octopus Publishing Group

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Thoroughly Enjoyed

Catherine Gray’s latest book, much like her previous works, is a perfect blend of storytelling, researched information and humour all conveyed with a sincere narration by the author herself. She puts subjects, thoughts and experiences that have been swirling around in my head into a funny and beautiful book I will surely listen to again and again. Recommend all three of her books, that have somehow found me at the perfect time! A++

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