I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Author and the Ambassador of Joy, Barry Shore, reaches out to readers to combat the threat of stress by focusing on practices to bring joy into our lives in the book, “The Joy of Living”.

The Synopsis

The JOY of LIVING (™) is Your passport to being Healthier and Wealthier. Barry Shore, the Ambassador of JOY, reveals the 11 Strategies that You can use to slay stress and be happy….no matter the circumstance. Imagine standing up in the morning fully healthy and in the hospital that evening completely paralyzed; and not from a car accident or a spinal injury, but a rare disease. You’ll join the journey as Barry moves from paralysis to now swimming 2 miles per day, 6 days a week. All with a SMILE. You’ll use these Strategies and transform Your world.

The Review

This is the perfect read for those who are looking for ways to really participate and educate yourselves for Mental Health Awareness Month. I’ve personally covered many topics within the field of mental health from myself and other writers here on my website, as mental health awareness is a very important cause to my heart. Whether people realize it or not, stress itself can be a critical factor in one’s own mental health. 

The author’s work here is quite amazing for such a short read, yet the words spoken within are quite powerful. As someone who lives every day with several physical limitations and health problems, it was an instant connection to the author’s own story. The first chapter hits readers instantly with the knowledge of the author’s own struggles in life, and gives the lessons shown to the readers here in this book a sense of authenticity and experience that will allow readers to feel comfortable taking in this knowledge for themselves.

The author expertly divides this book up into parts. First he takes the time to identify STRESS and the root causes often associated with stress, followed by the notion of how finding joy can physically and mentally combat stress and its affects on the body. Finally the rest of the book takes the time to establish steps and practices readers can take for themselves to implement joy into their lives, making for quite an informative and practical guide to happiness. 

The Verdict

Well-written, passionate and mentally refreshing, author Barry Shore’s “The Joy of Living” is a must-read non-fiction read on mental health. The author’s vulnerability in telling his own personal story and using this to not only find his own happiness to combat the stress, but showing readers how to do this for themselves, was a refreshing change from the self-help books typically seen on shelves. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

About the Author

Known as the “Ambassador of JOY,” Barry Shore is a mental health activist, philanthropist, multi-patent holding entrepreneur, speaker, author, podcaster, and former quadriplegic. After a rare disease paralyzed Shore from the neck down, he created the JOY of LIVING Institute™ (a platform that teaches people to live in joy, no matter the situation), Keep Smiling (a movement that has reached multiple celebrities and distributed millions of “Keep Smiling” cards worldwide), and Changebowl (a philanthropic platform featured in Oprah Magazine.) Barry’s podcast, The JOY of LIVING, is heard globally by hundreds of thousands and has over two million downloads. 

Barry’s latest book, “The JOY of Living: How to Slay Stress and Be Happy” is available on Amazon and Apple Books. For more information, check out Barry’s website and follow him @barryeshore on Facebook, or Instagram.

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