By Stacey Gualandi/April 21, 2016
Photos: Wally Hawkins

TWITTER: @kristiling

When I sat down to read Operation Happiness: The 3-Step Plan to Creating a Life of Lasting Joy, Abundant Energy, and Radical Bliss, it made me happy. And it was not because it promotes the “11 Habits of Happy People,” or that it comes with a “happiness tool kit.”

This part memoir/part self-help book made me happy because my friend Kristi Ling wrote it. I’ve known Kristi for many years. She was always a bubbly, positive, glass half-full kind of gal, but I never realized during that time, she was also on a mission: to help others find true happiness that had eluded her for years.

“I never gave up. When you’re on a path to giving and sharing whatever it is you have to share with the world, the doors will open.”  Kristi Ling

Over the past decade, Kristi endured a devastating divorce, a soul-sucking corporate position and, most frightening of all, a rare illness that left her unable to use her left shoulder, arm or hand for over a year. But instead of wallowing in self-pity, she got to work.

Kristi poured over happiness research, scientific brain studies and other books on “how to be happy” full-time. Four years ago, she was “heartbroken and thought her life was over.” She says now of those difficult and painful years, “It was a means to get to where I am today along with everything else I’ve been through in my life.”

Kristi’s Book Trailer
This is her first book and after its release last month, she was overwhelmed by the positive response from “old and new friends and many, many, many people she never met before.” She says she invested countless hours into getting her message out.  [Read more…]