My name is Anne-Claire Szubaniska. I am originally from a small town in France called Cambrai, but after years of moving around between Canada and the United States, I settled down in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York.

     My childhood was a painful experience, but my mother’s parents, Papi and Miman, showed me the way to happiness. They successfully made me feel loved, and my heart fluttered with joy every second I spent with them.

     At 16, I sadly lost my ability to surrender to their pure love, dwelling on the unhappy events of my childhood and I became profoundly depressed.

    Years later, I came upon my first self-help book. I just couldn’t stop reading.

I wasn’t happy yet. But for the first time in many years, the spark of life was ignited in me again.

     I read many other books and attended tons of workshops where I met people who had been through the worst, most unimaginable traumas but had found a way to let the negativity go and be happy.

Inspired, I kept practicing, until one day, while meditating, I experienced the joyful flutters in my heart again—this beautiful ticklish emotion of joy I had only felt with my grandparents as a young child.

    It was a miracle!

    This radiant aliveness my grandparents had helped me experienced was and would always be within me. They had shown me the way…

     Thus, the writing of Mystic and the Secret of Happiness was initiated…