Hello stranger,
How was your start of the week?
Mine started as I was looking through my book list and realised I have still so much to read. I have pledged to read 50 books a year and we are already in October, gosh! The good news is that by having this goal I have managed to read some great books in the last few years.
How good is your reading list? If you are still wondering which amazing books are still out there that you haven’t read yet, if you want to spend quality time reading, I want to share something useful with you. How about the top 10 books? Just as an inspiration.
Some people say: ‘We are what we eat’. How about: ‘We are what we READ!’ Our mind influences our body big time. We are much more likely to change our habits when we change our mindset first. And how to do that please? You may ask.
Well, psychological research says that we need to nourish our mind, so the limbic system, the system that is responsible for flight-fight-freeze reactions, stays calm and doesn’t send alarm signals to eat rubbish food or hide from exercise or even worse: not having a good quality of sleep. Boom.
Let’s get into the #NourishTuesday mood and share tips on how to feel more nourished and enriched, starting from the reading list.
Here is my top 10 books list.
1. Victor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ is a must-read for everybody.
The internationally renowned psychiatrist endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps. You could call it the worst that had happened to him, or the best that had happened to him. As a result of this horrendous experience, he developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of this theory is the belief that man’s primary motivational force in life is his search for meaning.
2. Matthieu Ricard’s ‘Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill’ is my second best on the list (maybe it’s this time of the year when I’m looking for an uplift of happy emotions, I find this book a big help).
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who had a promising career in cellular genetics before leaving France to study Buddhism in the Himalayas forty years ago. He is an active participant in current scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain. He lives and works on humanitarian projects in Tibet and Nepal.
3. Daniel Pink’s ‘A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future’.
Completely original and profound, this book is for those who consider changes in the future and how using our ‘right-brain’ will help you in your career.
Lawyers. Economists. Software engineers. That’s what many people were encouraged to become. Gone is the age of ‘left-brain’ dominance. The future, according to Daniel, belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers – creative and emphatic ‘right-brain’ thinkers. Drawing on research Daniel provides six essential skills for professional success and personal fulfilment and reveals how to master them.
4. Gary Chapman’s ‘The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts’ is not just for romantic relationships. It is a book for everyone. We need to learn to think about other people and their love languages. It’s not that difficult. Apparently there are only 5 of them: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Gifts, Acts of Service and Physical Touch. Now how about learning how to use them to help enrich our relationships with others.
5. Thich Nhat Hanh’s ‘The Mindfulness Survival Kit: Five Essential Practices’ is a small and mighty book on how to help yourself learn the skill of mindfulness. How we can use the guidelines to make our lives more meaningful and satisfying. Nhat Hanh is a luminary and spiritual leader. He helps connect the dots between effective strategies and deep practice.
6. Rumi’s ‘Bridge to the Soul: Journeys into the Music And Silence of the Heart’ is a newly translated set of poems to commemorate Rumi’s 800th Birthday. It is a bridge between the mystery of being human and the mystery of the divine: his work builds an intricate earthy, and ethereal bridge of friendship, natural resonance, meditation, and music. These ninety new poems journey into the inner languages of heart, soul, and silence.
7. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s ‘Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life’. Based on a far-researched study of thousands of individuals, Finding Flow contends that we often walk through our days unaware and out of touch with our emotional lives. Our inattention makes us constantly bounce between two extremes: during much of the day we live filled with the anxiety and pressures of our work and obligations, whilst during our leisure moments, we tend to live in passive boredom. The key, according to Mihaly, is to challenge ourselves with tasks requiring a high degree of skill and commitment. Instead of watching television, play the piano. Transform a routine task by taking a different approach. In short, learn the joy of complete engagement. Though they appear simple, the lessons are life-changing.
8. Helen Fisher’s ‘Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray’. Why do men and women approach love so differently? Why do we behave the way we do when it comes to the opposite sex? Anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher unravels much about ‘mating behaviour’ with convincing evidence that when nature talks, humans still listen. She offers new explanations for why men and women fall in love, marry, and divorce, and discusses the future of sex in a way that will surprise you.
9. Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Outliers: The Story of Success’. The Author of one of the most influential books of the past decade, Malcolm will transform the way you understand success. The famous ‘ten thousand hours’ rule comes exactly from this book. (If you haven’t heard about the ’10k hour rule’, research shows that one needs 10,000 hours to become proficient in something they want to succeed in). Enjoy!
10. Daniel Gilbert’s ‘Stumbling on Happiness’. A Harvard Professor of Psychology combines psychology, neuroscience, economics and philosophy with irrepressible wit to describe how the human brain imagines its future – and how well (or badly) it predicts what it will enjoy. Revealing some of the amazing secrets of human motivation, he also answers thought-provoking questions such as ‘Why are couples less satisfied after having children while insisting that their kids are a source of joy?’
What about your favourite books? Would love to hear from you.
Join our discussion on Facebook in the Psychology of Human Enrichment Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/psychologyofhumanenrichment/
With love & gratitude,
Darya