Book Request: Any Book That Gives Me Tools To Feel Happier.

[heisenburger]

Does anyone know if a book that can improve my happiness right now. I'm not interested in theory of happiness, would love s book with practical tools to feel better, so far I've read the Sedona method which I found to e extremely helpful. Any one have any other books with techniques or something I can use?

[Toby]

If you like techniques maybe Loving What Is - Byron Katie (The Work).

[krazzer]

https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Smart-Why-Arent-Happy/dp/1101980737

Has theory but is very practical. The book refers also to it's website for practical exercises:
http://happysmarts.com

[Erlend K]

Greater Good In Action: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/

This site is run by the psychology department of US Berkley and contains all the happiness boosters that have the most solid research behind it in showing reliable increases in reported subjective welbeing. I would also strongly recommend Greater Good's free edX course, witch is full of exercises proven to increase welbeing and explanations of the psychological mechanisms that make them effective. They have a new course starting this fall. Last years course had a major impact on my own happiness.

For a more long-tem happiness planning: The Grant and Gluek longitudinal studies concluded that the single factor most contributing to our long term happiness is the quality of our social relationships. The Harvard longitudinal studies concluded that relationships in combination with health/being physically active were the most important. If you want to live a happy life the main thing to focus on is probably regular exercise combined with trying to constantly do small things to improve your relationships.

I also love Daniel Kahneman's one-liner advice for how to live a happy life from the end of 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' it is something like "Organize you life in such a way that you can spend as much time as possible doing things you love together with people you like being with".

[Nahm]

@heisenburger Pick what you want to do. Read a book about it. That will feel best. 

 

 

 

 

Love the name.

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Nahm

[Dan Arnautu]

Not so much about the exercises as it is about the habits. 

If you instill a lot of good habits, happiness will be anyway generated with or without your will.

But still, let's do an exercise. Flip the coin on it's head. 

What can I do to not feel happy at all? What can I do to put myself in the most depressed state possible?

Well, let's see:

• Eat poorly and don't work out.
  • This way you won't have energy to do anything, you will have poor posture, aches and pains everywhere and most likely nobody will want to date you.
• Complain and blame and criticize and judge everything around you
• Create rules that you need to follow in order to be happy. 
  • e.g "I won't let myself be happy until I pass my exam tomorrow or until I get into a good college."
• Don't learn anything
  • Let life blow you from left to right however it pleases because you don't know how anything works and thus you can't take control of anything in your life --> fear, turmoil
• Try to fill your inner void with different addictions
• Don't meditate
• Always believe what your mind tells you
• Care about what other people think of you etc.

The list could be endless, but can you see the fact that all the items listed above include either bad or good habits?

The more bad habits you have, the unhappier you are and the more good habits you have and bad habits you eliminate, the happier your are.

Make a list of your own, according to the question above, and start to act upon the reverse of what it says.

Good luck.

[TeamBills]

I wish more people would buy Leo's book list and life purpose. I see a lot of posts asking if they should get them, I mean of course. Is it kind of expensive? Yes. Is there a possibility you might feel like you wasted your money? Yes. But isn't it worth the risk? Better to spend your money on that than video games and other silly stuff. Take the chance, please. He has books on his list which will help you.

[pluto]

For me "The Celestine Prophecy" is one of the best books IMO it will teach you so much, its an amazing adventure and mostly a story but teaches you a lot about life, how to see things, how to read people, how to listen and understand nature, spiritual progress and self actualization ect... The Power of Now is also a great book!

Edited July 6, 2017 by pluto