15 Best Books On HAPPINESS
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The 15 best books on happiness. Welcome to a luxe calme, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. If you're not subscribed yet, you're missing out!
Hello, a Luxor's! We're so happy to welcome you back for another incredible book club video. See what we did there? Okay, never mind. The key word of today is happiness; that little state of being that we're all looking for. And if you find it or, better said, create it, this is what all the books we are going to provide you with today are all about.
We're not going to try to define happiness because it's different for everyone and there will never be a set destination. Although there are certain conditions you're required to fulfill, such as defining your happiness, don't overthink, stop caring about what others think, pursue that goal, and a bunch more you can check out in our video of the 15 rules to live a happy life. But this is about the books on happiness, so let's get started.
Number one: The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. His Holiness the Dalai Lama goes deep into Buddhism and reveals what it truly means to live a happier life, seamlessly tying together the wisdom of Buddhism and Western life. This is the go-to manual to see how Buddhist practices can increase your overall happiness, which covers how to train your mind to be happy, how to create a deeper bond with others through compassion, how to deal with suffering, overcome obstacles, and the importance of living a spiritual life. This is an eye-opening book; once a year, or maybe every two years, you should go back to it and just be sure the fundamentals have sunk in. We already got you covered on that front, though! If you go to alux.com/freebook and sign up, our friends at Audible will provide you with an audio version of The Art of Happiness for free.
Number two: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. There are very few books like The Four Agreements, simple yet so profound that it will change your life in the blink of an eye. All the lessons, or rather the arguments, in this book are applicable to pretty much every aspect of life. We don't want to divulge too much to ruin the experience, but we can attest to the powerful effect it'll have on your life when you start living by The Four Agreements.
Number three: The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. The author describes how a few small changes in your everyday life can have a tremendous effect on your level of happiness and life overall. The Happiness Project is an excellent gateway to start seeing your thoughts, your decisions, your life, and your time through a whole new different lens.
Number four: Happiness by Design by Paul Dolan. Behavioral science professor Paul Dolan wrote this bold and original book as a means to help you influence your behavior and the behavior of others in order to improve well-being. Dolan argues if you really wish to discover a life that is full of pleasure and meaning, you only need to make informed decisions and deliberate choices without pondering too much on whether or not it'll bring you the happiness you desire.
Number five: Happiness by Matthieu Ricard. Here's an author who wants you to push as much energy into achieving happiness as much as you would put into achieving your financial goals, fitness goals, and others you have set up for yourself. Filled with practical exercises and techniques you can do every day to maximize your happiness level, Ricard thoughtfully recommends that you look ahead in life with a deep sense of reality and compassion. Touching a wide array of sources from Buddhism to science to poetry and personal experiences, the author says the ones who are truly happy and aspire to bring happiness to a global scale to end hatred are usually the ones to do so.
Number six: The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky. This book distinctly provides you with a comprehensive guide to understanding all the various aspects of happiness based on decades of scientific research. The How of Happiness will show you how we make a lot of errors in our expectations of what makes us happy compared to what actually makes us happy. Along with plenty of strategies and methods of thinking that you can start using right away, you'll finally get a firm understanding of your intrinsic potential and how to bring it to the surface to live a greater, happier life.
Number seven: The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. In his book, Jonathan Haidt explores the question of where happiness comes from. Haidt reveals that long-term happiness comes from within you by cultivating an acceptance attitude toward the unpredictable events around you. His writing is quite simple and easy to follow; it combines humanities with psychological science, making this impactful book accessible to a wide audience.
Number eight: The Happiness Animal by Will Gelburt. According to Gelburt, honesty is the first muscle you have to strengthen. If you want to be happy, you must be honest before you can be happy; honest with yourself and honest with those around you. The Happiness Animal is an honest roadmap that describes how to strengthen the five muscles of happiness and guide you to a better life.
Number nine: Flow by Mihai Csikszentmihalyi. Flow represents a full state of immersion in the present condition that you're experiencing, based for the most part on cold hard science, but also with a touch of philosophy. This book lays down for you the happiness equation so you won't struggle for the answer from now on. Guiding the flow of information that enters your consciousness is essential for you to find true happiness and significantly improve the quality of your life.
Number ten: 10% Happier by Dan Harris. This is a book about meditation, in which the author, Dan Harris, relates his personal story of discovering meditation and how it made him ten percent happier after experiencing a panic attack on live TV. He shares his journey to find peace and balance through the immersive power of meditation, which will surely encourage you to try it yourself if you haven't already. Dan wholeheartedly believes that meditation is the medicine that works for everyone. And, Aluxers, just to let you know, we have our own meditation course; we call it Mind Mastery. You can access it by going to alux.com/meditation. It's closed right now, but we'll be opening the doors back up on Black Friday for a discounted price. So, get your name on the waiting list if it isn't already!
Number eleven: Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P.E. Seligman. While most people would consider living a happy life an outcome of sheer luck, Seligman describes happiness as a process derived from focusing your potential and strengths instead of your weaknesses. Years of studying ancient philosophies and modern science made him realize the key to happiness is something we've known for thousands of years: virtue. Seligman also shares with you plenty of practical exercises, tests, and the main benefits of a dynamic program that will teach you how to better understand your worthiness and use it in ways you've never thought of before.
Number twelve: The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris. The lessons in this book revolve around studies and behavioral psychology, more specifically around acceptance and commitment therapy, a type of therapy focused on mindfulness. Harris employs scientifically proven strategies which will show you how to reduce any kind of stress, overcome self-doubt, handle negative feelings more effectively, and generally create more meaning, more fulfillment, and satisfaction in your life.
Number thirteen: How to Be Happy, Damn It by Karin Salman. The author, Karin Salman, wrote, or better yet, designed this book particularly for those people who don't buy self-help books but need that ray of sunshine in their lives. How to Be Happy is a mixture of biology, quantum physics, psychology, philosophy, and the undying Zen of Bazooka Joe; that's guaranteed to perk you up even if you're a die-hard cynic. It's packed with 44 lessons that will help you save so many years of time and effort; it'll pretty much feel like a life hack. Also, we must mention before we move on that this book has some of the most stunning graphics and illustrations you'll ever see.
Number fourteen: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. For those of you who don't know this little book, you're missing out! Don't Sweat the Small Stuff has been around since 1961, so you know the value it brings to the table is real. Richard Carlson shares in over 100 chapters his ideas for living a calmer, richer, and happier life. Just to take note here, if you have a friend or someone who constantly has something to complain about, then you should gift them this book. It'll change their perception on things and influence their life for the better.
Number fifteen: The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha. Best described as counterintuitive, this book reveals the nine secrets of happiness and shows you that to have everything, you should want nothing. But do anything! Mind-bending, right? The Happiness Equation mixes humor with wise practical advice, and it emphasizes the fact that our choices, our decisions we make on a daily basis, have a tremendous contribution to our overall happiness. So, the best way to solve our happiness equation is to make better, higher-quality decisions and choices for ourselves.
Now, Aluxers, we'd like to ask you a very important question: Are you happy with where your life is headed at this moment in time? Please let us know in the comments, and we'll be right there with you.
And of course, for sticking with us this long, you know you definitely get a bonus book! Here it is: Number sixteen: The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. From two of the most prominent spiritual leaders in the world today, this book was envisioned as a three-layer cake: the authors' personal stories and teachings about joy, the most up-to-date findings in the science of happiness, and the daily practices that anchor our own spiritual and emotional lives.
You'd think that all the suffering they went through would turn these two authors into miserable wrecks, but that just isn't the case. They overcame their struggles and banded together to answer the question that burns all of us: How can humans find happiness in the face of suffering?
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