Each of us is on a lifelong quest to pursue happiness in our own ways, but sometimes the winter months can be a real downer. If your happiness seems to have gone into hibernation, take a look at these books about fostering joy throughout your life:
Wired for Joy: A Revolutionary Method for Creating Happiness From Within by Laurel Mellin – Presents a simple yet proven way to train your brain to move through stress and back to joy. Focuses on rewiring the emotional brain — the cauldron of our stress — rather than the thinking brain, which has been the focus of most other stress-busting methods.
The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: Ten Unconvential Laws to Redefine Your Life & Succeed on Your Own Terms by Vishen Lakhiani – A blueprint for retraining the mind to achieve whole-life transformation introduces the method of “consciousness engineering” to upgrade outdated belief systems and adopt healthier habits for working, relationships, health, and overall life quality.
The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything by Neil Pasricha – Offers advice to find happiness by closely examining one’s priorities in work and life to decide what is truly important.
If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? by Raj Raghunathan – A professor and psychological researcher relates his quest to discover why the smartest and most successful people he knew were also the most unhappy and discovered that many of the personality traits that helped them get ahead also fostered habits that prevented happiness.
Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living by Jason Gay – A popular columnist at The Wall Street Journal offers a rulebook for experiencing life and all its inherent humor by taking note of small daily victories, ones that aren’t necessarily meaningful, but that make you feel good.
The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life by Chris Guillebeau – Offers advice and practical guidance for finding happiness in life by taking up a challenging quest, and inspirational accounts of people undertaking the most daunting endeavors, including the author’s own efforts to visit every country in the world.
Paths to Happiness: 50 Ways to Add Joy to Your Life Every Day by Edward Hoffman – Offers fifty ways to achieve greater joy and feel more fulfilled, including cooking and baking, mentoring, and zen meditation.
Finding the Blue Sky: A Mindful Approach to Choosing Happiness Here & Now by Joseph Emet – Examines the principles of Buddhism and discusses how they correlate with the latest research into happiness outlined in positive psychology.