We all need a little help now and then. These are, in our opinion, the best books to have around when you need a little advice or uplift.
11. Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life By Martin Seligman
From the ‘father of positive psychology,’ Seligman harnesses over twenty years of clinical research to demonstrate how optimism enhances our quality of life, and how to learn to practice it.
He covers aspects of life such as money, love, sports, health, and parenting. The author also devotes a large segment on how to free children from pessimistic thinking.
This best-seller originally published in 1990 delivers positive-thought strategies that could turn even the most strident pessimist into an optimist.
10. To Have or To Be? By Erich Fromm
Two modes exist in the struggle for the spirit of humankind: the having mode, which concentrates on power, aggression, and possession, the foundation of the evils of violence, envy and greed; and the being mode, which is based on love, the pleasure of sharing, and in productive activity.
Fromm, a social psychologist, critiques American culture from the perspective of the 70’s when it was written. The main idea is that America had become a culture obsessed with “having.” Not much has changed. We still tend to think that we can buy happiness, and that our possessions will somehow fulfill us. Continue reading →