Best Self-Help Books About Happiness List by Ehssan – Happiness is not a constant state of mind. Our mental state changes easily and quickly depending on both outer and inner factors. But what is happiness? Can it even be defined? The answer is yes it can. Happiness is simply an emotional state of joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction.
There isn’t one way to achieve full happiness as it varies from a person to another. I become happier when I read, write, or hang out with my close friends. Other people feel happier when they go skiing or meet their family.
As a child, I always wondered what goes in our brain when we become happy, what causes that feeling of joy? Well, a little guy called serotonin plays a big role in stabilizing our mood. However, it doesn’t affect just our brain but our entire body as it helps brain cells to communicate with nervous system cells. Serotonin, or the happy chemical as some scientists like to call it, also impacts our sleeping habits along with eating. I shouldn’t have called it a little guy, I guess.
But the big question is how can we achieve that “happy feeling”? I personally believe that happiness can be easily achieved with proper resources; that’s why I took the liberty of searching for the best self-help books that can make us happier, and I was able to learn more about happiness and become the cheerful person I am today.
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First in the Self-Help Books of Happiness List:
“Beyond Negative Thinking” by J.T.Martorano & J.P.Kidahl.
I read this book when I was at my lowest. I needed some guidance to improve my mental health and eventually reach my full potential.
The goal of this book is to help you reclaim your life through optimism. Being a pessimist can literally ruin your life. Thanks to this book, I was able to change my perspective on life and eventually become a better person.
It contained 5 basic thinking techniques that can be used in your daily life to train your inner speech into thinking more positively.
The 5 easy-to-follow techniques include listening in (getting in touch with your inner voice), underlining (identifying the weakening words and underlining them), stopping (commanding your brain to stop), switching (changing your thoughts from destructive to encouraging), and finally reorienting (redirecting your thoughts toward satisfying feelings you had in the past).
With the help of these techniques, your mind gets to relax and rewind and eventually, that will make you happier.
Favorite quote: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”- John Milton.
“The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson.
What grabbed my attention when I first saw this book was obviously the title. It was so casual and inviting, which is something you rarely find in self-help books.
I consider it one of my favorite self-help books about happiness and I always recommend it as Mark Manson is simply a genius. He delivers his ideas in a very friendly way that makes every word he says stick in your brain.
This book shows you how you can find meaning in your life by spending your time on the right things. The only way to live a full good life is by simply not giving a f*ck about things that don’t matter. Instead, you should only care about the things that can bring meaning to your personal life.
By caring about things that don’t matter, you are wasting both your time and energy. That makes you stray from the path of a happy life. You should find things that bring you to a peaceful state of mind, that way you get closer to reaching that happiness you need and deserve.
Favorite quote: “The key to a good life is not giving a f*ck about more; it’s giving a f*ck about less, giving a f*ck about only what is true and immediate and important.”
“The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky.
Sonja’s book is considered one of the best happiness self-help books as it takes a different approach while she focused on the science behind happiness.
The book explains how happiness works and why does it matter. It explains myths about happiness and offers 12 activities that will help you become happier.
The main idea of the book is to focus on your day-to-day life to achieve happiness more than your living circumstances.
- Myth 1: We need to find happiness. Instead, we need to use happiness methods to change our perspective on the world and eventually feel better.
- Myth 2: Happiness can be achieved by changing our circumstances. That change will only bring us temporary happiness.
- Myth 3: You either have happiness or you don’t. We can easily alter our feelings with different activities which will eventually allow us to see life from a positive point of view.
With the help of 12 different activities, happiness becomes easier to achieve. These activities include positive thinking, avoiding overthinking, being kind, committing to your life goals, taking care of your body, and much more.
Favorite quote: “Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it’s not out there is that it’s inside us.”
“10% Happier” by Dan Harris.
In his book, Dan explored the possibility of achieving happiness through connecting with your spiritual self and using meditation. However, he focused on recent research on how can meditation affect both our body and mental health. He believes that the practice of meditation can help you become 10% happier.
Basically, meditation helps you slow down your thought process and gives you a chance to reset your mind. It’s like unplugging your brain and plugging it again. Not only does it give you relief, but it makes you a calmer person and helps you identify your destructive thoughts and eventually get rid of them.
As a spiritual person, meditation helped me overcome my anger issues and made me a calmer human being bringing me closer to reaching full happiness.
Favorite quote: “When you have one foot in the future and the other in the past, you piss on the present.”
Last in this List of Self-Help Books for Happiness:
“Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life” by Gary John Bishop.
In this book, Gary talks to you the way your big brother would. He’s direct and convincing. He wants you to get off the couch and get to action now. He literally bullies you into becoming a better person. It’s straightforward and easy to read. My cup of tea when it comes to self-help books.
With the help of this book, you can destroy those negative thoughts that keep you down and hold you back from making your dreams come true as it focuses on self-talk.
That little voice in your head -the one that tells you you aren’t good enough or that you’ll never be who you want to be- grows day after day when you keep feeding it negative and self-destructive thoughts.
After all, that voice is in your head, and you control what goes on in your head. You can easily train your mind into being more positive and focusing on the sunny side of life.
According to Gary, if you want to be happy and change your life, you need to take some action in the real world and not just think about making said action.
Favorite quote: “You change your life by doing, not by thinking about doing.”
Final thoughts
Please keep in mind that happiness doesn’t happen overnight. It requires constant practice as your mind needs to get used to your new way of thinking. Also, you can’t be happy if you don’t want to be happy.
Meaning, you need to really want to change the way you think in order to become happier. You can’t just mope around all day and expect happiness to come rushing into your arms. As Syed Badiuzzaman said, “Real change always comes from within.”
With the help of the self-help books I listed, I hope you manage to achieve the level of happiness you desire.
Happy reading and good luck!