Recommended Reads:

The Full Story

Title: A New Earth: Awakening to your life’s purpose 

           Author: Eckhart Tolle

Review Score: 9/10

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If you are the type of person who is too much in their head, overthinks and cares way too much about how people perceive you, then I think this book is for you. This book honestly changed my relationship with my mind, and I use mindfulness as a tool to harness my thoughts and feelings.  The writer Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual guider and he lays out mindfulness in non -technical way in which the reader can easily digest. The book is in the Oprah Winfrey book club, and she has this book by her bedside table, so if that is not enough convincing to buy one then I do not know what is. I know mindfulness is the new ‘it’ thing in the self -help realm, BUT this book puts the theory behind the practice. It specifically discusses how the ego (our perception of who we think we are) both hinders and traps of our real potential. One example that caught my attention was Eckhart was putting the point across of how overthinking situations traps us in the past, and we cannot appreciate what is happening right in front of us. 

He tells the story of two monks walking for five hours. They come across a girl who needs help to cross the lake. However, in tradition Monks are not allowed to touch women, this monk did, he carried her across the lake. 

A couple of hours after dropping the girl, the second monk goes to the first monk: “why did you carry the girl across the river?”

 The first monk goes “you are still carrying the girl.”

This small story that Echart tells highlights how ruminating on certain situations and events can lead us to be stuck in the past. Now, the solution to this is to stop thinking- but if you read the book it gives you tools to harness your thoughts and feelings. I highly recommend listening to Oprah Winfrey podcast, in conjunction to reading the book (that is what I did) there is an episode for each chapter in the book (ten in total), she interviews Eckhart and gets listeners to ask questions too. After finishing the book, I do Headspace (10-20 minutes of mindfulness meditation) a day to help me keep at the mindfulness. It truly has changed the relationship with my mind, I feel as though I ride my emotions and feelings, not the other way round.

Title: The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F*CK

Author: Mark Manson

Review: 7/10

I read this book in less than a week, very easy to digest and good if you are on the go. When reading this book, you can hear the voice of the author- he is funny, blunt and is not wishy-washy. One of the chapters is called ‘you are not special’. I think of him as an infusion of eastern philosophy principles but wrapped up in western writing. I think this book is good for the average John, who laughs at that person who takes up yoga, and lights incense candles and travels to Thailand to ‘find themselves’. Mark pulls on CBT techniques, mindfulness, and noble truths from the great old Buddha himself- he gives personal examples of hardships in his life, so you feel a connection with him. I think this book is good for people who catastrophize their problems, to seem bigger than they are and then feeling they cannot deal with it. 

The only reason why I gave it a 6.5 out of 10 is that being a psychology student myself and a Buddhist, I felt like I was reading about simple concepts I already knew. So definitely I think this book is geared up for someone who has never read any eastern texts or mindfulness.

Title: Grit: Why Passion and Resilience are the secrets to success 

Author: Angel Duckworth

Review: 6.5/10 

This book talks about how emotional resilience is so important in our daily lives. Emotional Resilience can be defined as being able to cope psychologically during a crisis situation, and be able to dust yourself after the crisis has happened. You can tell Angela is a psychology lecturer, because that is how the book is written none the less, she talks about her own research and a lot of other studies discussing the importance for emotional resilience in a career aspect, with using some culturally prominent people music/art/ and acting. Additionally, she talks about emotional resilience in children, and gives you tools to develop that in your own children (if you have them). This book is very dense, and at times I found it a bit dry to read (ironically it tested my resilience to finish the book), nonetheless I did learn about very interesting studies, and you also taken on a personal journey with Angela, with how she landed into this piece of research, which I quite liked. 

  However, it does not give you specific set of rules or tips on how to become emotionally resilient- which isn’t necessarily a bad thing- I think Angela gives you a lot of research to look into and her opinions on it, so I think the responsibility is on the reader on how they hone that knowledge and use it in their everyday lives. For me personally, it has changed my perspective on a difficult situation arising in my life- instead of having the mindset of ‘why is this happening to me’, I now have the mindset of ‘okay this is the problem, how am I going to overcome this issue and get over it’. Additionally, by reading about resilience it will hopefully make you more reflective in areas in which you think you could build your emotional resilience. 

Title: Ego is the Enemy 

Author: Ryan Holiday 

Review: 8/10

I think if you have read a lot of mindfulness or the Eckhart Tolle book that I recommended earlier, this book adds as a nice side salad to the main dish. The book is super interesting as the author Ryan, gives reasons as to why the ego is the enemy in your daily life and how it stops you from achieving great success, he uses historical and business examples and gives his theories as to why these particular people in time have failed. Now, not coming from a very historical or business background this book was actually quite easy to follow and it was a page-turner- which I was surprised about, as personally, I do not like history at all. It was a history lesson wrapped up with self-help tips. What I also liked about this book is that it gave you real-life examples of how your ego can get in the way of success. It specifically talks about how you get a bad exam result, and your ego protects you in a way it blames the marker for not being fair on your essay, you think of all the time and effort put into that essay. But, if you put your ego to the side, you email your lecturer on how you could improve, take on her advice and be more aware of your mistakes then you could be successful at your next essay. I think by just reading this book, I have become more aware of my ego, and I try to manage and control it every day in my life. I would highly recommend this book if you are currently studying or trying to climb the career ladder- as this is the most times our egos will be punched and bruised from the situation.