Recommendations based on "The Science of Happiness How Our Brains Make Us Happy-and What We Can Do to Get Happier"

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., says that it’s time to “stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.” Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind offers expert advice on how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects, enabling you to achieve your highest potential and a more contented, fulfilled life.More and more, psychologists are turning away from an emphasis on self-esteem and moving toward self-compassion in the treatment of their patients—and Dr. Neff’s extraordinary book offers exercises and action plans for dealing with every emotionally debilitating struggle, be it parenting, weight loss, or any of the numerous trials of everyday living.

A groundbreaking and fascinating investigation into the transformative effects of exercise on the brain, from the bestselling author and renowned psychiatrist John J. Ratey, MD.Did you know you can beat stress, lift your mood, fight memory loss, sharpen your intellect, and function better than ever simply by elevating your heart rate and breaking a sweat? The evidence is incontrovertible: Aerobic exercise physically remodels our brains for peak performance.In Spark, John J. Ratey, M.D., embarks upon a fascinating and entertaining journey through the mind-body connection, presenting startling research to prove that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to menopause to Alzheimer's.Filled with amazing case studies (such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which has put this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores), Spark is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run -- -or, for that matter, simply the way you think.

The New York Times bestselling author and renowned clinical psychologist teaches women how to transcend their fears and illusions, break free from societal expectations, and rediscover the person they were always meant to be: fully present, conscious, and fulfilled.A Radical Awakening lays out a path for women to discover their inner truth and powers to help heal others and the planet.Dr. Shefali helps women uncover the purpose that already exists within them and harness the power of authenticity in every area of their lives. The result is an eloquent and inspiring, practical and accessible book, backed with real-life examples and personal stories, that unlocks the extraordinary power necessary to awaken the conscious self.

The essential guide to mental health from the bestselling author of The School of Life. A Therapeutic Journey follows the arc from mental crisis and collapse to convalescence and recovery. Written with kindness, knowledge and sympathy, it is both a practical guide and a source of consolation and companionship in what might be some of our loneliest, most anguished moments. Alain de Botton explores how we can cope with a variety of forms of mental pain and illness, from the mild to the severe. It considers how and why we might become ill; how we can explain things to friends, family and colleagues; how we can find our ways towards recovery; and how we can build resilience, so as to live wisely alongside our difficulties. At heart this is a book about redemption - about regaining the thread of our lives, rediscovering meaning, and finding our way back to connection, warmth and joy.

A book to help you achieve mindfulness and practice meditation while looking at the world's greatest works of art.Psychiatrist and leading meditation practitioner Christophe André guides you through the art of mindfulness, beginning with art itself. Looking at Mindfulness collects classic and esoteric paintings, from Rembrandt to Hopper to Magritte, and offers a lucid commentary on the inner workings of each. André describes the dynamic on the canvas, and turns to the viewer's own reactions, exploring the connection between what we see and what we feel. Moving beyond the art on the page, André teaches us what it means to consider our surroundings, our daily interactions and obligations, and their effect on our inner well-being and mental clarity. The paintings are a visual and tangible first step to understanding mindfulness and the benefits of living in the moment. In practicing mindfulness, within ourselves and out in the world, each of us can make immediate, meaningful, and permanent changes in our well-being and the well-being of others.Beautifully written, wonderfully accessible for any novice or expert, Looking at Mindfulness delivers practical steps and a comprehensive understanding of the practice and meaning of mindfulness and meditation. An authentic and effortless voice, André brings clarity to what it means to live mindfully and how we can make a more conscious effort to do so.

Depression can feel like a downward spiral, pulling you into a vortex of sadness, fatigue, and apathy. In The Upward Spiral, neuroscientist Alex Korb demystifies the intricate brain processes that cause depression and offers a practical and effective approach to getting better. Based on the latest research in neuroscience, this book provides dozens of straightforward tips you can do every day to rewire your brain and create an upward spiral towards a happier, healthier life. Whether you suffer from depression or just want a better understanding of the brain, this book offers an engaging and informative look at the neuroscience behind our emotions, thoughts, and actions. The truth is that there isn't one big solution to depression, but there are numerous simple steps you can take to alter brain activity and chemistry. Some are as easy as relaxing certain muscles to reduce anxiety, or getting more sunlight to improve your mood. Small steps in the right direction can have profound effects - giving you the power to become your best self as you literally reshape your brain, one small change at a time.

As seen on Good Morning America and The Today Show with Hoda and Jenna “The key is managing stress, so we can lead healthier, happier lives. The 5 Resets will help you do just that.”   — Katie Couric, Journalist and Founder and CEO, Katie Couric Media   "A masterful approach to rewire our brains and bodies from the inside out."    — Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global “The doctor everybody needs.”  — Mel Robbins, Host of the Mel Robbins Podcast From Harvard stress expert, nationally sought after speaker, and television correspondent Dr. Aditi Nerurkar comes a reimagined approach to overcoming your stress and burnout using five small but mighty mindset shifts. For Dr. Nerurkar, the common misperception of stress as “bad” needs reframing. Stress is a healthy biological phenomenon that helps us tackle life’s many demands. It becomes problematic when it’s out of tune with the frequency of our lives, result­ing in burnout, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and many other physical symptoms. To bring stress back to healthy levels, Dr. Nerurkar offers her five science-backed mindset shifts, rooted in more than two decades of clinical experience, for when life gets hard: The First Reset: Get Clear on What Matters Most The Second Reset: Find Quiet in a Noisy World The Third Reset: Sync Your Brain and Your Body The Fourth Reset: Come Up for Air The Fifth Reset: Bring Your Best Self Forward Dr. Nerurkar illuminates why our everyday attempts at being “resilient”—like multitasking, sleeping less, and undergoing huge lifestyle overhauls—aren’t beneficial to our stressed brains. Instead, she prescribes practical, real-world solutions for our modern-day perils that are time efficient, cost-free, and can be applied to anyone’s life, including fol­lowing the Resilience Rule of 2 (making no more than two changes at a time because doing more is unsustainable), accepting that multitasking is a myth (our brains are wired to do one thing at a time!), and adopting her Bookend Method (creating boundaries to honor our brain’s need for compart­mentalization). The five mindset shifts, along with fifteen proven techniques, offer you a road map to change your relationship with stress, bring your biology back into balance, and feel calmer right now.

Manage Your Mind is a book for building resilience, overcoming emotional difficulties and enabling self-development. It is for any of us who wish to understand ourselves better, to be more effective in day-to-day life, or to overcome current problems; or who want to support others in these tasks. The authors have, between them, almost 100 years of experience of helping people through difficult times. This experience, together with the results from scientific research, leads to Manage Your Mind distilling effective techniques and ideas so that readers can select those that suit their preferences and needs. The book explains and illustrates how to respond skilfully to life's challenges.

In this groundbreaking book, Matthieu Ricard makes a passionate case for happiness as a goal that deserves as least as much energy as any other in our lives.Wealth? Fitness? Career success? How can we possibly place these above true and lasting well-being? Drawing from works of fiction and poetry, Western philosophy, Buddhist beliefs, scientific research, and personal experience, Ricard weaves an inspirational and forward-looking account of how we can begin to rethink our realities in a fast-moving modern world. With its revelatory lessons and exercises, Happiness is an eloquent and stimulating guide to a happier life.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER From a leading child psychologist comes this groundbreaking new understanding of children's behavior, offering insight and strategies to support both parents and children. Nominated for Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel H. Pink's Next Big Idea Club Over her decades as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Mona Delahooke has routinely counseled distraught parents who struggle to manage their children's challenging, sometimes oppositional behaviors. These families are understandably focused on correcting or improving a child's lack of compliance, emotional outbursts, tantrums, and other "out of control" behavior. But, as she has shared with these families, a perspective shift is needed. Behavior, no matter how challenging, is not the problem but a symptom; a clue about what is happening in a child's unique physiologic makeup. In Brain-Body Parenting, Dr. Delahooke offers a radical new approach to parenting based on her clinical experience as well as the most recent research in neuroscience and child psychology. Instead of a "top-down" approach to behavior that focuses on the thinking brain, she calls for a "bottom-up" approach that considers the essential role of the entire nervous system, which produces children's feelings and behaviors. When we begin to understand the biology beneath the behavior, suggests Dr. Delahooke, we give our children the resources they need to grow and thrive--and we give ourselves the gift of a happier, more connected relationship with them. Brain-Body Parenting empowers parents with tools to help their children develop self-regulation skills while also encouraging parental self-care, which is crucial for parents to have the capacity to provide the essential "co-regulation" children need. When parents shift from trying to secure compliance to supporting connection and balance in the body and mind, they unlock a deeper understanding of their child, encouraging calmer behavior, more harmonious family dynamics, and increased resilience.