Why it matters: Provides an accessible and approachable overview of past philosophies, and shows how they apply better to your life than the harmful self-help-positivity trends we see today. Written in a light and humorous way. Is very strong and enlightening in the middle. So many ‘aha’ moments.
#Things to consider
- Mindfulness has been adopted by the world of meditation, but it is not meditation, though meditation is one popular tool, suited to some, to increase it. Mindfulness is just paying deliberate attention in the present: noticing things.
- Are you choosing your lifestyle? Without people around you, would you still have all the material desires you have now? We choose our lifestyles—our houses, our clothes, and our watches—with other people in mind. Our desires would diminish drastically if we didn’t need to impress anyone. We feel more envy to the people close to us. We are far more likely to feel envy to our work colleague than to a celebrity.
- You are not your work. Your daily employment does not need to be your identity. It’s a wonderful bonus to do what one enjoys, but it’s not necessary. What counts is not the work but your relationship to it. To become happier we need to reassess our attachments to things in the world. We need to feel differently about things that cause anxiety.