You can either learn from your own mistakes or learn from others mistakes. Books offer a shortcut to avoid the pain of learning from your own mistakes! Think about this, usually a person writes a book after their 30s or 40s. So essentially their entire Life experiences have been condensed into a 300-400 page Book. You gain so much wisdom within a few days or hours! Even if the books are of the fiction genre, they have so much research and a different perspective on Life, that it can be an enriching experience for your knowledge and imagination. Of course, you can read a lot of stuff & know things intellectually that may or may not translate into realising it in our behavior. But feeding our mind with stuff that helps us grow, can sow the seeds which will in time grow into something magnificent! After my Parents, various Teachers, Professors & Mentors, one of the credits behind shaping my personality have been Books. There can be a sentence you heard, a movie you watched, a book you read or a situation that occurred in your Life that shifted your mindset. In my case, Books have been one of the key instruments in transforming my beliefs. There are many favourite books of mine, but there are some that needs special mention as they have transformed my thinking completely. Here are they:
This is one book that needs to be read quite often. Through this book, I realised the difference between our Ego and Soul. When we live from our Ego mode, we live in suffering while when we live from our Soul, we realise the true meaning of being alive. This book emphasises on living in the present moment and how when you capitalize on the Power of the Now that is the Present Moment, you can live your life to your full potential. It sounds like a heavy Spiritual book but in reality it is written in an easy to understand language. The best part is, it is written in a question & answer format. Eckhart has taken frequently asked questions and made it into a book. The flow of the book literally feels like your every question is being answered. Through this book I have learnt to stop identifying myself from my mind or my intelligence. I have learnt that our mind serves better as a servant of our Soul than as a Master. It's a must read!
Louise Hay believes that the thoughts we think and the words we speak have an impact on our body. Negative thought patterns and self-depreciating self talks, can cause illnesses. In this book, she writes about How the Power of our thoughts can be used to heal any illnesses. She even has a list of all the illnesses you can imagine and the corresponding thought pattern that caused it. She also gives affirmations that can be used for healing that disease. Although, there is no scientific proof behind this, but there are countless people who have found her work helpful. This book has inspired me to become conscious of my thoughts. How being angry or having resentment inside can eat your body from the inside in the form of various illnesses. Whether you have illness or not, this book is a must read for you to live Your Best Life.
You will start looking at Creativity differently once you read this book. I actually listened to it's audiobook and Gilbert's voice makes the experience even more magical. She calls ideas as magical entities which roam around in the Universe. And you have to capture it and start working on it otherwise it will look for some other resource which will help it to come alive. It's a different way to look at Creativity. She beautifully explains how to move past your fear in order to live Creatively. This Book has been the reason I decided to follow my creativity and start Mindsutra. It's a must read for young people who are about to start their career! I don't want to reveal more about the book as it will spoil the experience! Go grab it!
This book changed my view about myself. As a kid growing up, I saw teachers favouring the ones in class who answered quickly or were very talkative. And the quiet ones like me were considered not so bright or shy. Till the time I read this book, I too believed about myself that something was wrong with me. That being talkative and social is the normal thing and we were problematic people who didn't know how to talk to people. But if you are an Introvert, your view about yourself would change to the point that you will be proud of being an Introvert. If you are an extrovert, you will start becoming more empathetic towards Introverts and would stop judging them.
This is the most undermentioned books ever. Richard Wiseman is the Professor of Psychology and in this book he gives science based hacks on living life with Happiness within 59 Seconds. The best part about this book was the Happiness Diary in which he suggests to write a Diary or Journal that is based on factors that are instrumental in increasing happiness. Different Factors like gratitude, visualisation etc are practised on different days like gratitude Mondays, Thank You Tuesdays, etc. I have maintained this diary for a couple of years and this has brought tremendous change in my life. Apart from this there are various other hacks that also brings a lot of mindset shifts. Do give it a read!
To know more about the books click below:
The Power of Now
https://amzn.to/36HkiIr
You can heal your life
https://amzn.to/34vQwnv
Big magic
https://amzn.to/3degoZ6
Quiet
https://amzn.to/2SvZOKG
59 seconds
https://amzn.to/2HXrA0q
There are other books as well that have influenced me, but these 5 hold special place in my heart. Which book has changed your mindset? Comment below and share your knowledge.