Do you sometimes ever just look around and think, “What in the world is happening?” I know I do. With the advent of social media, news travels so fast and fads can take over the world with a click of a mouse or a swipe on a phone. When that occurs, it’s easy to get confused or become anxious. But what if you could think about what you are thinking about? These books offer guidance and explanation for how to better control your thoughts and live a calmer, less stressed out life.

From my perch solidly inside GenX, sometimes I look around and am amazed at the things that are happening in the world. I can struggle with the news media highlighting crazy things that would have gotten their speaker beaten up on the playground when I was little. How did we get here? This book was very helpful in breaking things down for me. Things have definitely changed and the authors, who are both college professors, offer some ways that we can try to remove some of the discord and move more towards harmony, even if we disagree with each other. Haidt has several good books that look at this topic from several different viewpoints. I’ll add his titles in the You May Also Like section. If you have looked around and thought, “What in the world?” check these out. They will be helpful. 

Full disclosure: the author of this book is a former Chicago Cubs baseball player and I have been a Cubs fan my whole life. Now, I didn’t pick this book because of that, but it’s nice when the planets align for something good. A Super Bowl or two ago, one of the players was caught reading this book on the sideline. It blew up for a minute and I never had a chance to check it out. I’m not the most sporty person, but inner excellence is inner excellence, no matter if you use it for a jump shot or not. If you have trouble with stage fright or public speaking, or just finding success in everyday life, this would be a good read. Go Cubs!

I think we’ve all said a statement like this at one time in our lives. It so easy, especially with social media, to think that the grass is always greener. But maybe we don’t need to change our lives and always focus on the bigger and better. Maybe we just need to change how we think about things and reorient our priorities to happiness and peace over having things and looking important. I’ll be honest - a couple of these chapters left me cold. But then we go towards the end to “I wish I had more time” and “I wish I had more control.” Whew. Those hit where it hurt. Even if you think there’s nothing here for you, I bet there is. Kate founded Naptime Kitchen - which I have not followed, but may have to seek out. If you’ve ever wished you had a … this book is for you.

I hope these books help you develop a more stable and peaceful mind. It’s not going to be an easy task, but if you jump in and do the brain work, these books can help you get results. At the very least, they should be able to help you better understand what is going on around us.

Happy thinking…
:) Amanda