Tag: happiness is a science

Book review: The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest

Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery

This is a poetic and deeply personal self-help book where the information flows in an elegant and organic way that makes the lessons and life tips less jarring to discuss. Even the book’s disjointed structure makes even the most technical topics easier to discuss. The author starts by differentiating intrusive versus intuitive thoughts and explains the science behind the gut response. The physical effects of trauma and unprocessed emotions also astound which makes it one of the book’s most life-changing insights.

Wiest also tackles relationships and comfort zones and the patterns that are set whether healthy or abusive. This helps one realize that we’re drawn to such people and circumstances because we’re familiar with it and familiarity breeds comfort, even if not conscious about it. The only downside to the book is that the sources were somewhat outdated going back to 2008 when the book was published in 2020 and new discoveries could’ve rendered such studies unreliable. Another drawback is the repetitiveness of insights as opposed to gleaning new ones.

But all in all, this book addresses the problematic mindsets of today, especially about happiness, healing, and relationships. I think this book would be best for young people that are just beginning to define their identity. I appreciated this book’s poetic writing style and informal tone most of all. Get the entire book here.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

Book review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

The author proffers some important lessons such as: values that are uncontrollable are bad, improving takes letting go of assumptions, and focusing on leaving a legacy can be detrimental.

The key takeaways are:

  1. Avoid the constant pursuit of satisfaction because true happiness consists in only worrying about the essentials because you can only create positive experiences by experiencing the negative ones.
  2. Stop believing that you are unique because it leads to being entitled without sacrifice, i.e., grandiose narcissism bases itself on the belief that you deserve special treatment, and victim narcissism takes into account I’m bad and everyone else is great, so I deserve special treatment. Both lead to complacency.
  3. Accept reality as it is; don’t fall subject to self-help books promise of constant happiness and take responsibility for your own emotions and realize that dealing with negative ones is a daily struggle. Don’t avoid the problems.
  4. Happiness is a science (values are hypotheses, action are experiences and results are data) which requires smart decision making based on results not fear.
  5. Values are prerequisite to happiness and the ones you fight for define yourself.
  6. Take responsibility to focus your energies on improving your life.
  7. Choose how to react to life because we control our emotional response to problems.
  8. Doubt your beliefs because then you’ll steadily improve over time.
  9. Reduce your ego so you can improve by asking yourself what if I’m wrong, what would it mean if i was wrong, and would an error have a better or worse problem than my current problem?
  10. Failure is the key to improvement; instead of worrying about it and becoming stagnant, try it again.
  11. Better to do something that nothing because it leads to motivation.
  12. Say no so you can say yes so you can truly stand up for one thing even though you are denying another issue.

He also goes into the 3 lessons you need to know which are: only hold values that you can control, certainty hampers growth, and don’t obsess over leaving a legacy.

All in all, it’s an astounding book that backs its statement up with studies and facts about prominent people. While it defies the self-help industry, many of those books leave you wanting something elusive that you’re missing. It’s a good, albeit tedious read at certain points, but worth the effort. Get it here.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.