Read these great love, nature and giving back books and fill your life with happiness
Life is love, life is nature, life is giving-back; life is about the little things of every day, the little words you speak, the little thoughts you think, the little things you do or leave undone, the little moments you spend wisely or otherwise; life is all-encompassing.
To reap the best out of life, you need to plant the seeds of happiness, love, and relentless giving. These qualities are in each of us, inherent in our human makeup, but to cultivate them we need to create the right mindset.
One of the easiest ways to have a good life is to learn from great minds that understand the basics of life and love. We will share with you several of the world’s bestsellers that will shape your mindset and set you on course for a lifetime of happiness.
Thus check out the best books on nature, love, life, and giving. There is more than this, we can offer you on our website. Surf through our website to grab hold of some good understanding on human architecture and learn how to lead a happy healthy life in a Mooshoo style.
According to Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the purpose of life is to seek happiness. Everything we do in life should be a move towards happiness. In this book, the Dalai Lama stated that for you to have lasting happiness, you need to train your mind to achieve it. You have to develop a ‘supple mind (a mental flexibility)’.
External circumstances cannot create lasting happiness, but the right state of mind can, but it will take time and a lot of effort to achieve this. He further explained through his key points that in developing the right state of mind, we can thrive in negative situations by ‘shifting perspective’ and focus on finding the positives.
Cultivate compassion, spirituality, and a supple mind, for they will help you deal with pain and suffering when they arise.
Whilst the title of this book might be a bit of a surprise, blogging Demigod, Mark Manson in his ‘No-bullsh*t’ bestseller coined ‘The subtle art of not giving a f*ck’ shared some deep truths about life and happiness.
Mark gets that life has become overwhelming and the only way to ‘find our centre around the things that really matter to us’ is to work out exactly what to give a f*ck about and ignore the rest.
Let’s look at some of the facts he shared:
- The only way to get ahead in life is to find something worth struggling for. Focus on the important things that make you happy and don’t give a f*ck about everything else.
- Not giving a f*ck about everything else means giving a f*ck about something.
- Take full responsibility; accept your mistakes and insecurities if you want to see positive change.
- Don’t chase sh*tty values, instead, identify values worth living by.
These good values should:
- Be based on reality
- Be helpful to society
- Have an immediate and controllable effect
We try to do too much in life and this leads to stress and unhappiness. You must learn to stop “giving a f**k” about the things that are causing you pain. Choose what it is you really want to care about and develop a more constructive approach to work, love, and life itself.
Dr Steve Peters, one of the most famous sports psychologists, used a simple analogy to help you in controlling your emotions to live a better life. Whether in communicating with others, making a decision, or in your health and happiness.
In this interesting piece, Dr Peters explained that the human brain is divided into two major parts: the human part (our prefrontal cortex that acts rationally, based on facts) and the chimp part (our limbic system that decides based on emotions). Any of the two can take control of the human at any time, which, as you can imagine, leads to problems when these two clash or the wrong part is in charge.
As a result of this, there are four modes of communication between two humans:
- You’re using your human brain and so is your conversation partner.
- You are in human mode, but the person you’re talking to behaves like a chimp.
- You’re the chimp, while the other person’s human is in charge.
- Both of you are using the chimp brain.
Dr Peters advises on the strategies that can help to keep the human and chimp mind working in harmony, and further explains how to observe your state of mind in order to master the disruptive nature of your inner chimp.
Being able to understand ourselves in this way is key in terms of how you want to communicate with others. Understanding that you cannot control how others think and feel, helps us to further understand the best way to get on with each other compassionately, which leads to better more fulfilling relationships.
According to the author, Kamal Ravikant, when you love yourself, life loves you back!
Ravikant, details his own struggles and states he had wasted so much of his life paralysed by misery because of his mind. He spent days laying on his bed feeling miserable day-in, day-out; ignoring his emotions. One day he reached his breaking point, he wasn’t able to take it anymore, he was done with his misery, pain, negative attitudes and decided to overcome this behaviour.
He climbed out of his bed and wrote in his diary a vow to himself that he will start loving himself truly and deeply. He promised himself that he would love himself in his actions, his thoughts, choices he makes and the experiences he will have. That written note changed Ravikant’s life forever.
He shared three important action practices:
⦁ He started a mental loop to promote self-love
⦁ A meditation to feel and cement self-love
⦁ A key regular question to ask yourself to promote self-love
These practices (and more) helped him return to self-love and giving, and it can help you too! In his own words: “Fall in love with yourself. Let your love express itself and the world will beat a path to your door to fall in love with you.”
We spend an astounding 43% of our day doing things without thinking about them. That means about half of our actions are done unconsciously-by habit. The way we eat, drink, respond to people, conduct ourselves in a meeting; are all the result of our non-conscious mind, nudging our body to act along with learned behaviours. And yet, whenever we want to change something about ourselves, we rely on willpower, hoping that with enough determination it will help us change; that’s why a lot of us fail at it.
Wendy Wood, in her deeply practical book “Good Habits, Bad Habits”, draws on three decades of original research to explain the fascinating science of how we form habits and offers the key to unlocking our habitual mind in order to make the changes we seek to make our lives more pleasurable.
This is not just a book, it’s an inspiring story of hope! One of the landmark ecological books of the decade and Sunday Times ‘Book of the year’, “Wilding” is a passionately personal and uplifting book. It is an astonishing account of the beauty and strength of nature when it is given enough freedom.
The book describes an attempt to renew the ecosystem, after decades of intensive agriculture of some 1,400 hectares owned by Isabella Tree’s husband, Charlie Burrell, at Knepp in West Sussex. The pioneering rewilding project, tagged ‘the Knepp experiment’ saw Isabella and her husband go through a legion of doubts, obstruction and delay to transform a glorious “mess” into a habitat for wildlife.
At a point where all hope seemed to be lost, they took a leap of faith and simply ‘gave-back’ the clay land to nature and allowed her to do the healing- something that resulted in a miracle.
From the moment we’re born, society makes us conform to its rules, thereby preventing us from realising our true selves. But it’s possible to break free by replacing them with four key principles, And when you do so, you’ll experience happiness and live a more fulfilled life.
Don Miguel Ruiz, a Mexican surgeon, and author studied the ancient cultures of the Aztecs and Toltecs (modern-day Mexico) and found some key principles by which they lived which enabled them to enjoy a life of freedom. He shared these ideas in his bestselling piece titled ‘The Four Agreements’, the four principles which are:
- Be impeccable with your word. Don’t use your words to judge yourself or anyone else. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Use the power of your words in the direction of truth and love.
- Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you, instead, it’s a reflection of who they really are.
- Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as possible to avoid misunderstanding and drama.
- Always do your best. Do your best under any circumstances to avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.
These key principles, if you apply them properly, will completely transform your whole life and help you to get the best out it.