The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts
Published on
22 Apr 2020
Published by
National Library Board
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
How does one improve one’s wellbeing and attain happiness? How does one go beyond chasing the superficial, consumerist highs? Pick the brains of the thinkers and experts in this list for tips to achieve your best life.
eBooks
The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want
Sonja Lyubomirsky
Call Number: English 158 LYU. New York: Penguin Books, 2008.
Hack your way into a happier life using these scientifically-grounded strategies based on years of research.
Borrow the eBook with the app or online.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein
Call Number: English 330.019 THA -[BIZ]. New York: Penguin Books, 2009.
People do not choose freely, even when they think they do. Circumstances, context and biases affect our decisions. Nudge teaches us how to steer away from bad decisions towards engineering better choices for ourselves and others.
Borrow the eBook with the app or online.
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Jonathan Haidt
Call Number: English 170 HAI. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Old is gold. The Happiness Hypothesis examines the world’s philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, and shows how they are still relevant in our lives today.
Borrow the eBook with the app or online.
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
Call Number: English 150.195 FRA. Boston: Beacon Press, 2019.
We’re currently living through trying times but this is not the first time the world is facing a global crisis. Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl argues that suffering cannot be avoided. However, we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Timely words indeed.
Borrow the eBook with the app or online.
The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store
Cait Flanders
Call Number: English 153.8 FLA. California: Hay House Inc, 2018.
Can less truly be more? According to the author, yes. Follow Cait Flanders on her 1-year journey to get more life out of fewer things.
Borrow the eBook with the app or online.
TED Talk Videos
1. There's More to Life Than Being Happy by Emily Esfahani Smith
Is there more to life than being happy? Happiness, as rightfully pointed out by writer Emily Esfahani Smith, comes and goes. But having meaning in life - serving something beyond yourself and developing the best within you - gives you something to hold onto in times of good and bad.
Source: There’s More to Life Than Being Happy (2017, September 26). TED.
2. The Surprising Science of Happiness by Dan Gilbert
We’re surprisingly more resilient than we think. Research shows that setbacks that we think would be traumatising tend to have less impact than we would expect, and that we are capable of being happy even when things don’t go as planned.
Source: The Surprising Science of Happiness (2012, April 27). TED.
Brought to you by National Library Board. Reproduced with permission.
Disclaimer/ Rights statement
The information in this resource guide is valid as of March 2020 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history on the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic. All Rights Reserved. National Library Board Singapore 2020.
ALL views, content, information and/or materials expressed / presented by any third party apart from Council For Third Age, belong strictly to such third party. Any such third party views, content, information and/or materials provided herein are for convenience and/or general information purposes only. Council For Third Age shall not be responsible nor liable for any injury, loss or damage whatsoever arising directly or indirectly howsoever in connection with or as a result of any person accessing or acting on any such views, content, information and/or materials. Such third party views, content, information and/or materials do not imply and shall not be construed as a representation, warranty, endorsement and/or verification by Council For Third Age in respect of such views, content, information and/or materials.
