The Four Agreements shows how to love yourself more, not take things personally, and heal your relationships. Don Miguel Ruiz shares wisdom from the indigenous Mexican Toltec culture to help us stop living in this false "dream" of social rules, expectations and judgments.
Meditations shows how to become more self disciplined, stop caring what people think, and withstand life's emotional storms. Marcus Aurelius was a powerful Roman emperor and great Stoic philosopher. He wrote down all these thoughts in a private journal to himself.
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching introduces the most essential Buddhist ideas in a way even secular people can easily digest. These ideas include The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path. Thich Nhat Hanh explains how Buddhism is in its essence a pragmatic approach to ending personal suffering.
Nonviolent Communication shows us how to have healthy relationships through openly and honestly communicating our observations, feelings, needs and requests. This book can help us move past dysfunctional communication habits we learned growing up including guilt tripping, being passive aggressive, blaming, labelling and judging others as good or bad.
Maps of Meaning says that myths have a tremendous unseen value. They laid the foundation for large, stable and successful civilizations that lasted thousands of years. Myths also provide time-tested wisdom to help us eradicate evil in the social world, and move past unpredictable catastrophes in our personal lives.
Behave explains why humans behave the way we do. Sapolsky breaks down complex science into enjoyable explanations, beginning at the level of our brains, then diving into hormones, genes, evolution and even culture and history. By the end, you'll be questioning many long-held assumptions about how much we control ourselves.
Food of the Gods says psilocybin mushrooms were responsible for the unusually fast evolutionary growth of the human brain. Also it talks about how our relationships to psychoactive plants (including caffeine, sugar and alcohol) shaped human cultures. Finally, how we may restore personal, social and ecological balance in the world.
Man's Search for Meaning was written after Viktor Frankl survived the concentration camps of WW2. He noticed that his fellow prisoners who could find purpose and meaning in their suffering found the strength to survive, while others perished. This book is also a guide to finding meaning in your life.
The True Believer was written over 60 years ago, but it is still frighteningly relevant and accurate today. From Christianity to National Socialism, Eric Hoffer shows how all mass movements are similar. People join movements because of personal feelings of inadequacy or failure, to escape their seemingly powerless individual self.
