The Best Books On Happiness

We all want to be happy, but what is happiness and how is it achieved? Is happiness subjective? What makes me happy, may not may you happy and vice versa. Defining happiness is tricky business, so writing a whole book on the topic must be even harder! Although there have been many books published on the subject, as always – I want to zoom in on the best books on happiness. Some of the books that have made this list are a study of happiness – and what it means to be happy; whereas others are more practical guides to try and achieve happiness in your life. Hopefully, this list of the best books on happiness will have something for everyone. Before we discover the best books on happiness, we must first meet that panel of experts…

Neil Pasricha

Neil Pasricha is the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Equation and serves as the Director of the Institute for Global Happiness after a decade running leadership development inside Walmart. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on happiness and positivity. Neil Pasricha is also the NY Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation.

Meik Wiking

Meik Wiking is the CEO of The Happiness Research Institute. He is a Research Associate for Denmark at the World Database of Happiness, member of the policy advisory group for the Global Happiness Policy Report. Meik is a New York Times best-selling author and has written several books including The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living. His books have sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

Emma Seppälä

Emma Seppälä PhD is Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and the author of The Happiness Track. She is Co-Director of the Yale College Emotional Intelligence Project at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Faculty Director of their Women’s Leadership Program. She consults with Fortune 500 leaders and employees on building a positive organization.

Robert McGrath

Robert E. McGrath, PhD is Professor of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has published extensively on the topic of character and virtue. He has collaborated with psychologists, philosophers, and educators on the essential elements of character and how to encourage its development. He is also the author of The Power of Character Strengths.

Now, let’s discover the best books on happiness…

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1.

10% Happier

by Dan Harris

Emma Seppälä:

Thousands of studies now show that meditation can help make us be more emotionally intelligent by reducing our negative emotions and helping us make better decisions. Popular Good Morning America anchor Dan Harris (also a #1 New York Times bestselling author) just released a brand new book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, making meditation practical, accessible and highly entertaining (Dan is hilarious!). Download a meditation app onto your phone like Dan’s 10% Happier app or the Sattva app.

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The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn’t, What Shouldn’t Make You Happy, but Does by Sonja Lyubomirsky

Robert McGrath:

So many people look for happiness in the wrong places. This book does a nice job of confronting the myth of happiness as coming from the pursuit of pleasure and security and instead encourages us to stretch ourselves and to change our thinking. It’s a great message, that challenge and struggle are a part of the path to happiness.

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2.

The War of Art

by Steven Pressfield

Neil Pasricha:

So many happiness books are about positive psychology. This study says this. That study says that. Blah, blah, blah. But we already know that having a deep purpose, and working towards that purpose, really creates happiness. So: how do we get there? The War of Art demystifies and moves “resistance” to achieving our full artistic potential. I turn to it to get back on my happiness paths.

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Meik Wiking:

The World Happiness Reports provide the most comprehensive comparison of subjective well-being levels within and between most countries in the world. This sequence of reports has been published since 2012, utilizing 10 years of data on subjective well-being.

The reason for why I nominate these reports is due to its applied methodology as well as the relevance of the findings. The reports find that there are 6 key-variables of subjective well-being (income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity), which we, at the Happiness Research Institute, also utilize in our research. Moreover, the overall findings and yearly developments of happiness between countries and regions are relevant for policy-makers to guide their decision-making.

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Happiness: Essential Mindfulness Practices by Thich Nhat Hanh

Robert McGrath:

Most books on happiness are of two types. Some talk about how the author got happier. Interesting and often fun to ride, but not really specific to what the reader should do. Another type deals with happiness as a topic. The author talks about what happiness is, how to get it in the abstract. Thich Nhat Hanh’s book is distinctive in that it offers practices potentially helpful to anyone. Some people might be

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Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection by Sharon Salzberg

Emma Seppälä:

Real Love: Most of us want loving relationships yet we’ve never stopped to consider what love really means. Sharon Salzberg is a love expert. Not just romantic love but love in its broader sense. Love for others, compassion, kindness, self-love, romantic love…she has spent her life exploring this deep and multi-faceted topic and has educated thousands through her sold-out classes. Her latest book, Real Love, is a beautiful and deeply inspiring ode to love and how to make it grow in our lives.

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A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

Neil Pasricha:

What is a first-time Australian novelist’s Man Booker-nominated magnum opus doing on my list? Well, it’s the funniest novel I have ever read. Do you believe laughter is the best medicine? I do. A great novel that makes you cackle, tear up, and push your mind in a million directions? Makes me happier.

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The Little Book of Lykke of Meik Wiking

Meik Wiking:

The Little Book of Lykke explores why some people are happier than others. It investigates how we spend our precious time, how we relate to our neighbours and provides tips and stories on how we can improve our happiness levels in our daily life.

The reason for why I nominate this book is because it provides an easy-to-digest introduction to happiness research to a broad audience. It reviews the basic and most fundamental key drivers of happiness and gives concrete tips on how to improve our well-being.

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3.

The Happiness Track

by Emma Seppälä

Emma Seppälä:

Everyone wants to be happy and successful. And yet the pursuit of both has never been more elusive. As work and personal demands rise, we try to keep up by juggling everything better, moving faster, and doing more. While we might succeed in the short term, it comes at a cost to our well-being, relationships, and, paradoxically, our productivity. In The Happiness Track, Emma Seppälä, the science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, explains that our inability to achieve sustainable fulfilment is tied to common but outdated notions about success. We are taught that getting ahead means doing everything that’s thrown at us (and then some) with razor-sharp focus and iron discipline; that success depends on our drive and talents, and that achievement cannot happen without stress. The Happiness Track demolishes these counter-productive theories. Drawing on the latest findings from the fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience—research on happiness, resilience, willpower, compassion, positive stress, creativity, mindfulness—Seppala shows that finding happiness and fulfilment may, in fact, be the most productive thing we can do to thrive professionally. Filled with practical advice on how to apply these scientific findings to our daily lives, The Happiness Track is a life-changing guide to fast-tracking our success and creating the anxiety-free life we want.

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Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being by Martin E.P. Seligman

Robert McGrath:

Where Thich Nhat Hanh’s book focuses on the practical pursuit of happiness, this book is all about what happiness means. It describes a way of thinking about happiness that has had a tremendous impact on how to think about happiness and well-being really mean. It provides a great starting point for rethinking what it means to be happy.

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4.

Happiness: A History

by Darrin McMahon

Meik Wiking:

“Throughout history, happiness has been equated regularly with the highest human calling, the most perfect human state. Yet it’s only within the past two hundred years that human beings have begun to think of happiness as not just an earthly possibility but also as an earthly entitlement, even an obligation. In this sweeping book, historian Darrin M. McMahon argues that our modern belief in happiness is the product of a dramatic revolution in human expectations carried out since the eighteenth century.”

The reason why I nominate this book is because this book offers an in-depth explanation of how happiness has shaped history and the other way around. The book is solidly written and covers the extensive story of how happiness and happiness research has developed over time.

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The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

Neil Pasricha:

Ten years ago I had a really, really, really bad years. My wife left me and my best friend took his own life. I wrote one awesome thing every single day for 1000 straight days on my blog. Things like Old, dangerous playground equipment, getting called up to the dinner buffet first at a wedding and wearing warm underwear from just out of the dryer. The Book of Awesome is a 400-page collection of the highlights from the blog. (Here’s the blog for free too: www.1000awesomethings.com)

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What do you think are the best books on happiness? Let us know which books you’d nominate as the best books on happiness, on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoyed this, don’t miss our recent reading list, The Best Books on Mindfulness.