Many people confuse “being happy” with “having fun”. “Being happy” is that comforting and engaging feeling where it is calm inside you and you are 100% satisfied with yourself and everything around you.
Fun, on the other hand, is always linked to an activity or event and triggers a chemical, most dopamine driven, reaction in your brain. Meanwhile, this reaction pushes all other thoughts, including negative ones, into the background.
It is a game you cannot win and it definitely does not lead to lasting happiness but ultimately to a burned out state of mind.
The problem? One only thinks that one is happy, but what happens when the “effect” is over and the regular thoughts make their way up again? Keep on distracting oneself? Increase the doses? It is a game you cannot win and it definitely does not lead to lasting happiness but ultimately to a burned out state of mind.
At Evano we encourage each other to be conscious more often and to question the own autopilot behavior. Providing a mental timeout to explore playfully what really makes one happy. One pillar of our community is to bring people together to exchange and share knowledge about how to create a reality one does not want to escape from.
If you want to dive deeper into this topic, we can recommend the following 6 books:
1. Thinking Fast and Slow*
Simply put, there are schemes in our head that work like an autopilot. If we would consciously think through every situation, it would be very exhausting and often not effective. This book, by Nobel Prize winner Kahneman, is full of experiments and research findings and impressively shows the limits of our brain. For example that our brain over represents negativity in a ratio of 2/3 over 1/3 to positive things. From the second part on, however, it is a bit dragging.
2. Buddhas Brain*
This book is extremely good if you want to learn more about the brain in general and how you can use this knowledge to find lasting happiness. Besides that it is ideal for people who have already progressed further in their meditation practice, because this book offers scientifically based explanations why some things are the way they are.
This book is not a course or guide to evolve in your meditation practice, but more a deep dive in to the brain and the neuroscience behind meditation, suffering, self-sabotage, well-being and mindfulness. Incredibly profound and always proven by current brain research.
In my opinion one of the best books about the brain in combination with meditation with a lot of wisdom you can immediately integrate to enhappy your daily life.
3. The Big Leap*
Why do you always come up against your personal limits? Why do some things simply not work out? This is exactly what the book is about and how you manage to uncover your inner greatness. He calls it “Upper Limit” in the book. To recognize this in your own life and to change it consciously is part of the book.
The main concept is that your environment tends to keep you in your zone of excellence, but in the zone of genius you feel the flow and ease. Spending more time in the zone of genius is the goal. Very worth reading.
4. Man’s Search For Meaning*
Fantastic book written by the founder of logotherapy. It focuses on the personal responsibility for the action. Impressively written, as this man was a prisoner in a concentration camp for 3 years and tests his theories on his own body.
The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 describes mainly his stay in Auschwitz and part 2 his explanation of logotherapy. Core statement: When someone has found his destiny in life, every hurdle can be overcome.
5. The Mind Illuminated*
It is no secret, that meditation practice plays an enormous role by developing lasting happiness . This book is perfect for people who have been meditating for several years and have the feeling of being “stuck”.
The Mind Illuminated explains exactly the stages that every practitioner goes through and it is sometimes frightening how exactly this applies! It always gives tipps how to evolve to the next stage and what obstacles are most common.
In a nutshell, if you work this book through it is the first step by step guide to enlightenment backed by up to date neuroscience publications.
6. Personality Isn’t Permanent*
Benjamin Hardy has written down a lot of familiar concepts, combined with brand new research and put them in a very round order. This book is ideal if you want to do a massive shift in your life, because it gives you the tools to do. We do not agree with his work hard and push yourself every day to your limits mindset, but beside that the book has very interesting insights.
Which books can you recommend?
*Marked links are affiliated by Amazon.
