BOOKS THAT HELP YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR EMOTIONS
I’m a guy who took no English or writing classes in college and only one psychology class and now I’m writing self-help books on emotions (Emotional Equations comes out in January 2012 and PEAK came out in 2007). So, my process of learning about emotions and psychology has been self-taught over the past few years plus I’ve been lucky enough to have a laboratory with a company of more than 3,000 employees and almost 60 different business units. So, I’ve been able to test things in one place and see whether that odd idea is a best or worst practice.
In preparation for writing Emotional Equations, I dove into the deep end of the academic pool reading hundreds of psychological studies and books on everything from anxiety to the difference between happiness and joy to Charles Darwin’s theory on the origin of emotions. Here’s a list of my top twenty book recommendations for anyone who wants to go “swimming” with me (I have put an asterisk * next to my favorite in each category and I haven’t included Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning since it’s not primarily about emotions):
HAPPINESS/CONTENTMENT
- Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life (Dacher Keltner)
- Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth (Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener)
- Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strengths of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity and Thrive (Barbara Fredrickson)
- Stumbling on Happiness (Daniel Gilbert)
- The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (Jonathan Haidt)
- The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want (Sonja Lyubomirsky) *
NEUROSCIENCE/EMOTION THEORY
- Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom (Rick Hanson with Richard Mendius)
- Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (Antonio Damasio)
- Emotions and Life: Perspectives from Psychology, Biology, and Evolution (Robert Plutchik)
- The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life (Joseph LeDoux) *
- What is Emotion? (Jerome Kagan)
UNCONVENTIONAL BRAIN/EMOTION SCIENCE
- Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine (Candace Pert) *
- The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles (Bruce Lipton)
- The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion: How Feelings Link the Brain, the Body, and the Sixth Sense (Michael Jawer and Marc Micozzi)
- The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits (Gregg Braden)
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF EMOTION THEORY
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (Dan Ariely)
- The Art of Choosing (Sheena Iyengar)
- The Emotional Hostage: Rescuing Your Emotional Life (Leslie Cameron-Bandler and Michael Lebeau)
- The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less (Barry Schwartz)
- The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement (David Brooks) *