Three Book Recommendations To Improve Happiness and the Human Experience
The goal of Evolve Performance Healthcare is to improve the Human Experience. Pain takes away from the human experience which is why we’ve focused on movement and strength to help individuals get out of pain and stay active and strong. But every now and then it’s important to remember that there is a lot more involved in how we experience the world around us.
This Thanksgiving we wanted to share three books that have shaped our routines and habits to build a better experience for ourselves.
1 . The Happiness Advantage
Introducing the concept of Positive Psychology, Shawn Achor turns the recipe for success and happiness on it’s head. The traditional approach to happiness, work hard, be more successful, and then you will be happy, isn’t working out. Recent research in the field of Positive Psychology is showing hat happiness fuels success - not the other way around - and proposes 7 principles you can use to improve success and performance at work.
Dr. Baird’s Take: An important book for those stuck in a job they may not like. This book provides ways to reshape our experiences (especially the experiences we have no control over) to build happiness and success in our work life.
2. Hardwiring Happiness
With the idea that the brain is plastic (continually growing and making new connections), Hardwiring Happiness lays out a simple method that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new neural structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace.
Dr. Baird’s Take: A really fascinating read (I’m a neuroscience nerd) that discusses how our brain in predisposed to take in bad experiences (for survival) while ignoring good experiences and gives easy ways to incorporate gratitude and happiness ‘training’ into our daily routine.
3. Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience
What is a flow experience? During a flow experience people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and total involvement with life. In Flow, Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discusses what qualities a flow experience entails and how we can incorporate those principles into our lives.
Dr. Baird’s Take: Less implementation tools than the previous books - but it’s still interesting to learn what is involved in our own, unique ‘optimal experiences’ so that we can incorporate them into our daily routine. Inspired me to restart my basketball routine and built stronger relationships with my teammates.