The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness – with Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn

Although contemporary western society has come a long way towards recognizing depression as an actual condition, and a rather serious one at that, western medicine has been focused almost exclusively on pharmacological treatments, or, in layman’s terms, selling us various brands of happy pills.

In The Mindful Way through Depression an international team of experts come together to tackle depression with a whole new approach, combining the best and most up-to-date information from the field of cognitive science research with oriental meditation techniques. The result is a revolutionary set of practical methods to deal with ones own depression directly, using the illimitable power of the human mind.

Not only is this book essential reading for sufferers of depression, this is the type of book that anyone can read and come away with a fresh viewpoint and new mental skills to help vastly improve the quality of their daily lives.

The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Anxious and What You Can Do to Change It by Margaret Wehrenberg

Anxiety is a condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Often linked to depression, anxiety conditions take different forms such as panic attack anxiety, social anxiety and general anxiety. The symptoms and severity of anxiety can vary quite dramatically, from a simple “butterflies in the stomach” type feeling to more extreme cases where the psychological and physiological symptoms are so intense that life can become unbearable.

Over the past few decades the pharmaceutical industry has seen unprecedented growth, largely due to the increase in usage of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication. Critics within the medical profession have been quick to voice concern that such medications merely dampen down the symptoms and to truly tackle anxiety conditions it is important to find the root cause.

This book sets out to do just that by bringing all the latest developments in the fields of psychology and neurology to bear. Margaret Wehrenberg first sets out to classify the different types of anxiety. She does this in a manner that states the facts but presents them in a simple, non-patronizing way that is a joy to read.

Next come the management techniques themselves. Some tips are quite simple, for example just cutting out coffee and other caffeine drinks can work wonders. Others take a little practice, but all have been proven to be highly effective as countless readers and reviewers can testify. (Check out its consistent high ratings on Amazon.)

The brain is without a doubt the most remarkable and resilient organ in the human body, all it takes is a little retraining. For sufferers of anxiety, therefore, it’s important to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and anxiety isn’t something you have to live with, it’s something you can deal with.

So if you’re tired of the pills and want to get in control of your anxiety once and for all this book is the silver bullet

Stressed?

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a textbook on stress management?
Well there is.

Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Wellbeing isn’t just recommended reading, it’s required reading for thousands of students studying to work in various fields from the psychology, psychiatry and mental health sector to those working in the health and wellness industry.

The book is well researched and covers quite a lot of ground, the various causes of stress, the different types of stress and, of course, how to handle them. It is, quite literally, THE textbook on stress and stress management.

This one of the most important books of the Twentieth Century for various reasons. Firstly, its contribution to the fields of psychiatry and psychology, not to mention philosophy, have been immense.

All the more remarkable, however, are the circumstances as to how the book came about and the story of Frankl himself, which is, in itself, highly inspirational.

Frankl was a Holocaust survivor and a first-hand eye-witness to the evils of Nazism. Imprisoned in concentration camps, including the notorious camp at Auschwitz, the experience, harrowing thought it was, was instrumental in the formulation of his theories.

These theories were nothing short of revolutionary and in stark contrast to those of the psychiatric community at the time. Freud had claimed that man’s primary driving force was sex, and that this drive permeated every action or task he performed. His nephew, Edward Bernays, took that idea even further, claiming that men were wild, irrational creatures with dangerous urges that needed to be controlled at all costs. Bernays is best known as the father of advertising and public relations. And his solution to keeping mankind docile was to pander to their wild urges by selling them life-affirming products.

Frankl, on the other hand, stated that what truly motivates mankind is not sex or uncontrollable animal instincts, but the search for meaning in their lives. What gives this book such nobility and poignancy is how Frankl juxtaposes that search for meaning against the background of meaningless slaughter. By drawing our attention to this apparent paradox, Frankl manages to make his case all the more compelling. After all, when faced with such horror and atrocities on a daily basis, what could possibly weigh heavier on a man’s mind than the simple question, why?

If you want advice on health, you can talk to a doctor, if you want financial advice, you talk to your accountant or broker.

But what if you want advice on simply being happy?
Well that’s an easy one – you talk to the Dali Lama.

Ok, so maybe he’s not the easiest guy to get an appointment with, sure he’s an easy-going guy, but a very busy one at that. So, if you can’t actually sit down with the Dali Lama and have a chat, this is the next best thing.

The book is basically a series of questions posed by psychiatrist Howard Cutler to the Dali Lama himself – surely the most potent example of East meets West if ever there was one. Cutler, who asks the questions, is representative of the west and western ideals such as the principals of scientific method, as compared with the Dali Lama’s more mystical and theistic worldview.

The Art of Happiness is, first and foremost, an excellent introduction to Buddhist teachings as well as the personal philosophies of the Dali Lama himself, surely one of the most intriguing and endearing personalities of our age.

The true brilliance of this book, however, is how it manages to turn philosophy into practicality. Which is why it managed to blow the minds of even the most cynically-minded critics. It starts of somewhat simple, but gains momentum with each page. What results is an incredible blueprint for living, a reference guide to dealing with every form of suffering or negativity, from jealousy and greed, to fear, anxiety, depression or grief over the loss of a loved one.

In addition to advice on dealing with pain and stress, the Dali Lama also has plenty of advice and guidance on everyday living and how we can become better people each day. Whilst those of us seeking some answers to some of the deeper questions of existence – such as why are we here? Why do we suffer? What’s it all mean? – will also have plenty of things to think about, and talk about, after reading this brilliant book.