The best wellbeing books that will make you feel happier and help you live longer

I think Dan Harris’s book is an excellent introduction to meditation, which is a game-changer on one’s path to happiness. It was the first thing I got on board with when I started seeking ways to manage my wellbeing better.

Plus, being in the entertainment industry, I enjoyed the peek into his life as a journalist and news anchor. I so identified with his stories about the demand and stress of television production. It was realizing that these factors in my own world were not sustainable and became the catalyst for my inner journey.

Today, life is 180 degrees different. I feel much happier and more content and want to share what worked for me with other seekers.

Marci Shimoff’s book was my first happiness book on my inner journey. Reading it excited and inspired me and it now sits on my bookshelf crammed with bookmarks and worn pages.

I think of Happy for No Reason as a happiness encyclopedia filled with so much usable knowledge. Marci also became my first mentor through her “Year of Miracles” online group. She is so generous with her wisdom and encouraging to others – this is a woman who walks her talk. I will forever be grateful for her initial inspiration.

Can I tell you how much I admire Dr. Rick Hanson?

This book is another one that I read early in my inner journey and one I still often refer to for its insight and wisdom on meditation, breathing, and how the brain works. While it is chock full of science, it is reader-friendly. I also took Rick’s Neurodharma training, some of the most useful training I have received as a "TV producer turned wellbeing teacher" and now author.

As you would expect from any esteemed academic, he thoughtfully laid out his book, offering good summaries of key points at the end of each chapter – along with exercises and meditations to try throughout the book. If you like the wellbeing science stuff, this is a worthwhile read. 

This book is another one that sits on my shelf as a reference book.

Its author is a leading happiness researcher in the wellbeing world, known for her research defining one’s Happiness Set Point – this determines our happiness level. Fifty percent is our genetic makeup. Ten percent of our life circumstances. Forty percent are intentional activities we can do to raise our set point. The last number is especially critical in helping us to understand how much we can control our happiness.

Also, the format of Dr. Lyubomirsky’s book inspired how I formatted my book as standalone chapters that can be read in any order. Although, I took my formatting one step further, drawing from my TV experience formatting episodes.

I also use camera references for different sections in each chapter, starting with what I see in my “In My Viewfinder,” which sets up my overall thoughts on a chapter’s topic. Then, it wraps up with “The Big Picture,” where I offer journal and photo assignments to make what folks have just read more concrete.

As his students, me included, call him, Tal is a remarkable teacher. His compact book of one hundred and sixty-nine pages is filled with valuable and applicable knowledge on being happier.

He draws a lot from his young life as an athlete and into adult life as a Harvard professor, along with his wellbeing research. His book is set up in three parts: defining happiness, applying happiness, and meditations on happiness. Tal uses “time-in” to have readers stop and reflect on a question relevant to the reading material, which helps one better consider the material more thoughtfully.

The other thing about Tal as a teacher is his approach. It aligns greatly with my ideas about happiness, hence why I study his work. He, more specifically in his happiness studies program, fosters cultivating one's "wholebeing." A term I was already using when I came across his teachings. For me, happiness is three-dimensional and includes your mind, body, spirit, ergo, wholebeing.