Book recommendations

Practical philosophy

 

 

Marcus Aurelius, despite being the emperor of Rome and facing many adversities, remained humble throughout his life. He left his thoughts behind in this book. In it, he is advising himself on how to live in the world, how to cope with adversity and how to interact with others. The book remains as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago.	I don’t look at this book from a religious but purely philosophical standpoint. I first read it when I was 17 years old and it was one of my core guiding philosophies since then. It’s such an astoundingly simple approach to life yet it’s not an easy one. This book can serve you as a guide or a source of inspiration to develop a beginner’s mind.	We often rely on some external source to tell us what we should be like or how we should act. We are too lazy to figure things out for ourselves. We are satisfied with easy answers instead of asking ourself difficult questions. This book will help you understand how you can develop yourself into a true human being which you were meant to be.

Mental training

 

 

This book expands the meaning of mindfulness and meditation well beyond a formal practice. It’s about mindfulness in our everyday life. Concepts are explained very simply and clearly but I especially like how the author connects everything to nature. Practices like mountain or lake meditation will not just bring you closer to nature but also to yourself.	This book represents a bridge between ancient eastern wisdom and modern western knowledge. In the past few decades, western science has confirmed many effective mental techniques that have been practiced for the last few thousand years in the east. With this book, you will gain a deeper understanding of your own mind.	This book offers a tested eight-week long mental training plan. If you are one of those people who like a straightforward plan to stick to then this book is for you. Every week you will be doing something different and you will change routines in order to keep awareness high. Do not underestimate the simple yet powerful daily practices.

Physical training

 

 

If you are thinking about starting to strength train/lift weights (as you should if you don’t do it already) this is a book, to begin with. It’s a book I have started with more than a decade ago and I am glad I did. Starting strength gives a detailed look at the basic things you need to learn and be aware of before and when you start with strength training.	Do you sit a lot or do you just move like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz? Stretching is not always the answer but if it is this book will definitely help. It’s just as valuable as it was more than 30 years ago when it first came out. Inside you will find stretching routines specific to a variety of athletes as well as the general population.	Falling forward and landing on the balls of your feet are common practices among runners today. But it wasn’t so decades ago when shoes with thick soles were regarded as “the best”. If you are thinking of starting an endurance base training or just learning how to run most efficiently without accumulating injuries then listen to what dr. Nicholas Romanov has to say.

Mind-body

 

 

Breathing is something we take for granted nowdays that is why we have so many breathing related health problems. If you just want to survive breathe however you like, but if you want to thrive read this book and apply techniques that have existed for thousands of years.	Trauma is much more common that we think. This is a go-to book if you want understand trauma and how it affects the mind and body. It also offers many inovative treatments to recover from trauma such as: neurofeedback, meditation, role playing, sports and yoga.
Read this book only if you consider yourself an open-minded person. Osho was a controversial figure during his lifetime and so was tantra throughout history. But you can benefit from this books greatly because it’s wisdom is enormously wide and deep.	Yoga is often reduced in the west to stretching exercises but it is so much deeper than that. This guide will teach you how you can approach bodily yoga postures systematically, develop a program tailored to your needs and abilities and get in touch with your body.

Psychology

 

 

I believe life has a meaning whether we see it or sense it or we don’t. Sometimes when we are cut off from our inner self it is very hard for us to sense what that meaning is. Frankl’s book is legendary among psychological books. He is one of the rare people in his field that has truly walk the talk and that is just one more point why this book is a must-read.	If you want to live a happier and more fulfilling life than this book is for you. In it, Csikszentmihalyi talks about the “optimal experience”. A state in which people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement with life. The book teaches us how we can make this expericences longer lasting and more frequent.	Were you deemed as not smart in school? Who cares? School is not a predictor of success in life by any measure. School is a closed and controlled environment which is the exact opposite of real life. Want to know what it takes to be the “new” smart? Read this book. The best thing is that the emotional intelligence can be taught even later in life.
Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” And how true that is. Habits are such an enormously powerful way of doing things. Most of the success and failure in life start with habits. This book will tell you how to learn, unlearn and relearn habits. It’s not as hard as you would think if you really want change.	Very interesting and useful book from the first to the last page on the psychology of persuasion. Has it ever happened that you bought something you didn’t want or need and were angry at yourself afterward? Why are those pushy salespeople, pesky commercials and everywhere adds so effective at influencing us? Read the book and find out.

Food and nutrition

 

 

If you are looking for a good book in the field of nutrition to start with I would recommend the one below. It is very well researched, unbiased and delivers a lot more than the title implies. It will uncover much of the nutritional history, teach you how to apply reason to the field of nutrition and give you a great perspective on the relationship of different food types.	This book describes in great detail to what our bodies have adopted throughout history, what kind of food our bodies really need to function at their best and with what kind of food we harm our genes in a way felt by generations to come. The four nutritional strategies—fresh food, fermented and sprouted foods, meat cooked on the bone, and organ meats—form the basis of what Dr. Cate calls “The Human Diet.”	The author learns how to grill, cook, bake, ferment and in the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook is standing squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the process, is the cook. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life.
We’we been destroying the nutritional value of their fruits and vegetables for more than 10.000 years. We’ve been selecting plants that are high in starch and sugar and low in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. This book reveals the solution – choosing older varieties that also please the modern palate.	Can the size of your plate really influence your appetite? Why do you eat more when you dine with friends? What “hidden persuaders” are used by restaurants and supermarkets to get us to overeat? The author expands our awareness of how much, what, and why we’re eating—often without realizing it. With this book you will be able to make more enjoyable and healthy choices at the dinner table.	Taste is learned not inherited. The author draws on the latest research to reveal that our food habits are shaped by a host of factors: family, culture, memory, hunger and love. She presents many individuals where their food repertoire changed because of smell and taste-related illnesses. The book also teaches us how we can change our palates to increase the range of food we can eat.