Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results - by James Clear

 

Well well here we meet again in yet another review of a marvellous book that is just fitting for this millennial generation and so called ‘Modern era’. It’s been a whole year since I last reviewed. I just can't get over this book until I share it with you all.

The book begins with the author’s story about how he was hit by a baseball bat and how his life has turned upside down since then. He has taken great care in bringing this book together because it is ‘complete’ in many ways. 

James explains the science of how habits work by dividing the process of building a habit into 4 simple steps: Cue, Craving, Response and Reward, where the first two belong to the Problem Phase and last two to the Solution Phase. He explains with the example 1) Cue: you walk into a dark room 2) Craving: you want to be able to see 3) Response: you flip the light switch 4) Reward: you satisfy your craving to see. 

For making a habit, he transforms these four steps into a practical framework that can be used to design good habits or eliminate bad one’s. James refers to this framework as Four laws of Behaviour Change which includes a simple set of rules - 

Steps            Good habits            Bad habits

Cue            make it obvious      make it invisible

Craving      make it attractive    make it unattractive

Response  make it easy           make it difficult

Reward      make it satisfying   make it unsatisfying

Now applying this with the above example, you will get the clear picture of how it works.

James discusses all the best ways to start and nurture a new habit by employing various methods like, habit stacking, significance of environment and designing one, temptation bundling, role of family and friends, finding causes of bad habits, taking action and not being in motion, achieving more with less efforts, priming future environment, two minute rule to stop procrastinating, one time actions to lock good habits, immediate and delayed rewards, habit tracking, recovering from habits breakdown, habit contract, role of genes and talents, reviewing habits etc. 

And that's not even the best part. For people who already have the habit of reading, it’s not as difficult to read something and apply in their lives as it is for others. So this kind man, James has done it all for you, you don’t need to make notes and then frame it up for your convenience and then start filling in it on your own. There's a summary after every chapter, there's a separate chart summarizing the core of this book for both good and bad habits. There are various templates and cheat sheets like habit scorecard, habit stacking, habit contract, applying it into business and parenting, which can all be downloaded directly from his website which he has linked in the book.

You don’t have to think about anything, no procrastination, no time constraint, no making notes and planning, Nothing, he will take none of it. Everything is meticulously made into a ready framework for you to just START. Wherever you are right now in your life, you just have to start. 

Of Course 5/5.

Karma : A Yogi's guide to crafting your destiny - By Sadhguru

 

Phew..!!! What a roller coaster read, can't seem to get over it. I feel fortunate to have the bare minimum intelligence required to read this book, nothing more just language and willingness to read, and there you go! you get to know the secrets of life. 

I'm not exaggerating, my mind is blown and yours will be too. At first you learn some facts and concepts which you'll need for later. Then you start comparing your life with what you are reading. Then, you start getting confused with paradoxes and ironies, at this point the book unsettles you by adding to your confusion and shattering your pretence personality. But by the end, you get a clear picture about karma, your life and connections. You will emerge out of the book knowing the secrets to make your life on your own. 

It is true indeed, Your life is what YOU make of it. 

To quote, "The loss of freedom is the deepest suffering for a human being". "You have the choice and the ability to be anyway you want in a given moment. that is the freedom and the curse. Most human beings are suffering their freedom". 

"Spirituality is about dynamism and stillness cohabiting within you to give you a taste of living death all the time". 

There can be two types of understanding of this book according to me: 1) One might feel so relatable exclaiming, "yes, that's exactly what I do am so damn right" and miss out on the whole point of the book. 2) One might feel A little relatable, A little offending, A little confusing as to what to think how to act and how the hell to live!, A lot mind blowing and A relief of having known all these at least now. 

In fact, at one point I just shut the book teary eyed and yelled "Then what the hell am I supposed to do, am I supposed to live at all?" Now if you ask me, I'm more calm than when I'm asleep. I now know. I may forget later, for that I have some notes or I can come back and read the full book, same thing. Now I know!

So don't wait, read it now and start building your life however the hell you want it to be. Of course 5/5.

Enlightenment Now - by Steven Pinker

 

Enlightenment Now- The case for reason, science, humanism and progress.

To begin with, the book has got nothing to do with enlightenment. Enlightenment here means the beginning of the civilisation we are currently in as per my understanding. 

So Steven has put together some mind-blowing statistics proving how our world is much better than the generations before us, defeating so many threats on human life in general. Not just the mortality rate but also the way of life, comforts and luxuries a common man has. I kind of agree because an unfortunate beggar might not have a meal but he sure has a mobile (if not a smart phone) in his pocket. It is irony that a civilisation as prosperous as ours has failed to fill all stomachs but succeeded in marketing and distributing a non-essential commodity. 

I must say I am disappointed. This book is a carefully and mindfully cut out piece from the whole story and the interpretations are complacent and self-serving. The author has purposefully chosen to look the other way and divert the attention of readers. Out of the whole the author sees and describes from a narrow point of view for example; 

1. Everything he says is only relevant for the last 500 years or so, what about the 5000+ years of history we now know? 

2. There is a hidden but implied assumption that America is the centre of the universe and the perspective of the book is limited to the west as if the rest of the world is just there somewhere, irrelevant and trying to survive. 

3. The author puts up a graph (which has a source noted) of progress in wealth which runs along the X-axis(years 1-2000) for almost two thousand years and at one point it booms straight towards the tip of Y-axis (international dollars in trillions) which means suddenly our world became wealthy and prosperous than ever in only a few 100 years. Doesn't this seem odd to you? Can it be that the measuring unit of wealth Before and After discovery of currency or Dollar (as we now know) are entirely different and are in no way comparable? The Dollar was invented in 1792 and the progress of wealth on the graph begins to spike from 1800s is that a co-incidence? Just because wealth and progress was measured differently before the invention of dollar doesn't mean there was no wealth or progress. The author must read Indian history on Vijayanagara Empire.

At this point I lost all interest in the book. I can go on discussing points such as these from rest of the book but I don't want to waste any more time even discussing this book!

Some facts and statistics are so true and factful but they are not author's own obviously. So just by including sources and mentioning the facts and charts doesn't make the whole book legible and truthful. I had a hard time finishing the book and I regret every minute of reading it. I now wonder why this book is Bill Gate's new favourite of all time!!! 

I'm giving this book a couple of stars only for the little effort it takes to collect facts and stats and combine them to give a meaning. Nothing else makes sense anyway... The book gets 2/5.

Brothers Sen Gogh by - Manik Bal

 

Brothers Sen Gogh

The story revolves around the life of two brothers, Soubhik and Sourav. Their story seems to be inspired by the legendary Van Gogh brothers, Theo and Vincent. Sourav is the younger brother and is practical unlike his brother, an idealist musician, who was pampered and inspired to be idealistic by their father. 

What I liked the most about this book is the strong based characterisation. Where you can actually understand the person, identify with and relate to. This combined with a powerful story has made the book a complete piece according to me. 

The struggles of a creative and talented artists, complexities of relationships, middle class misfortunes, inevitabilities of certain decisions in life are all cocktailed up perfectly in this musical journey of brothers who are tested time and again by their fate and society. 

The sensitivity of Soubhik’s personality touched me the most because I have read and have been attracted to read similar characters. Sourav’s knack of handling conversations, Nethra’s courage to speak the truth which most people would avoid, Indrani’s smart and caring nature, Suresh’s admiration, all of them were most relatable characters. 

I like how the story unfolds, hooks you up from beginning till end, doesn’t bore you at all at any point. Storyline is great. Sometimes makes you wonder if this is a real story because it reaches every corner of the society and brings you the unfortunate facts. 

Now I must say Prashanth was a weirdo here and the base for his character could have been made stronger like, more detail on his physical description, more depth to his personality and a few of his life incidents for his genuinity. It was hard connecting to him and upon that his weirdness. Also Soubhik’s character is a very sensitive, deep and a difficult fort to penetrate, so he could have been described further or some more insights from his perspective would have been even better. It’s a difficult category of character to build.

All in all it was an entertaining read. Book gets 4/5 

Ageless Body Timeless Mind - by Deepak Chopra

Ageless body and Timeless mind - A practical alternative to growing old!

This book is an angel to me. I say this because for me an angel means that which comes to you by itself at the right time, right place and precisely when you do not know what exactly you are looking for. My major question about life is, if you’ve read my blogs you’d know, as human species we have taken care of all the things related to survival but we are failing at taking care of disease, old-age and death. By taking care I do not mean escaping them, but just handling them as gracefully as possible. 

So this book talks about exactly the same things. It answers all possible questions that can come to you when you give a thought on it. It opens your mind about what exactly the body and mind is. I’ve always looked upto Deepak Chopra for scientific explanations for the traditional mystic solutions and he has never failed. 

He provides the two lists of paradigms in the beginning of the book and goes on to explain/prove them. The first is the old paradigms that are ingrained in our minds from generations on end about our reality, which are now old, worn out, inapplicable, and irrelevant. The second is the new paradigms list which needs immediate installation in our minds to erase the old and build our new, relevant, proper and real reality. After which we will no longer need assumptions or paradigms or any such pre-conditions of the mind. 

The book scared me when it talked about diseases and death but then it tells about that particular fear and how you can overcome it. The book gives you a lot of information about the body based on science and then you just start to float and feel as young as ever. You will gain the confidence to do anything your heart desires and find yourself much healthier than before. Once you reach the Timeless mind part of the book it blows up your mind trust me. You will see that body and mind are not different and are connected in unimaginable ways. 

I am spellbound after reading this book, there was a hint of regret for not having read this earlier but, all's well that ends well. Obvious 5/5.

Immortal Talks - Shunya (book 2)

So second book in the series Immortal talks, is as enlightening as is the first one. Book starts with a mainstream character called Anita who's life is about to change from the pit of poverty to prosperity. And parallelly Deva - Hanumanji is imparting immortal knowledge to his Mahtang disciples with help of analogies from mainstream human community. I can say that the book ends with a demo of the immortal knowledge by helping a mainstream character Sulochana over come her past traumatic events with the help of a helper-to-Gods soul called Dirgha. 

It talks about migration of soul from one character to another and from one pre-recorded scenes to another using Linga Code which helps the soul in choosing its next scene. It makes you aware of the difference between your character and your soul, and all the desires, karma and such of the character need not necessarily belong to the soul. The soul is always free to choose its karma, karma-phal and desires. 

Deva explains about the Linga Code and its absolute language, which has only two variables - Karma and Desires, using the analogy of binary language. Also the freedom of the soul in Shunya tunnels, incompleteness of the characters by definition, the invisible four mental bodies - Intelligence: Intellect: Samskara: Chitta, the unsuccessful and continuous efforts of the characters to become complete, how surrahs and assurahs take advantage of the character, and much more. 

All in all it makes a lot of sense when you are a seeker and not just a reader. I'm not saying this should be the ultimate truth, may be it is not. But unless you are open to accept and give it a try to expand your consciousness, you will never reach anywhere. 

I say at least reading, if not trying, this series is a must for everyone irrespective of one's belief or disbelief. A Sashtang Pranam to the author who writes in the name Shunya- meaning nothingness. Sharing such knowledge and not revealing identity is both a mystery and modesty. 

I'm definitely gonna re-read this series multiple times. The book gets 5/5.  

Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor.E.Frankl

 

Man's Search For meaning - Viktor.E.Frankl

The classic tribute to hope from the holocaust.

One of the finest way of conducting life and telling one's story. An amazing package for life in a book.

First part of the book is about the author's experience in the concentration camps during the World War II and how he was fortunate to survive Auschwitz. And how the manuscript of this book, which was taken away from him, was his motivation to look forward to something in the outside world after losing his family in the same hell.

Second part of the book is about Logotherapy which was developed by the author from his years of study and experience of psychoanalysis. To put it roughly here, every human looks for "a meaning" in everything, especially the desire to find meaning of life itself, which explains the title. To quote: 

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: The last of human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way".

I'm greatly motivated and transformed after reading the book. It talks to you on a deeper level. It teaches you, anything that happens in life is not under our control but how we look at it is completely relative and depends on your perspective. It is up to you to extract what meaning you want from life and the moment you hold that control with yourself, nothing that comes your way can have power over you. 

And I think it is wise to have the power of perception in our control rather than to give it to the situations and external factors. The book gets 5/5. 

Dharma - by Amish and Bhavna Roy

 

Dharma - decoding the epics for a meaningful life.

To begin with I like the style how the book unfolds. It is so relatable and reminds me of conversations between me, my Mom, Bro and Appa. We discuss everything just like Nachiket and family. 

And also some deep talks with my husband where he points out some things from our epics and I put forward my interpretations. Which then magically comesup in our life shortly after, and wow we are prepared. 

So Nachiket and his father-in-law start with what Dharma is and go on with Karma, Envy, Sacrifice, Celibacy, Pride, Humility, Loyalty and such by when his wife and mother-in-law have joined them. 

The best part is, there is character scrutiny from both Epics and Amishverse to explain the above concepts to best suit our lives in this modern version of human beings. 

When you are simply asked to do good karma or to be honest and loyal, it doesn't explain what we are supposed to do or how to behave in life. 

But when you pickup a character revered by everyone from any epic (in this case both original Epics and Amishverse) and slowly disentagle and understand their actions, intentions, choices and situations they are put in.., you get a bigger picture of their life and how else it could have been in a good way OR how they had the choices to be bad/selfish every step of the way but didn't choose them every single time. And also how ignorance and negligence played out and lead to disasters. 

Which inturn help us to look at ourselves and our life that we have built in a big picture to clearly see how I have to be in my life and the importance of being alert and diligent. 

So Dharma (both concept and this book) is similar to a manual to slide through life with as less friction as possible. 

The book gets 5/5. 

Designing The Mind by Ryan A Bush

 

How do I begin reviewing this masterpiece.? It was a roller-coaster journey into my own mind. I must say, to write so wonderfully, practically and device subtle steps to rewire our mind, the author must be no less than an enlightened. Though I think the examples given for the emotional algorithms could have been less gross and more subtle, I appreciate the systematic, organised and simple but effective approach of encouraging the readers towards designing our minds. 

The basic drill to relate to is to look at our mind as a software program.

Beginning with the idea of identifying fault in our systems and intervening to fix it, neuroplasticity of our brains, cognitive biases we fall prey to and de-biasing them, self-introspection and up to the hierarchy of our goals, regulating emotional algorithms, mediating and restructuring them, identifying the faulty algorithms, managing our desires, and finally achieving self-mastery. I can see how the author has put up a perfect cocktail, if I can call it that, with a personal touch. 

Ryan says that the inability to control one’s emotions is considered normal and hence the belief- "emotions cannot be controlled". He also says that some of the biases that we inevitably fall prey to, are bound to manifest in one’s emotional life in the form of Negative Automatic Thoughts which then in turn become our Habitual Interpretation- the cognitive catalyst for our emotional reactions. 

In simple terms, judgements or conclusions or pre-conceived notions which are readily available in our conscious mind without having to put any effort to give-a-thought-on any given stimulus. 

But on the flip-side, we are given the gift of RE-INTERPRETATION after an experience of negative emotion. Which according to the author is an opportunity where we can rewire our faulty algorithms.

To quote him, “We choose irrational interpretations and we do it because it feels good” for example victimhood, where he also gives a fair warning, “You teach yourself what is important to you through your behaviours, so behave wisely”.

It reminds me of eastern spirituality when he talks about managing desires so as to make them work towards our goal and says, “You can learn to desire for the present to be exactly as it is while desiring for the future to be different”. And of enlightenment when he talks about Equanimity, to quote, “A state of undisturbed tranquillity and psychological stability”. 

And so, I call this a perfect cocktail, fused with teachings of both western life coaches and eastern Gurus and with a personal touch of showing us the Big-Picture in an organised frame, also not to forget, the know-how of rewiring our mind. 

“You can only be as happy as your mind is programmed to be” but the good news is You are the architect!

The book gets 5/5.

Indian Super Foods - by Rujuta Diwekar

Change the way you eat.

An enlightening book. I realized the way to stay fit is to eat what your body knows and wants and not your mouths and brain tells you to. I was very insecure of my inability to adapt to the ancient-made-modern healthy foods like millets instead of rice or cereals/oats instead of breakfast and many more. Sometimes I would wonder if there is anything on earth fit for human consumption anymore!

But that is the ‘fear’ the so called scientific research and social pressure implants in you. Fear is not real, modern eating need not be real for you. Rice is my soul food, I can’t survive without it probably, because that is what I have been eating since 26 years yet hale and healthy. 

Not just rice, Rujuta talks about ghee, kokum, banana, cashew, ambadi, coconut, aliv, jackfruit and sugar. 

To summarize, eat your gene food- which you have been eating since birth, eat a complete meal- consisting carbs-proteins-fat-nutrients etc, workout regularly- need not be high intensity but regular and normal, eat local grown fruits and veggies, more the distance and time between farm and your mouth- more the loss of nutrients from foods, chuck crash diets, make food a lifestyle more than a diet of short term and many many more.  

Oh you must read the book, you will change the way you eat. And just to make sure you get full knowledge of what she is saying, also read her another book ‘don’t lose your mind, lose your weight’. Or there is a chance of misunderstanding. 

Don’t look at me like that… I’m not on any fitness goals. I like to read that is all! ;)

So happy reading and happy eating! 

The book gets 5/5.

The Tao Of Physics - by Fritjof Capra

 

An exploration of the parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism

I must say this book is a bridge between the Mystic so-called “fairy tale” religious world and the Modern Scientific world. Because in this book you will understand various things but in two entirely different approaches of the same language. 

Fritjof Capra contradicts himself while speaking about language barriers and drawbacks, where language falls short of words to explain one’s experience or findings, but surprisingly the author himself has written the whole book about something that can’t be well expressed in an outstandingly understandable way. 

Though physics is not my territory, my understanding of physics in the book was like a bubble. I understood what he explained and also experienced the spontaneous short-term awareness when he mentions the parallels of the same in eastern mysticism. But now if you ask me the physics part I’m equal to illiterate. I don’t remember but I have the experience part with me forever. 

Towards the end of reading the book, there was one thing staring right in my face when reading the parallels part, like I had two columns drawn in my mind and went on filling them with similarities and distinctions between P and EM. Though there were not many distinctions mentioned by the author, there was one somewhere in the corner of my mind unclear and hard to point out. So I went back to the beginning of the book and glanced at it again.  

Now it became clear, a very simple and subtle distinction. Physics is trying to ‘know about’ something and Eastern mysticism is ‘about knowing’ something. Though it looks simple, it is very subtle. You may know a hell lot about something and still not know even a bit of it. That is the difference and that is exactly why you will find even a 100 types of mysticism will repeat the same things again and again. And physics keeps evolving and changing continuously but doesn't reach there. 

If you go on dividing something with an intention to find an indivisible thing at the core, you will never reach there because even if you find something, you will divide it further according to the categories held in your perception. This intellect of ours is good only when there is a threat to our better-survival not when we are aspiring to psychologically evolve further and reach higher conscious states. 

This is just my personal opinion, I can be absolutely wrong. But as they say there’s only one way to find out. 

I had a great time reading and learning from this book and also surprised by subtle parallels.

The book gets 5/5.

The Power of NOW - by Eckhart Tolle

One heck of a book I have ever read! It covers most of the things like enlightenment, pain, fear, time, death, happiness, relationships, root cause of problems and most importantly how you can work towards enlightenment while you live in the Now, not one fine day, but right NOW!

He begins by reminding us that Enlightenment cannot be expressed by explaining what it is. It can only be expressed by ruling out what it is not! And as to enlightenment what it is.. You have to arrive at it. To quote Eckhart Enlightenment is “The knowing of which the mind knows nothing”.

The problems of the mind cannot be solved on the level of the mind. The mind can never find a solution, nor can it afford to allow you to find the solutions, because it is itself an intrinsic part of the ‘problem’. Pain is something that you create in the Now and that lives on in the mind and body! As for Ego- to be wrong is to die!

Death is stripping away, of all that is not you. The secret of life is to ‘die before you die’ and find that there is no death. 

Similar to this is what I learned about death from J Krishnamurthy.

I have re-told a few wonderful lines from the book. My intention was to show how deep this book can reach you. Even if enlightenment is not what you seek, this book can tell you things that make your everyday beautiful and filled with happiness. 

If not enlightened, we will at least be aware!

The book gets 5/5.

Death An inside story - by Sadhguru

 A book for all those who shall die!

I can't even dare to review this book. All this time death was an unknown territory for humanity in general. But if you are willing to, even death can happen consciously! 

I'm in awe after reading it. So many of my questions answered and many new ones popped up. Beginning with what death is to the riddle of incarnations, as always Sadhguru blew my mind.

Surprisingly death is not something that happens in a few moments only, it is a whole process in itself and doesn't happen within a minute. He addresses the qualities/types of death like natural, suicide, samadhi etc with great depth also if there is a way to hack death.

If you don't shy away from it, you will learn how to prepare for death, how you can assist someone who is dying, how you can assist someone who is already dead, life of a ghost and mainly grief and mourning. You will know most of the things that actually happens when death happens. 

Most importantly, while learning about death, you will know how to live better and take care of birth and life. What I'm saying seems vague but he speaks in great detail and about an unexplored dimension. You can choose to not believe him but same thing. We do not know it and also not know about it, so believing and not believing fall under same court. 

But if you consider and work towards it, because anyway death is certain, there is a chance you will be prepared when the time comes. Anyway you haven't got anything to loose, by not trying you are not living forever! 

The book gets 5/5.

Thinking Fast and Slow - by Daniel Kahneman

 

Daniel introduces you to 2 most important people in your mind. He calls them System 1 and System 2. After reading this book, I can’t help but always recognize my thoughts and categorize them into the above two. It’s wonderful how you can stand aside and look at how your mind is working or thinking, even better, influence your own mind. 

Out of the 2 agents, System 1 is responsible for quick thinking, immediate response and involuntary thinking like day dreaming, it doesn’t require much effort does it? Whereas System 2 is responsible for thinking slow, giving out thought over response and voluntarily thinking like we do in exam hall.

Think like this, you have an invisible friend hanging around you always, who is a powerhouse of knowledge and various other talents but because of the heavy capacity he is always tired, lazy and drowsy. So in day to day activities, when you come across simple jobs, you do it on your own without consulting your friend. But when things get serious or say some important issues come up, then you will wake your friend up, ask him what to do. What your friend does is dig up all the relevant information and does all the hard work for you and presents you with the solution. 

For not very vague and not very important issues, you do your work and come up with a solution but, you ask your friend if it is the right thing to do. If not then you continuously suggest alternatives. Your friend who is lazy wants to get it over with, takes your suggestions and declares one as a solution. If none of your suggestions seem to be feasible then he starts working hard and deep.

Daniel says, System 1 runs automatically System 2 comes slow. S1 generates suggestions for S2 continuously. If endorsed by S2, impressions and intuitions turn into beliefs and impulses into voluntary actions. S1 has more influence on Behavior while S2 is busy and mind you it has a sweet tooth.

These two systems are constantly in conflict with each other which messes up our decision making and behavior. To quote Daniel, “Conflict between an automatic reaction and an intention to control it is common in our lives”. 

Daniel in detail explains in what scenarios how these systems work with interactive exercises, which makes you go ‘Ohhh… that’s how’. I can talk about this book for a whole day and still not feel I have said enough. 

I was introduced to this book by Sushanth Singh Rajput from his instagram posts and stories around 2017-2018. And I am ever so grateful for him and dedicate this review to him for inspiring the reader in me. Thank you Sushanth. 

Well the book gets 5/5.

Lost Connections - by Johann Hari

 

My goodness! I don't know where to start. I can say it changes your perspective but I'm sure most of them will not agree with me. There's this thing about humans, there are two ways we judge something we do not know about - 1. We think it is too Good because it is beyond our apprehension. 2. Or it is too Bad because it doesn't make any sense to us because we either do not 'know it' or 'know about it'. And there are some who actually know it and understand it but do not usually go around explaining or judging.

One such thing is Depression. So when someone says something about it, there are people who understand it, and people who just agree with it and those who disagree with it. When coming to review this book about depression, it’s causes and solutions you can only fall into the above categories. 

Johann starts with antidepressants and how it does not work for everyone. He himself has been on the pills for 13 years. He says in the beginning it feels great but gradually the sadness sets in again and you are supposed to increase the dose to match. And it’s a never ending cycle. After sometime when you look back, you realize it is not solving anything but just being postponed until you pop that next pill. Instead of solving the problem, if you just mask the symptoms, you will end up nowhere or even worse. 

So he talks about various reasons you might be depressed and why antidepressants might not work for you. Some disconnections from like, meaningful work, people, meaningful values, childhood trauma, status and respect, natural world and hopeful or secure future. And also the real role of genes and brain changes. Which is excellent research done by him.

He says the solution is in connecting back with those disconnections which are causing us to go hay-wire in ignorance, and not popping pills. He also says for certain conditions and specific cases pills are helpful but not just about anybody. 

But interestingly these solutions are not just for depression but human life as it is. These solutions are for any illness of the mind and body unless it is caused by external organisms. Also for those who have no disconnections mentioned above, but still are sad and depressed, you might need to strengthen your already established connections. 

When Johann talks about meditation as a solution, he limits it to the science of depression because that is the scope of this book. But there are various types of meditations and various benefits not just towards depression but for life in general. 

I say the things he has pointed out do not just cause depression but also other illnesses like addiction, obsession, insecurity and more. I can go on and say this book is not just for sick people but also to those feeling-on-top-of-the-world people. Because Life is not limited to just as we know it, there is a vast unknown territory which we either consciously or unconsciously choose to ignore.   

Oops it’s quite a bit long, but thanks for reading. The book gets 5/5.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - by Mitch Albom

 

This is one of those books that made me forget who I am and also question who I am, what I am doing with my life. Though this is a small simple story of a man, Eddie who dies at 83 from an accident at Ruby Pier and encounters 5 people on reaching heaven, who played a significant role in his life when alive, it reached me at untouched corners of myself. 

This book offended me, I wanted to scream at the author for pointing certain aspects I had chosen to ignore than facing. It offends you for a good reason and after you complete reading it, you will come out lighter and more alive. 

Eddie meets 5 people in heaven, in each of their own particular heaven and untold story of his own life unfolds before him.

Eddie first meets Blue Man. Where he learns he is dead and is in heaven and this man was a part of his life for a very short period in childhood but left a major impact on his whole life thereafter. The second person Eddie meets is his Captain from the army, they talk about their time spent together as prisoners of war and how they escaped. Here he learns about the death of captain which he was oblivious to when he was alive, and how it is connected to him.

The third person Eddie meets is Ruby after whose name Ruby Pier was named. He learns how the pier almost destroyed her life and her encounter with Eddie's father. She tells him how his father spent his final moments and what events led to that fateful moment. The fourth person is his beloved wife Marguerite, who had died years before him. They spend wandering from one wedding to another and talking about how he had spent the remaining years without her. He asks her forgiveness for giving her a better life. She tells him she had a wonderful life with him at the pier and her only regret is her inability to have children. 

The fifth person is a little girl who had died because of Eddie unknowingly. He had sensed a shadow movement inside the fire he had lit up while escaping from the enemy ground, but he was unable to save as he was shot in the leg which made him limp all his life. He always had nightmares about the fire and shadow throughout his life. The little girl asks him wash her burns as she heals, reveals answer for one question Eddie had from the time he came to heaven and vanishes. 

Eddie learns all lives do have a purpose to serve in this bigger life that connects everyone, and his simple life at the pier was not inconsequential. 

It touches people's hearts in many ways. Just the story might not be intriguing but if you look closer and understand the depth , it leaves you in pieces and helps you rebuild yourself from the beginning without the mistakes you made earlier. I loved this book and highly recommend it. Gets 5/5.

The Forty Rules of Love - by Elif Shafak

I must say this is one of the most beautiful books. So our Ella has a mid-life crisis at 40 with 3 teenager children and an unfaithful husband. After being a housewife all along, she takes up a reader job for a literary agency. Her first book happens to be Sweet Blasphemy by a new author Aziz who happens to stumble upon Sufism after a series of disasters in his life.  

Sweet Blasphemy is a story stitched around the encounter between two people, the most renowned Sufi poet Rumi and a Sufi Dervish Shams of Tabriz. A genius poet and an enlightened mystic, and how the genius became a poet. 

With surprises thrown at her during family lunch, she realises she doesn’t love her husband anymore. During her quest for love Sweet Blasphemy talks to her in an unimaginable way, where she learns about the forty rules of love as told by Shams. So she decides to email the author and conversations happen. 

Ella’s life takes a drastic turn when she meets the author and learns about his life. As she walks out of her marriage, she finds love but loses the person she loved.

All in all it was an amazing read which fills all hearts with love and its forty rules. It imparts a few raw spiritual knowledge which could have been elaborated and simplified. One of my personal favourites is - “In order to be reborn, one should die before death”.