How can holistic wellness books help you win in your professional life?

Most people who know me know I have been a voracious reader since the age of 6. Year after year I have been asked to share reading lists — yet, I have never done so because I believe books should never be our guide to life. Experiential wisdom is priceless….and I still do not have as much of it as I would like.

(Also, most reading lists are really just slightly veiled show offs.)

reading oneself into true knowledge ( ‘Gyana’ )

I am finally publishing a list that I have been requested many times— I hope it helps everyone. In the end vet it with your own experience, Life is our biggest teacher.

What makes a human healthy and happy? How do we make so many changes to ourselves year after year consciously so as to get to our goals ? I always yearned to know the answers and still do not have many of them.

But somethings did help for sure. No, it was not these books alone that helped me. I had mentors, well wishers, friends, guides, examples in real life to see and learn from, I forced myself to be disciplined and I learn’t the fine art of focus, sacrifices and intensity when needed. Above all, what helped me the most is to rise above these books when the time came..

However, when you drop the balls- they sure can help you pick them up. At the least, they are great starting points for any journey. So good luck and let me know how it goes!

The journey of self transformation into wellness is the most rewarding thing you can ever do because not only will it magnify your output by many times- it will make you a sensitive partner, a parent to look up to and a friend who is a positive influence, who attracts the right people in life, above all it will make you someone who is happy on their own.

1. Inner Engineering — Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. A brilliant book on adopting small measures into your life to create joy, well being and develop yogic senses. Helps to sharpen one’s input at work and create a sense of high energy in everything.
2. Art of War — Sun Tzu. Classic ancient book on how to create strategies to win. Don’t stress — keep it near at hand at work and quick peep now and then! A kindle download for this is a really good investment
3. Don’t lose your mind- lose weight- Rujuta Diwekar. This is a Lifelong sustainable habit-creation to lose weight and create a holistic nutrition guide. Makes you healthy and wellness becomes a part of your life.
4. A taste of Isha — cookbook by ISHA FOUNDATION- vegetarian, low carbs, less hassle, highly nutritive, low lactose, vegetarian recipes for everyday. Make for breakfast or pack a quick healthy lunch at work to keep you alert, light, full of energy.
5. The Little Book of Ikigai — Ken Mogi. A beautiful introduction to the Japanese way of finding purpose in life. This can be the kind of flight reading that transforms you when you reach the other side.
6. How to see yourself as you are — Holiness Dalai Lama. A book on creating a conscious , compassionate way of life. Read before you sleep. Makes you calmer. Especially good on days when things have not been the way you expected.
7. The Miracle of Mindfulness — Thich Nhat Hanh. Nothing needs to be said. Just try it.Period.
8. When Breathe Becomes Air — Dr Paul Kalanithi. Terminally ill doctor showcases how we do not have to be dying to learn to live. If compassion is missing from your professional decisions, dive right in! Get the perspective right.
9. The monk who sold his ferrari — Robin Sharma. How do we transform ourselves effectively? Highly powerful reading on self transformation and the discipline to get there.
10. The Alchemist — Paulo Coelho. A book on folklore, magic, love, lessons and beauty in life. Highly needed when you find purpose lacking in professional life.
11. Chanakya Neeti- Chanakya.An ancient Indian treatise on strategy by one of the oldest scholars on the subject. Use for strategic mental leaps to get to promotions and professional awards/milestones.
12. The power of now- Eckhart Tolle. Mysterious yet simple exploration of possibilities and principles. Restores faith in humanity in times of crisis at work, especially when let down by others.
13. The Prophet — Kahlil Gibran. Widely ignored by literary establishment, most sold book after the bible. Beautiful and intelligent read, powerful self inception method when working on large scale projects when you want to make sure you have a global human perspective.
14. The Little Prince — Antoine de St Exupery. Beautifully deep wisdom entrenched and embedded in childrens story book. Lovely reading when waiting before stressful meetings. Does not take intellect or bandwidth- just lovely reading. Perhaps a kindle thing?
15. Flow — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’ . How to design optimal experience for users — create blissful touch points for UX, emails — communication- anything. Seminal work on how humans experience things.
16. Manuscript found in Accra — Paulo Coelho.A translation of a manuscript that a ”wandering prophet left in the village of Accra” but no one ever integrated into the “religion that he went on to establish”. This will be a whole new way for you to imagine and question your own belief system, ideal to open or close talks/speeches.
17. The Subject tonight is Love — Hafiz. 17th century poet burns you with his mellow intensity of life. Lifts one up and creates an air of creativity, useful when stuck in a rut and making content, presentations, speeches, touch points that need to connect to other humans. Communication breakdowns can be easily solved if you get this one right.
18. Autobiography of a Yogi — Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda.A deeper and magical way of life to create faith in the Universe. When work life balance has gone for a toss and you wonder what is all this life really about…
19. Be as you are — Ramana Maharishi. The most quiet and one of the most famous Indian Saint gives simple principles to lead a deeper life full of inner quest. Powerful on its own but also empower you to rethink life from first principles when things go really wrong in your overall career. Align yourself- who are you really and what do you want?
20. Alice in Wonderland — Lewis Carroll. A rock and roll imaginative land that is actually hidden with mathematical fallacies and riddles. Great entertainment in between meeting breaks.
21. Childhood — Maxim Gorky. An understanding of life from the eyes of a young boy who lives in troubled times. Get a sense of how fortunate you are and how poignant life is. Therapeutic on many levels.
22. Essential Rumi- Jallaludin Rumi. If you want to drown your soul in Sufi ecstasy, then love,pain,gain,loss and separation all become one in this beautiful poetic work. Use it to create a flourish at the end or simply put a quote on your wall paper. Very deep.

That is all from my side- I could go on for hours but then we will lose the point

Happy reading !