14 Wellbeing Books from 2021 (3 of them downloadable) for a responsible thinking
“Books make us heirs to all stories: the best, the worst, the ambiguous, the problematic, the double-edged. Having access to all of them is vital for critical thought; it allows us to choose” — Irene Vallejo
“Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” — Jean Rhys
“The less we read, the more harmful it is what we read” — Miguel de Unamuno
In the same way, as I did with my list of wellbeing books in 2020, in this article I will describe with a few brushstrokes, those books published in English in 2021 which I have come across. They offer, from different points of view, reflections on wellbeing (personal, social, planetary); a buzzword that is difficult to define.
These days, people have less time for just relaxing, walking in nature, or reading. We need to change this to enable us to think responsibly about our life, the lives of others, and the environment in which we live. Taking time out from the constant need to be productive helps to give us distance and perspective which in turn feeds our thinking. Reading a good book without pressure makes us feel the “Flow” (thanks Mihaly Csikszentmihaly), in terms of how we spend our time, experience pleasure, and live a good life.
Last year, I described the books on wellbeing using a relational framework that had key nodes (environment, food, economy, community, work, family, health, personal development, education, and ethics). This year I will describe them from a more cognitive point of view using the “Responsible Thinking” model that I have developed. Paradoxically this model includes not only the head (cognition) but also the heart (emotion) and the hands (conation). If you are interested in looking deeper into this model of good thinking, I suggest reading the three posts about the three women who inspired the development of this framework, namely: Naomi Klein (whose focus is primarily on critical thinking), Kate Raworth (systems thinking) and Ursula K. Le Guin (paradoxical thinking)
Three extraordinary women with three tools necessary for regeneration and wellbeing
As I said in 2020, these books on wellbeing cannot be summarized in one or two paragraphs, so this text gives a taster of each and acts as an invitation to read any of them that may resonate with you.
The dawn of everything: A new history of humanity by David Graeber & David Wengrow
David Graeber and David Wengrow have been writing this book for 10 years and in the next 10 years, I hope that it will resonate with the responses that humanity will give to the environmental and societal crisis we suffer. The past, the present, and the future are all interrelated, and I also found some relationships between the three elements of responsible thinking in the content of the book. Firstly, they use their critical thinking to find the pieces of evidence that don’tmatch the present narrative. Secondly, they design two different systems with three elementary elements each about freedom and domination. Then they play with these elements to show us some of the social structures that different cultures throughout history have adopted (systems thinking). Finally, because of all the above, with some of the contradictions and paradoxes that they have found, they wait for us to use imagination and some creativity to change the present narrative and system. In summary, this is a great book that will make us think and debate about our future as humanity.
More: The dawn of everything
Think again: The power of knowing what you don’t know by Adam Grant
This is a book whose objective is to have good thoughts and to be curious about the things that are against our thoughts (a tough work that makes us humbler). The main goal is to be able to think and rethink questioning our thoughts and the narrative we live by (one of the proposals of the book above “The dawn of everything). In the same way that Grant’s book “Give and Take” created a system with those concepts, in this book, he shows us a wonderful system with the rethinking and overconfidence cycles. Too much bias toward the second one affects the first one so it can injure our thinking through confirmation and desirability bias. Finally, I appreciate the different cartoons that illustrate the book. I think that humour — a transcendence strength in positive psychology — is a key element of paradoxical thinking. If you read this book, I’m almost sure that you’ll think again as the title points out.
More: Think again
How to change everything: The young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other by Naomi Klein & Rebecca Steffot.
Naomi Klein was the first person who inspire the “critical thinking” element in the “responsible thinking” framework so this book, similarly to other books by the same author, questions the present system and narratives so we can awake. Rebecca Steffot helps Naomi Klein to adapt her ideas to young people and this is an important feature because it’s easier to change the mind of young people — the new and “unacculturated” people of each generation — than to change the mind of adult people (except if you have been convinced by the book above “Think again”). The seed of “rebellion” has always been in teenagers so confronting the contradictions and paradoxes that the book shows us is the spark of changing our values. In summary, this is a great book that can inspire the young generation to change for a wellbeing society on a healthy planet.
More: How to change everything
Post Growth — Life after capitalism by Tim Jackson
I think that the next real human revolution won’t come from science (it can help a bit) but from Arts & Humanities. Tim Jackson has written a book based principally on wonderful storytelling with a humanistic point of view so this book is certainly a book we can enjoy and help us to change our thinking for being more responsible towards our society and environment. Being critical can awake a lot of opposition but being critical with Jackson’s prose is a special art to change that opposition to our team. A great part of the system we live by is led by the GDP of our nations but there are so many contradictions (ill-being) through this tool, therefore we need to create a new metaphor to be healthier (well-being). That’s the proposal of this book, to make visible the creativity, imagination, and values that can build a post-growth society. Paradoxically, technology is not the revolution but the deeper humanistic conversations that change our dependency on the material growth path. A must-read book to spark our imagination!
More: Post Growth
The nations of plants: A radical manifesto for humans by Stefano Mancuso
Stefano Mancuso is an artist in writing books about Nature (mostly about plants) and here he has proposed a new perspective that makes us think; what if… the plants rule the World (yet they already do even we don’t think so). Paradoxically we are not in control of the power of the world although our species-centric thinking perspective takes it for granted. These critics of our thinking are followed for a new constitution (8 articles) which opens the system in a more inclusive way for all living beings. This is an outstanding book that uses mostly the P (Perspective) from the DSRP model of systems thinking (Distinction, Systems, Relationships, Perspective) to make us see the world anew.
More: The nation of plants
Mission Economy: A moonshot guide to changing capitalism by Mariana Mazzucato
Most of the books on the list make us think or re-think when they use a new narrative, metaphor, or perspective that changes our perception so we can also change with it. In this case, Mariana Mazzucato uses all of them. Firstly “Mission economy” is the metaphor that uses the analogy of the Apollo program in the USA when the public sector and private companies decided to cooperate for sending a rocket to the moon. Secondly, she uses a new P (Perspective) for the economy changing the P from (Profit) for a P (Public-interest) or an important Purpose. On our global planet, we have a responsibility to solve big problems such as the environmental crisis, ending poverty, healthcare, and several others, so why not set up new missions in our economy with Mazzucato’s proposal. The narrative of competition becomes collaboration. This is a book that the economist in us should read.
More: Mission Economy
The web of meaning: Integrating science and traditional wisdom to find our place in the universe by Jeremy Lent
I agree and share with Jeremy Lent his triad of connectedness (within ourselves, between each other, and with the entire natural world) as the way for responsible wellbeing. The critics of our modern society with a key role in science are balanced by Lent with a re-connection with some spiritual philosophies, the search for truth with the search for goodness. A bigger inclusive model with both perspectives that Edgard Morin said with the motto “Science with a Conscience”. This new system opens us to some imagination and creativity for searching for the beauty of flourishing. Paradoxical thinking is not this or that but this and that. Finally, one of these spiritual philosophiesisTaoism and I can’t find a better book for paradoxical thinking than the reading of the Tao Te Ching (as I propose in a book further down), This is a great book that helps you to reconnect with life.
More: The web of meaning
Change: How to make big things happen by Damon Centola
One of the goals of having “responsible thinking” is to act properly and in the case that we need to change, despite adverse cultural circumstances, do it. This happens in present times; we are living in a narrative (politics & economics) that mostly hurt us and the environment. How to change it? This book can help us to see a bigger perspective of how change works. The first part of the book is about dispelling myths about how social change happens. This is the critical part. Next, Centola explains the systems of how change really happens. Finally, the last part of the book is about the point at which social change occurs (tipping point). This is a great book that can be useful for thinking and designing the change some of our irresponsible thinking that harms the planet and the society.
More: Change
The divine feminine Tao Te Ching: A new translation and commentary by Rosemarie Anderson
The Tao Te Ching is one of those books from perennial philosophies which should be on our bookshelf. There’s been a lot of translations, one I can remember was written by the “paradoxical thinker”, Ursula K. Le Guin who had been reading this book for decades. Her translation had an important “nuance”, it was adapted to modern people. Rosemarie Anderson has also translated the book with an important “nuance”, the feminine. From the first translation to the western languages in the XIX century, there’s been some cultural bias (masculine, patriarchy…) that needs some balance for inclusion and a bigger perception. That was the work of Rosemarie Anderson in this fascinating book that always makes you think.
More: The divine feminine Tao Te Ching
Alternative ideas from 10 (almost) forgotten economists by Irene van Staveren
We have seen in some of the books above that we need to change and balance some of our behaviour for being more responsible. From an “economics” point of view, a worldview that rules mostly our society, the economist Irene van Staveren proposes a look backward, to some “almost” forgotten economists whose ideas could be helpful, and then use them forwards. Apart from the humanistic biography of some of these economists, the main point is to take some of their ideas to critically confront them with the economic ideas by which we are governed. Finally, Irene van Staveren offers some examples of how the ideas of each economist have been translated into practical alternatives that are feasible. This is a great book to learn economics from a heterodox point of view.
More: Alternative ideas from 10 (almost) forgotten economists
The red deal: Indigenous action to save our Earth by The Red Nation
Indigenous people usually see the world through connected systems and western people use to have a more fragmented look at reality. The last worldview is one of the origins of our environmental problems that are so vital to our life on Earth. The book incites non-indigenous people to think like the first systemic worldview (relationships). Apart from the critical thinking about our worldview in the third part of the book “heal our planet” they propose some recommendations to do for reinvesting in our common future. The “responsible thinking” idea has been for millennials in the worldview of indigenous people through different practises such as water protectors, land defenders, and taking care of the older and new ones that have not been born yet. This is a book to go to the past (our foundational values) and come back to the future to act.
More: The red deal ( Downloadable Part 1, 2, and 3 of the book)
Designing the mind: the principles of psychecture by Ryan A. Bush
It is said that in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi there was inscribed the maxim “Know thyself” (although according to the Greek writer Pausanias, there were three maxims, the others were “nothing to excess” and “surety brings ruin”). Ryan A. Bush has written a book with a self-mastery triad that encompasses three major components: cognitive, emotional, and behavioural. We can match the maxims from the Temple of Apollo with both the self-mastery triad from the book and the triad I propose for responsible thinking. These elements form a system, and Ryan A. Bush proposes to design the system so we can flourish. This is an interesting book that uses the insights of ancient thinkers with the metaphor of “an algorithm” for correcting our unwanted psychological tendencies.
More: Designing the mind
The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education (edited by Margaret L. Kern & Michael L. Wehmeyer)
As I have written in the post about “responsible thinking”, if it were in my power, I would make this an explicit and transversal subject in the educational systems of our different countries. It could be added to the positive education scheme. Critical thinking is one of the strengths that belongs of Wisdom’s virtues. Some of the chapters of the book indicate that educational communities are systemic, so positive education programs should be addressed not only to individual students, but also to teachers, staff, families, and the broader community. Finally, we sometimes live in a chaotic and complex world, and we have to deal with a lot of decisions about how to flourish or make the world flourish, so paradoxical thinking is a key element. In this context of wellbeing and flourishing, I can only recommend this outstanding educational game “Less is Max” to all positive educators.
More: The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Psychology
Utopia 2048 by Lino Zeddies
This is the only fiction book on the list but paradoxically through its reading could just be a non-fiction book dressed up as fiction. This is a stimulating frame for learning because the easy reading of a good fiction book makes us flow with the narrative and learn with less effort. Lino Zeddies has systemically created great “Worldbuilding” in those pages and we probably can help to co-create that utopic narrative changing our present narrative which has so many critical holes. This is a great positive book with a lot of imagination that could push us to responsible thinking for our future.
There is probably a kind of development for our good thinking. Firstly, we need “critical thinking”. Secondly, the use of systems thinking with the previous one makes us powerful thinkers. Finally, and paradoxically, we don’t need to think, just relax, calm the mind and suddenly the spark of the imagination emerges connecting those dots that seem now so clear, and then the response (and responsibility) appears for the action that follows ( as Wu Wei from Tao Te Ching). Reading is the food for thought. As Miguel Unamuno said, the less we read, the more harmful it is to what we read. We can say that the more we read (with a variety of subjects), the less time we would employ for connecting the dots and let emerge some solutions to our problems. This is a responsible way of being and thinking.
I thank the authors of the previous books for helping us think critically, systemically, and paradoxically through their reading which could lead to more responsible thinking for our future. Finally, I want to finish the post with a quotation from the same author that opens this article, Irene Vallejo. (Take note of her best-seller book in Spanish that will be released in English at the beginning of the year, “Infinity in a reed: the invention of the books in the Ancient World” which would be in the post of books 2022 for wellbeing)
“… recommending and delivering a reading to another is a powerful gesture of approach, communication, identity.” — Irene Vallejo
Then, could you add any 2021 wellbeing books to this list?
More: 14 Wellbeing Books from 2020 (2 of them downloadable) for a common good & good life
Twitter: @ResWellbeing @BienestarRespon
