Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey

BATB score: 9/10 🙏

*reader discretion advised* advanced reading skills required; quite scientific and nerdy

Best to: macronutrients of happiness > enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose; optimize what is important > family, friendship, work, and faith; when in doubt, you are just one of 8 billion human beings so be grateful, be in the present, and know that you will die soon

Best for: whenever you’re unhappy, go walk bare foot in nature and find the experience of ‘awe’ - “the feeling of being in the present of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world”

Best as: “feel the feel, then take the wheel, and [strive for] happier-ness” as we can be happier but we can not only be happy

BATB lingering thought: if we all want to be happy, why are we only striving to be successful?

Best quotes: “I don’t know what this day will bring, but I will love others and allow myself to be loved.”

“Gratitude can make us more generous with others, more patient, and less materialistic.”

“We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own, whether they are friends, strangers, or enemies.”

“If you are stuck in the prison of shame and judgment, take heart: you hold the key to your own freedom.”

“It is all too easy to lose your true self to a representation of yourself that is your job title or duties. […] We learn to love the image of our successful selves, not ourselves as we truly are in life.”