Books

Here are my top 3 books (as right now) I’d recommend to anyone to breathe a little life back into the soul. The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho The Prophet-Kahlil Gibran Marcus Aurelius: Meditations (the annotated edition)-Robin Waterfield Top two books are shorter. The Alchemist is a great story and super simplistic and vivid reading about pursuing one’s dream and the different perspectives of life. The prophet is written in an “poetic” way describing various things in life: love, marriage, children, work, joy and pain, freedom, death, law. Each chapter is based on a theme and only at max 3 pages long. This book can be read in a few hours but based how the author writes his metaphors a few rereads of each chapter might be needed (was for me). Beautiful btw. The meditations was Marcus Aurelius (one of Romes last “better” emperors) personal journal that was discovered that was never going to be published. Marcus wrote this for himself, passed away and the journal was found. He was an admirer of Stoicism. And has great life lessons and thoughts about living in according with nature and one’s conduct. If anyone else wants to drop some aweosme books down they have read comment!

HJFarmer

Date posted: 2y

Just finished reading the art of living by Thich Nhat Hanh. Brilliant reminder of the cosmic/spiritual aspect of our existence when the rumination and worry gets heavy. Lots of great insight and tips for mindfulness to cultivate a healthier and more positive mindset

JordTheNord

Date posted: 2y

@HJFarmer I’ve been hearing more of that one lately. I’ll have to check it out!

HJFarmer

Date posted: 2y

@JordTheNord You should give it a go man! It’s so easy with OCD to fall in to that spiral constantly ruminating and worrying so it really helps to get that universal perspective on life which can provide some respite and peace I’ve found

JordTheNord

Date posted: 2y

@HJFarmer I love for that stuff. That’s actually what helped me overcome my OCD and depression. I’d take a listen to Alan Watts on YouTube too. He’s got some great stuff on life perspective and universal truths. Helps reset

HJFarmer

Date posted: 2y

@JordTheNord I haven’t watched any of his videos but I’m reading some of his essays on zen and spirituality at the minute too! Called “this is it”. I’m glad that stuff has helped you too. OCD can be horrendous at times but life is a miracle that should be cherished

JordTheNord

Date posted: 2y

@HJFarmer 100% 🙏🏻. His lectures are so soothing. I’ve fallen asleep to em lol

CarlaCroft1390

Date posted: 2y

Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s search for meaning” and Eckhart Tolle’s “The power of now” are two of my “evergreen” books to reread cyclically (another one being the already cited Meditations :)).

JordTheNord

Date posted: 2y

@CarlaCroft1390 Haven’t heard of the first one but I’ll check it out and I’ve heard so many ppl say “The power of now” is great! First time reader of mediations and it just climbed through my list lol.

Mauro 2.0

Date posted: 2y

Thanks, glad to know that there are others in the world that are working on themselves with stoic philosophy. I have heard about these books. I’m familiar with Marcus Aurelius meditations book that wasn’t meant to be published, it was his journal, but the person who found it thought it was something special to be shared with the world. He was the world’s most powerful ruler ( man ), at the time, yet he did not live like a typical ruler/emperor. He was a very modest man anactually led by example. He talks about “discarding” his anxieties, because it was something that was within his control. That does not mean he lived without anxiety, I believe he writes about his struggles as a human regarding his mind as well. Great book for someone struggling with their mental sanity in my opinion. A book I would recommend… Letters from a Stoic by Seneca Just like meditation’s by Marcus Aurelius it is still relevant today. This was one of the first books that helped me out during a time of struggle with OCD thoughts that were crippling at the time. Not an easy read though. I would suggest first to start with a more modern book called Breakfast with Seneca. Hope this helped 🤙 Keep at it guys OCD cannot “make” you do anything you don’t want, please do not let it fool you First post on this

JordTheNord

Date posted: 2y

@Mauro 2.0 It really is a great book! I’ll have to check out the other one

JordTheNord

Date posted: 2y

@Mauro 2.0 It is crazy how it is just a journal and it’s his inner thoughts with himself. Amazing find

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