The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

First, I would like to say that I recommend this book to everybody. Whether you like Winnie the Pooh or Taoism. It's interesting just how relative the principles in this book are, to some of the other books I have read about worry, stress and life drama. If you think of Pooh, and the way he views life. The way he goes through life, he has a lot of wisdom and allows things to be, and he just IS! The book will describe this better of course, but there's a song from this book that kind of sums it up:

"How can you get very far,

If you don't know Who You Are?

How can you do what you ought,

If you don't know What You've Got?

And if you don't know Which To Do

Of all the things in front of you,

Then what you'll have when you are through

Is just a mess without a clue

Of all the best that can come true

If you know What and Which and Who." - Winnie the Pooh

Not only is this book charming and light hearted, it presents deep wisdom in the guise of the fable of Winnie the Pooh. The stories and characters are an allegory representing different types of people in the world. How they think. What they do. How they view the world. But the wisest and most relative of all is P'u.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

I have heard a lot about this book, and I decided to give it a try. What's interesting is that the person who wrote it wasn't unhappy. She just felt that she should be happier. Some of these techniques didn't apply to me, but I loved this idea. A "happiness project" is a period of time that you devote to making yourself happier. you start by asking basic questions. "What makes me happy?" and "What makes me unhappy?" then you go into deeper questions that are more specific to your personality and situation. It's a very powerful thing, and unlike the story in Eat Pray Love, this project involves changing your routine instead of making major changes like a trip or a vacation. I found this useful because there is some wisdom to the outline of the "happiness project". Even thinking about how to make yourself happier can make you happier. So this book is about one woman's quest to dedicate a year to finding ways to be happy, but you read everything very differently when you outline your own "happiness project". I think this is extremely useful for people that have to hurry up and wait while they pursue a dream or goal to be happier. You don't have to drive yourself crazy waiting for a big change. You can make little changes to yourself and discover a way to appreciate your life without taking things for granted. I highly recommend this book to anyone at any time. Even if you're already happy, like Gretchen Rubin when she started the book, pursuing happiness is not selfish. The atmosphere you create around you can be a positive or negative influence to yourself and others around you. Another important note is that this book isn't about faking happiness. It's about discovering what makes you happy and working toward staying that way.