4 Books That Have Made me More Emotionally Resilient
An ironclad mentality awaits
Probably the single most important thing I’ve learned over the year by reading tons of non-fiction books are ways to cope with negative emotions.
(As well as a lot of other things of course.)
Problems and feelings that used to bug me for weeks, sometimes maybe months—I now simply squash like a mosquito.
This is not with all things of course. I too feel anxious or insecure at times; yet reading certain books has helped reduce the frequency I experience these feelings a ton.
It might be a bit too simple just to attribute an improved emotional resilience to some carefully assembled pieces of paper with a hardcover.
Still, I think some books will give you a renewed perspective on daily struggles or ailments of the past that you might be facing.
When looking back at the books that have made the most impact in this regard, 4 of them especially come to mind. Here they are:
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
“What matters, in other words, isn’t what we feel but how we respond to those feelings.”
This is one I’ve been reading as of late. In this book Donald Robertson describes parts of the life of Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor. As you can might imagine this is a pretty high status job with a lot of stress and challenges that comes with it.
What you’ll learn from this book is how you can use Stoic Philosophy to your advantage, to better understand your thinking and ways to deal with tough situations.
It’s also a guide to a virtue life.
If you like Philosophy and find ancient history intriguing. Then this one is more than a must read!
Endure
“In the wilderness, all that changes. In the mountains, all that is different. You can have all the money in the world, but in the mountains, you’re just another mere mortal.”
In this book Cameron Hanes describes his story and deep personal insights on his life. Cameron sees himself as a regular guy, and that’s why this book is so relatable because he has achieved massive physical feats that we for sure won’t call average!
For example, he has run several 100-mile races, even 200+ mile races. The mere thought of that makes my legs turn into jelly.
The story he tells and tips he gives will spur you on to go out there and endure more than you ever thought you could.
Remember: keep hammering.
The Courage to Be Disliked
“Do not live to satisfy the expectations of others”
Tons of negative emotions people experience has to do with being too preoccupied with the opinion of others about them.
In the Courage to be disliked, Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga argue that every problem you have in life has a single cause: You don’t want to be disliked by others.
This causes you to not live out the life you want to, you rather do what other people expect of you to do. Not what intrinsically motivates you.
If this is something you struggle with, then this book’ll a 100% help you!
Man’s Search for Meaning
“Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.”
Probably a top 5 book I’ve ever read. Viktor Frankl in this book describes his personal experiences in the concentration camps of WWII and the school of therapy he invented to find meaning in the most dire situations.
The central (and century old) question of this book is: What’s the meaning of Life?
And if someone who experienced years in several concentration camps can find an answer to this question, then everyone can.
I hope you derived value from this post and it helped you to pick out some books to create an ironclad mindset!
Talk to you soon!
-Quintin
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