Saturday, August 22, 2015

Real Happiness at Work

As often happens, I found myself in a bookstore (I was taking my son's to pick out something with the gift cards they received for their birthday's) and I thought "well I'll just have a look around". And as often happens, I found myself in the Self Help, and Career Development area of the bookstore. I love it when a book finds me. That is exactly happened with Real Happiness at Work by Sharon Salzberg.


I guess in a way this is the next logical book I would reading. My latest read was, Happier at Home, by Gretchen Rubin. Kind of funny... I didn't actually put this together until I brought home my new book! I don't think I'm alone in my quest to be happy both at home and work. Both of these books point to a simple in theory, but harder in practice concept: mindfulness. Salzberg explains it like this,

Mindfulness is a relational quality, in that is does not depend on what is happening, but it is also about how we are relating to what is happening.

and

Mindfulness refines or clarifies our attention so that we can connect more fully and directly with whatever is happening.

It is not realistic to think that we will always have smooth and peaceful interactions at work. It is useful to have some tools to help the workplace be a more peaceful place, and I think that is exactly what this book provides.