Interview with Fiona Brennan, author of The Positive Habit
Fiona Brennan, author of The Positive Habit spoke to me about her favourite books and has some great book recommendations below! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Fiona's book The Positive Habit:
Review from Book Depository: Love, calmness, confidence, gratitude, hope and happiness: these are the six emotions that tip the balance of our mindset in favour of a positive outlook rather than a negative one. Wouldn't it be great to feel these positive emotions more of the time? Now you can with Fiona Brennan's ultimate manual for the mind.
(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Positive Habit : 6 Steps for Transforming Negative Thoughts to Positive Emotions
With a chapter on each emotion, and practical steps on how to cultivate them, this profound, practical plan utilises mindfulness, habit, positive psychology, and neuroscience. It will show you how to train your brain to embrace negative thoughts with courage and love, and transform them into positive ones.
Buy On:
Book Depository €16.15
Waterstones £14.99
Amazon UK £14.99
Amazon US $8.79
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
It is really hard to choose one! However, the book that has had the smartest/most positive influence on me is The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. The simple and yet highly challenging task for our minds to live in the present moment is so beautifully explained by Tolle. I often listen to his teachings and see him as one of the greatest spiritual leaders of our time.
The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Review From Book Depository: The bestselling self-help book of its generation - which has now sold over a million copies in the UK alone. Eckhart Tolle demonstrates how to live a healthier and happier life by living in the present moment.
To make the journey into The Power of Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle offers simple language and a question and answer format to show us how to silence our thoughts and create a liberated life.
Buy On:
Book Depository €10.17 Waterstones £10.99 Amazon UK £7.25 Amazon US $10.02(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
How to Love by Vietnamese Monk Tich Nhat Hanh, a very simple message again, the smartest ones usually are. It teaches us the importance of loving others with understanding and acceptance. I am currently working on my second book, The Love Habit so soaking up all things on love.
I also like to read fiction, a novel that I recently re-read was The Magus by John Fowles, I love to read a book that I read maybe twenty years ago and see how the book has not changed but my perspective has shifted. It is the story of a man on an existential journey in Greece and he gets caught up with a macabre group of people who play with his mind in a cruel way.
How To Love
Review From Book Depository: How to Love is the third title in Parallax's Mindfulness Essentials Series of how-to titles by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, introducing beginners and reminding seasoned practitioners of the essentials of mindfulness practice. This time Nhat Hanh brings his signature clarity, compassion, and humor to the thorny question of how to love. He distills one of our strongest emotions down to four essentials: you can only love another when you feel true love for yourself; love is understanding; understanding brings compassion; deep listening and loving speech are key ways of showing our love. Pocket-sized, with original two color illustrations by Jason DeAntonis, How to Love shows that when we feel closer to our loved ones, we are also more connected to the world as a whole.
Buy On:
Book Depository €8.21 Waterstones £5.00 Amazon UK £4.00 Amazon US $5.29(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Magus
Review From Book Depository: On a remote Greek island, Nicholas Urfe finds himself embroiled in the deceptions of a master trickster. As reality and illusion intertwine, Urfe is caught up in the darkest of psychological games. John Fowles expertly unfolds a tale that is lush with over-powering imagery in a spellbinding exploration of human complexities. By turns disturbing, thrilling and seductive, The Magus is a feast for the mind and the senses.
Buy On:
Book Depository €8.01 Waterstones £10.99 Amazon UK £5.45 Amazon US $8.38(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Enid Blyton, The Magic Faraway Tree. Imagination is a huge part of my work and as a child, I just loved the idea of a magic tree that you could encounter all sorts of worlds at the top.
The Magic Faraway Tree
Review From Book Depository: Join Joe, Beth and Frannie as they take their cousin Rick on a an adventure he'll never forget - up the Magic Faraway Tree! Along with their friends Moon-Face, Saucepan Man and Silky the fairy, the children tumble from the fun of the Land of Toys to the thrill of trying to escape the Land of Dreams. Will they ever make it home for tea? Anything's possible in THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE!
Buy On:
Book Depository €7.09 Waterstones £6.99 Amazon UK £5.24 Amazon US $10.47(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Reading on paper and I listen to a lot of audiobooks as I make dinner, do housework etc.. It is a win-win situation.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
I love any bookshop, I get lost in them and I am the ideal customer as I never leave without buying a book, It seems like a sin to leave without a book. I grew up in a house lined with books, my Dad's study is actually like a bookshop, so I have been very blessed to have been given the love of reading from an early age.
Many thanks to Fiona for some great book recommendtions and interesting answers!
Please don't forget to check out her book The Positive Habit.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Gill (The Positive Habit), Hodder & Stoughton (The Power of Now), Ebury Publishing (How To Love), Vintage Publishing (The Magus), Egmont UK Ltd (The Magic Faraway Tree)
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