I recently read the book Thrive by Arianna Huffington. Arianna tackles a very important issue in our modern age : that of our workaholic, always-on society that defines success by how much money you make or what job title you have.
Her book is a move to influence people to change this trend in their lifestyles. She encourages readers to take practical steps towards living a more balanced life that truly reflects success in real terms successful relationships, health, wisdom and a rich, fulfilling life.
This is why I would recommend this book because I believe in this message – that financial or career success is hollow if in reaching it, you’ve had to sacrifice relationships, health, peace or enjoyment of life
I loved how her book started with her very real account of the epiphany she experienced which led her to making major lifestyle adjustments to re-order her out-of-control life. The book is also really well researched, with plenty of evidence showing how overworked, stressed out, unhealthy and unhappy our modern society is, and she offers valuable practical lessons on how to make the right changes.
The well-being chapters were my favourite by far and I found the sections on sleep particularly interesting and helpful. She is also clearly very well-read and I liked the range of interesting and varied examples, anecdotes, quotes and facts scattered throughout the book. I also loved the personal nature of her accounts of her mother who sounds like she was an amazing and wise woman.
I’m not much of a fan of contemporary religion references nor Greek mythology and it didn’t personally resonate with me or add to the value I got out of the book though – but that’s just a personal preference. So some of those parts I found a little laborious and my least favourite sections were on co-incidence (over-explained in my opinion), death and intuition. I loved the practical sections so I would have loved to have read more detail on practical steps for the areas of wisdom, wonder and giving. However, this was redeemed by the very practical and long Appendix section at the back, particularly with the section on downloadable apps to help us ‘unplug’ and the list of volunteer organisations you can contact listed in the Appendix.
Overall, a well-researched book with a great message and some brilliant wisdom (and further resources) in it.
*Booklook bloggers and Thomas Nelson publishers provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.*
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