Posted on 3/24/2019
.. does it help?
It seems to me that such books help only to those who don't need any help. I might be wrong but I feel like these books are similar to loans, banks give loan only to those who already have a job and a very good credit history. In other words, people who do not really need loans for normal life. Banks refuse to give loan to people who don't have anything, even if they are the ones who need it most ! Similarly, most of the knowledge related to happiness doesn't work on a person who is not already happy. When happy people read these books they feel - 'Ah ! This is true stuff, this is exactly how things work. I know because I am already like that. If not always, sometimes.'
When they need little help, this works wonderfully. But to those who really need help, feel like anyone can write this stuff, but what about reality? This is not reality! This is not how things work. Which is true to some extent too. Because the person who writes such books sees the world objectively. And anyone who can see the world objectively - such self-help stuff makes more sense. Everyone knows that this is how it should be.. but those of us who are not already like that we feel like - 'it should be like this, but in reality, it is not possible.'
You are lucky, in some ways, if you find these books useful and if you understand these books, most people do not! It might not be 100% true, but I think a person is happy not because he/she reads self-help or pop psychology books or learns from it, but it is another way... a person understands these books and finds it useful because he/she is already happy! When people ask me to suggest good self-help books, I find it very difficult.