Mind, Body & Spirit

If books are a (wo)man's best friend, here are some that have come along on my coaching journey. Some books came to me intuitively, some others through recommendation, and some others just happened to be around me (coz my partner bought them). And I am grateful for all those people who brought good books to me, and I am grateful for the books that came to me by themselves.

I am writing this to share the books that have helped me and therefore, in no way I am claiming that these are the best or only books to be referred to. I can only speak for what I have experienced. Therefore, I will absolutely welcome other suggestions from those who interact with this article. This is being put together on demand of my coaching students.

I will say just one think before we jump into the great work of writing. More important than reading several books is to use what you learn from the book. Take time with it, chew it, ruminate on it, meditate with the idea it offers and by all means experiment with those ideas. Then and only then, a book opens up to you in its entirety.

A good book doesn't give all their secrets at once. - Stephen King

Mind, Thinking, Communication

1. Six Thinking Hats & Teach your children how to Think - by Edward De Bono.
2. Thinking Fast & Slow - by Daniel Kahneman.
3. Zen mind, Beginners mind - by Shunryu Suzuki.
4. Mindset - by Dr. Carol S. Dweck.
5. Blink - by Malcolm Gladwell.
6. Games People Play - by Eric Berne.
7. Born to Win - by Dorothy Jongeward & Muriel James.
8. The Five Love Languages - by Gary Chapman

Change, Habits, Behavior

1. Letting Go - by David R. Hawkins
2. Behave - by Robert Sapolsky
3. Atomic Habits - by James Clear
4. The power of Habit - by Charles Duhigg
5. Triggers & What got you here won't get you there - by Marshall Goldsmith
6. Immunity to Change - by Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey
7. The beauty of Discomfort - by Amanda Lang
8. Flow - by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Body, Emotions, Wellbeing

1. Emotional Intelligence - by Daniel Goleman
2. You Brain at work - by David Rock
3. The Body - by Bill Bryson
4. Breath - by James Nestor
5. The Biology of Belief - by Bruce Lipton
6. Molecules of Emotions - by Candace B. Pert
7. How we Feel - by Giovaani Frazzetto
8. Atlas of the Heart - by Brene Brown

Leadership & Organization Culture

1. Leading at a higher level - by Kenneth Blanchard
2. Mastering Leadership - by Robert J Anderson & William A. Adams
3. Theory U - by C. Otto Scharmer
4. Principles - by Ray Dalio
5. Influence - by Robert B. Cialdini
6. On becoming a Leader - by Warren Bennis
7. The Fifth Discipline - by Peter Senge
8. The fearless Organization - by Amy C. Edmondson
9. The Value Driven Organization - by Richard Barrett
10. Zero Distance - by Danah Zohar
11. Culture's Consequences - by Geert Hofstede

Coaching

1. On becoming a Person - by Carl Rogers
2. Coaching across cultures - by Philip Rosinski
3. The Coaching habit - by Michael Bungay Stanier
4. Effective group Coaching - by Jennifer Britton
5. The Heart of Laser focused coaching - by Marion Franklin
6. Leadership Team Coaching - by Peter Hawkins
7. Coaching & Mentoring - by David Clutterbuck
8. The art of Somatic Coaching - by Richard Strozzi-Heckler
9. Your Body is your Brain - by Amanda Blake
10. The inner game of Tennis - by Timothy Gallway

Psychology, Trauma awareness

1. The undiscovered Self, The Archetypes and Collective Unconscious - by Carl Jung
2. Waking the Tiger - by Peter Levine
3. Bioenergetics - by Alexander Lowen
4. The 5 Personality Patterns - by Steven Kessler
5. No Bad Parts - by Richard C. Schwartz
6. The Body keeps the score - by Bassel Van Der Kolk
7. The Myth of Normal - by Gabor Mate
8. It Didn't start with you - by Mark Wolyn

Philosophy, Spirituality

1. The Map of Consciousness explained - by David R. Hawkins
2. Eastern Psychology - by William Compton
3. The way of Zen - by Alan Watts
4. Choiceless Awareness - by J. Krishnamurti
5. Vedanta Treatise - by A. Parthasarathy
6. The Power of Now - by Eckhart Tolle
7. Tao Te Ching - by Lao Tzu
8. The Heart of Awareness - by Thomas Byrom
9. The teachings of Ramana Mahrishi - by Arthur Osborne
10. I am That - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
11. Be Love now - by Ram Dass
12. Cosmic Consciousness - by Richard Maurice Bucke

Out of the Box

1. The Artist's way - by Julia Cameron
2. Social Presencing Theatre - by Arwana Hayashi
3. The Little Prince - by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
4. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse - by Charlie Mackesy
5. The Celestine Prophecy - by James Redfield
6. The Prophet - by Kahlil Gibran
7. The book of Children - by Osho
8. The book of Women - by Osho
9. Krishna the man and his philosophy - by Osho
10. The Story of my experiments with Truth - by Mahatma Gandhi

There are several other books that I am yet to explore, from my own native tradition. The Upanishad's, Yoga sutras, Natya Shastra and several other books of wisdom from other traditions too.

For those who are interested in the spirituality, wisdom, the esoteric, I will recommend watching out for the upcoming books by my Mentor Coach Ram S. Ramanathan. His book "The Gift Within" is the translation of Adi Shankara's Bhaja Govindam. I have been fortunate enough to have read the drafts of several of his other translation books that I hope are soon going to be published. All I can say is that there is ample wisdom in these books for a lifetime.

And now, closing with North star, my guiding spirit - The Bhagvad Gita. If I had chosen just one book, this will be it.