Real Happiness at Work

Sharon Salzberg

Audiobook length: 10m 56s

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Part of the Find Happiness Reading List

Even the best jobs are filled with stress, tough deadlines, impatient bosses, seemingly endless meetings — all the ills of harried life. Sharon Salzberg is here to help.

The Bottom Line

By applying classic Buddhist principles — such as balance, compassion and integrity — to the modern workplace, you can increase your productivity and job satisfaction.

I. Introduction

Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg has spent 40 years as a leader in her field, co-founding the Insight Meditation Society and writing the 2010 bestseller Real Happiness. With Real Happiness at Work, she turns her attention to helping us overcome feelings of job stress and dissatisfaction at work by drawing on ancient Buddhist practices. Through this approach, Salzberg says, “We discover that it’s possible to be competitive without being cruel — and committed without being consumed.”

The book is divided into eight “pillars,” each accompanied by 10- to 20-minute meditations to help people address career unhappiness. These pillars are balance, concentration, compassion, resilience, communication and connection, integrity, meaning, and open awareness. Rather than looking at work problems as unavoidable obstacles, Salzberg views them “as a potential source for achieving greater clarity” in life, especially considering that many of us spend more hours at work than anywhere else. As a result, Americans often confuse their core sense of self with the roles they play at work — but Salzberg points out that uncoupling the two is critical to a person’s peace of mind.