101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think

This book was released in 2016, at a peak of Western popular interest in mindfulness, meditation, self-improvement, and inner peace. The book speaks to a popular sense that the collective mental health of Western society is in decline, leading to a growth in the popularity of self-help books. Wiest writes directly to a Western audience, dispelling what she sees as common assumptions in Western culture, such as that being “productive” is the purpose of life.

This book is unusual among Western-culture self-help books in that, while it does offer action items, it mostly urges its readers to reconsider their assumptions and practices. From the Introduction, Wiest makes clear her belief that in order to change one’s life, one must change one’s mind. The book focuses on an internal reflective process that itself moves away from the action, objective-based guidance of traditional Western self-help books.

However, aspects of Wiest’s approach do also reflect this goal-based tradition, particularly her recurrent use of the list structure, which presents the illusion of finite, achievable tasks to obtain measurable self-improvement. Wiest’s book content is deeply influenced by the mode and structure of 21st-century Western

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