9 Best Books to Stop Negative Thinking and Being Positive

It’s not always easy to maintain a positive outlook in your daily life. Negative thoughts keep encroaching on your positive thought space once in a while. Some effective books to help with negative thinking are necessary. These positive reading books can help you develop a more positive mindset and lead a happy and fulfilling life.

Here, I’ve compiled a list of the best books for negative thinking to alleviate stress and anxiety. These are essentially the best positive thinking books to help cultivate resilience, optimism and a growth mindset. You’ll be able to shift your perspective and develop a more optimistic outlook on life.

The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale

The Power of Positive Thinking is a classic in the field of positive psychology. It’s the best book for positive thinking and has helped countless people develop a more positive mindset. It offers practical strategies for overcoming negative thoughts and being more optimistic. The book emphasizes the power of faith, optimism and positive self-talk. It’s considered one of the best books to remove negative thoughts, with examples of people who have adopted a more positive mindset and transformed themselves.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.
• The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
• I place this day, my life, my loved ones, my work in the Lord's hands. There is no harm in the Lord's hands, only good. Whatever happens, whatever results, if I am in the Lord's hands it is the Lord's will and it is good.
• Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture.
• Stand up to an obstacle. Just stand up to it, that's all, and don't give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it.

Buy The Power of Positive Thinking

Also Read: 6 Best Books for Self-Development and Growth

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist is a novel that tells the story of a shepherd boy named Santiago who embarks on a journey to find his personal legend. It’s one of the positive books to read that encourages readers to approach life with a sense of curiosity and wonder. The book is filled with powerful messages about the importance of following one's heart, believing in oneself, and persevering in the face of adversity. And it’s among the best books for positive thinking.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
• It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
• When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
• One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
• There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

Buy The Alchemist

The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne

The Secret is a self-help book that explores the law of attraction and how it can be used to manifest one's desires. It’s considered the best book to stop negative thinking. It suggests that by focusing on positive thoughts and feelings, you can attract better experiences and positive outcomes into life. The book contains inspiring stories of people who have successfully used the law of attraction to transform their lives. It’s one of the best positive thinking books that also provides readers with tips for cultivating a positive mindset.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Be grateful for what you have now. As you begin to think about all the things in your life you are grateful for, you will be amazed at the never-ending thoughts that come back to you of more things to be grateful for.
• There is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Every single circumstance of your life can change!
• There is a truth deep down inside of you that has been waiting for you to discover it, and that truth is this: you deserve all good things life has to offer.
• Your power is in your thoughts, so stay awake. In other words, remember to remember.
• When you want to attract something into your life, make sure your actions don’t contradict your desires.

Buy The Secret

As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen

As a Man Thinketh is another self-help book on positive thinking. It also emphasizes the power of our thoughts in shaping our lives. It’s one of the best books for negative thinking, suggesting that we have the ability to control our thoughts and thus our destiny. This negative thoughts book encourages readers to take responsibility for their thoughts and actions, and it provides practical strategies for developing a more positive mindset. It’s one of the most helpful self-help books for positive thinking to help adopt a more proactive approach to life.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
• Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.
• A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another.
• The outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state... Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.
• As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.

Buy As a Man Thinketh

Also Read: 7 Best Books for Overthinking

The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor

The Happiness Advantage provides a scientific approach to happiness and positive thinking. This positive thinking book states that happiness is not just a result of success, but rather a precursor to it. The book offers methods and strategies for cultivating a more positive mindset towards life. It has several stories about positive thinking from those who have improved their happiness and wellbeing. It’s one of the most effective books on overcoming negative thinking.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Habits are like financial capital – forming one today is an investment that will automatically give out returns for years to come.
• The more you believe in your own ability to success the more likely it is that you will.
• Each one of us is like that butterfly. And each tiny move toward a more positive mindset can send ripples of positivity through our organizations our families and our communities.
• Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost. It undercuts our creativity, raises our stress levels, and lowers our motivation and ability to accomplish goals.
• The best leaders are the ones who show their true colors not during the banner years but during times of struggle.

Buy The Happiness Advantage

The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz

The Magic of Thinking Big is one of the most popular books about negative thoughts. It’s probably the best book on positive psychology that encourages readers to think big and adopt a more positive and proactive way of life. The book emphasizes on the importance of taking action, setting goals and visualizing success. It’s among the best self-help books for negative thinking, with tools you need to change your life for the better, starting at the moment.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it.
• The mind is what the mind is fed.
• Action cures fear.
• Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything.
• Hope is a start. But hope needs action to win victories.

Buy The Magic of Thinking Big

Also Read: 31 Best Books to Read for Life and Transform It

Life’s Amazing Secrets, by Gaur Gopal Das

Life’s Amazing Secrets is another of the best self-help books for negative thinking. It combines ancient wisdom and stories and provides suggestions for living a more positive and meaningful life. It’s one of the must-read books to change your mindset from negative to positive. It’s one of the best books on happiness and positive thinking that delves into a range of topics. It pours insights into many concepts like finding one's purpose in life and the key to lasting happiness. This is among the most popular positive thinking self-help books.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Anyone can find the dirt in someone. Be the one that finds the gold.
• Watch your thoughts, they turn into words. Watch your words, they turn into actions. Watch your actions, they turn into habits. Watch your habits, they turn into character. Watch your character, it turns into your destiny. It all begins with a thought.
• Live your life in such a way that those who know you but don’t know God, will come to know God because they know you.
• It is strange that sword and words have the same letters.
• To accept someone when everything is going right is easy. But when things are falling apart around you and you stick together, that’s the test of a relationship. Love is when we have every reason to break up but we do not.

Buy Life’s Amazing Secrets

Declutter Your Mind, by S.J. Scott

Declutter Your Mind is a short self-help book with practical strategies for overcoming negative thoughts. It’s one of those books on thinking positive that puts emphasis on the importance of decluttering your mind. The book can help reduce stress and anxiety and develop some better habits. It suggests developing a space for inner peace and happiness for the purpose. The book contains several mindfulness techniques, making it one of the most effective thinking-positive books to read.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there – buried.
• Awareness is always the first step toward change.
• The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
• We can learn to break the habit of accumulating and perpetuating old emotion by flapping our wings, metaphorically speaking, and refrain from mentally dwelling on the past.
• Meditation is a lot like doing reps at a gym. It strengthens your attention muscle.

Buy Declutter Your Mind

Also Read: 7 Best Books for Mindfulness

The 5 AM Club, by Robin Sharma

The 5 AM Club is another of the good books to read for positive thinking that encourages readers to adopt a more proactive approach to life. It suggests waking up early to eliminate negative thoughts early in the day. It provides strategies to wake up early feeling inspired, and focused to get the most out of each day. This best positive thinking book has a step-by-step method to help you use the quietest hours of daybreak the best. With tips for having exercise, self-renewal and personal growth, it’s one on the best positive self-talk books.

Top 5 Lessons from the book:

• All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.
• Art feeds my soul. Great books battleproof my hope. Rich conversations magnify my creativity. Wonderful music uplifts my heart. Beautiful sights fortify my spirit.
• Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life.
• Remember, every professional was once an amateur, and every master started as a beginner. Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary feats, once they’ve routinized the right habits.
• A bad day for the ego is a good day for the soul.

Buy The 5 AM Club

Also Read: 5 Best Books for Time Management

OK, those were some of the famous books on positive thinking and negative thinking books. These are among the books to overcome negativity and lead a positive life with a confident attitude throughout.

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