Thrive by Arianna Huffington: book review

Thrive (2014) is written by the co-founder of The Huffington Post, an American online summary of world political news, established in 2005. But this is not a book on the organization or the business of current affairs. Instead, it is a personal journey. And on this journey, Huffington offers advice to readers who “are feeling tired and fed up and wondering if there is more to life” than being a workaholic.

Hence this is a well-being book based on Huffington’s experiences, and also her research on studies related to health, exercise, sleep, meditation, technology addiction and over-use, community giving, and the indicators of success. This latter point is derived from a global move away from purely measuring success in terms of productivity, the amount of hours worked, dollars earned, and material accumulation, and moving towards other measures of success, such as personal satisfaction and lifestyle choices.

Huffington promotes the benefits of sleep, rest, recuperation, creative time, and generally looking after personal health in order to increase effective time at work and at home – balancing life to achieve more personal choices.

The book is separated into four sections: Well-Being, Wisdom, Wonder, and Giving. It’s a cross between current affairs, memoir, and a self-help book. It’s not academic or literary, but it is an easy read. For readers that want to examine the research in more detail, Huffington provides extensive references in the Notes section. Much like the summarized online news blog, The Huffington Post, that she co-founded – not original but a compilation of other news – this book is written in the same manner. Readers can take bits of advice from the book relevant to their own lives.

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