In a world with increasing burnout, rates of mental illness, and conflict, it's never been more important to prioritize our mental health. And for many of us, we find solace and peace in the pages of a good book. From healing books on trauma to soothing reads on grief, and from meditations that support spiritual living to reflective pieces that guide toward personal growth, these books offer comfort and encouragement for your journey toward mental well-being.
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Books on Emotions and Mental Health
Books on Emotions and Mental Health
Millions of us are desperately trying to rewrite our past by unconsciously repeating it—unknowingly reenacting the traumatic events in our lives in an effort to complete unfinished business or undo what was done to us. These unconscious efforts to undo trauma only bring more pain, more disappointment, and more psychological damage. Unless we process past traumas, we can't heal them. Put Your Past in the Past by renowned psychotherapist Beverly Engel will help you face your past head-on to find true and lasting wholeness.
You can find peace, whether or not you forgive those who harmed you. Feeling pressured to forgive their offenders is a common reason trauma survivors avoid mental health services and support. You Don't Need to Forgive is an invaluable resource for trauma survivors and their clinicians who feel alienated and even gaslighted by the toxic positivity and moralism that often characterize attitudes about forgiveness in psychology and self-help.
Anger is probably the most misunderstood of all the human emotions. Rage has shown that anger can be a catalyst for change. On the flip side, it can also be a tool employed in fear by those resisting reform or trying to quell protests. The Rise of Rage explores the nature of anger and walks us through a ten-step process to effectively resolve angry feelings, helping us free ourselves from the bondage that anger puts us in and learn how to make it work for us instead.
Every good parent wants to create relationships with their children that are filled with joy, connection, and healthy attachment. Yet well-meaning but traumatized parents—those who suffered as children or who are dealing with traumatic events as adults—tend to see the world from a survival point of view. Post-Traumatic Parenting goes far beyond the fad social-media trends like "gentle" and "responsive" parenting to provide a clear, easy-to-follow, and substantive guide, helping you break the cycle, enjoy the journey, and create healthy, joyful, dynamic, lasting relationships with your children.
Books on Grief & Loss
Various Authors
There is no "right" way to grieve. For more than fifty years, Good Grief has helped millions of readers find comfort and hope after loss. Whether one is mourning a death, the end of a marriage, a job loss, or other difficult life changes, Good Grief is a steady companion in times of loss.
In addition to Good Grief, the Good Grief series offers a devotional and a journal for those searching for more resources to help them heal. The three books can be purchased as a complete set, in bundles of two, or individually.
As the first Black woman to anchor the Boston-area evening news, Liz Walker found herself in an industry that defined the neighborhood of Roxbury largely by violence. But when she became a pastor there, she grew close to households marked not only by trauma but by courage. In the wake of tragedy, Walker's congregation invited neighbors to gather to create soft spaces for others' grief to land. Out of this ministry grew a grassroots trauma-healing program, one now being replicated across the country. An extraordinary account of a Black church that gives its neighbors a space to share grief and find community, No One Left Alone offers a simple truth: the wounded heal best together.
We are forever changed when we lose a loved one. Leanne Friesen thought she knew a lot about bereavement, but only when her sister died from cancer did she learn what grieving people need. In Grieving Room, Friesen writes with vulnerability, wisdom, and wit about lessons learned in the face of death. When we lose someone, we all need room to grieve.
Grieving the loss of a loved one is an experience with many different stages and seasons. Winter Grief, Summer Grace helps readers navigate the phases of emotion through the four seasons of the year. Through quotes, poetry, and advice, James E. Miller provides guidance and comfort for those who mourn.
Books on Spiritual Living
The pursuit of happiness, as defined by settlers and enshrined in the American Dream, has brought us to the brink: emotionally, spiritually, socially, and as a species. But Indigenous people carry forward the values that humans need to survive and thrive. Rooted in ten Indigenous values, Journey to Eloheh helps us learn lifeways that lead to true wholeness, well-being, justice, and harmony.
Too many of us are stuck on the treadmill of consumer spirituality, clinging to the illusion that we are in charge of our own spiritual growth and development. But the path of true transformation, according to Hunter Mobley, isn't in doing more, but in doing less—in letting go of control and adopting a contemplative posture that will naturally lead us to our true self. Letting Go, Finding You shows how a contemplative spiritual path, informed by the Enneagram, will allow you to finally stop striving after false promises and start surrendering to the truest version of yourself.
Weeping, one of our most private acts, can forge connection. But many of us have been taught to hide our tears. When writer Benjamin Perry realized he hadn't cried in over ten years, he undertook an experiment to cry every day. Learning to Cry explores humans' rich legacy of weeping and helps us reclaim our crying to bring us into deeper relationship with a world that's breaking.
Many of us are living daily in a state of chronic stress and fight-or-flight response. But it doesn't need to be this way. New developments in brain science have proven that intentionally pausing for a few minutes actually rewires our brain in ways that make us calmer and less reactive, helping us to be better able to see the bigger picture. Practice the Pause explores how a seven-second pause practice can move us beyond our fight-or-flight response and equip us to cultivate the common good.
Books on Personal Growth
How nice it would be to clear the calendar—to just stop doing so much stuff. Except kids get sick and the work project awaits and elderly relatives need care. No matter how well you hack it, manage it, slice or dice or delegate it: in some seasons of life, busyness is a given. The solution, writes Rachelle Crawford, is not to merely declutter your calendar or unsubscribe from the busy life. The trick lies in learning how to be busy. How to Be Busy is a lighthearted, practical guide for how to live your deep, meaningful, unhurried life—right in the middle of your busy one.
This Book Won't Make You Happy
Happiness is fleeting. But what if it's not even needed to live a life of purpose and peace? This Book Won't Make You Happy offers a path to something much more achievable and satisfying: contentment. By incorporating simple postures rooted in cognitive behavioral science and mindfulness practices into our daily routines, we can move toward balance and calm and away from anxiety. Through these practices we will overcome obstacles that hold us back from living meaningful and contented lives.
We are living in an era of a massive empathy deficit, yet our capacity to imagine what someone else is experiencing has never been more important. Through inspiring stories, interviews with experts, and self-development exercises, Purposeful Empathy offers practical advice to foster personal, organizational, and social transformation.
Explore how your self-image and daily habits shape your relationships with others in The Love Habit (LOVE: Learn, Optimize, Validate, Experience). Bestselling author and relationship expert Rainie Howard says you have the power to break free of unhealthy cycles and to blossom into the best version of yourself. The Love Habit shows you how through chapters offering insights on embracing a love-based approach to your habits.
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