If you’re looking to learn from new perspectives and to deepen your understanding of yourself and others, check these out…
The Body Keeps the Score
By Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
“You know you’re in a room with someone you trust, you know intellectually that nothing’s going to happen to you, but then there’s the rest of your body and you can’t ever relax.”
A patient’s words, The Body Keeps the Score
How it can change your life:
This book was recommended to me by my therapist during a time when she was helping me learn how to connect with my body. This science-based book articulates troves of data into meaningful insights about trauma healing and integrated modalities of therapy. For those dealing with dissociative disorders, the stories in this book may help you feel validated and less alone. Dr. van der Kolk delves into a therapy called eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), which sparked my own EMDR journey. If you are curious about EMDR therapy, I highly recommend you read this book and consult with an experienced practitioner.
Widen the Window
By Elizabeth A. Stanley
“Family hardship and transitions are always challenging. Whether these events will have lingering detrimental effects on the children, however, depends greatly on how regulated the parents are. The narrower the parents’ windows, the worse the cascading effects on their children.”
Dr. Elizabeth A. Stanley, Widen the Window
How it can change your life:
Another therapist-approved recommendation, Widen the Window, also delves pretty deep into the effects of trauma. It includes a foreword by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., who wrote The Body Keeps the Score. Dr. Elizabeth Stanley likens our capacity to a window and helped me understand the difference between being inside your window versus outside of your window, and how to help yourself recognize when you are outside your window of tolerance and offers strategies to widen your window.
Fuck Feelings
By Michael L. Bennett, M.D. and Sarah Bennett
“You want to feel like a nice person who wishes people well, not a stressed, irritable, and hypersensitive jerk, but when you’re around that special someone–and, alas, you often have to be–darkness fills your soul. You can’t change him, but you feel there should be a way to change yourself.”
Dr. Michael I. Bennett and Sarah Bennett, Fuck Feelings
How it can change your life:
This book combines Dr. Bennett’s psychiatric insights with his daughter’s witty, comedic relief. It’s practical and keeps it real. The duo discuss some very real issues with refreshing humor, offering hilarious scripts for varying situations you might find yourself in. If you need to stop taking yourself so seriously, read this.
Think Like a Monk
By Jay Shetty
“When we talk to ourselves as we would to a loved one, just as when we observe the argument between the child mind and the adult mind, we’re creating a distance between ourselves and our own minds in order to see more clearly.”
Jay Shetty, Think Like a Monk
How it can change your life:
Jay Shetty’s book holds a very special place in my heart because it is so actionable. He walks you through so many interesting journaling exercise that you’ll want to do them all, and if you do, you will learn a lot about yourself that will result in positive change. These journaling exercises help you identify your true values and how to live according to those values to realize fulfillment.
The Seven Principles of Making a Marriage
By John M. Gottman, Ph.D.
How it can change your life:
The learnings in this book are crucial for anyone who has committed to or will commit to a long-term partnership. There are helpful exercises to try with your partner to learn more about one another and deepen the level of intimacy. It goes beyond just assessing compatibility and articulates the difference between successful and failed relationships with real data.
The 5 AM Club
By Robin Sharma
How it can change your life:
This book motivated me to wake up early like no other book could. Something about the way it’s written like fiction helped the lessons resonate. For decades, I refused to rise before noon unless I had work or life obligations. Although I went through many phases of forcing myself to wake up early and dropping the habit after a week, I was never a morning person and despised it vehemently. It always felt like I “had” to wake up early to be a “successful” person. This book helped me see it differently. Now I want to wake up early, not to achieve anything in particular, but to start my day with self love and compassion.
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
How it can change your life:
This is another Robin Sharma book that’s written like fiction but offers meaningful life lessons. I read this book during a time when I was trying to better understand my core values and beginning to de-prioritize external influences and societal norms. This book helped me live my life more authentically and according to my values.
Radical Acceptance
By Tara Brach
How it can change your life:
Tara Brach was recommended to me by many, and for a long time I listened to her weekly podcast, which was greatly enlightening and comforting. Her guided meditations were hugely helpful in starting and maintaining my meditation practice. Tara’s book goes even deeper into her patients’ stories and experiences as well as her methods of working through intense feelings. Her method of meditation called RAIN helped me with some major breakthroughs.
Becoming
By Michelle Obama
How it can change your life:
If you are a woman, you can relate. If you are a minority, you can relate. Anyone who has faced adversity can relate to Michelle Obama’s eloquently written book. There is a powerful theme of perseverance through adversity that is not only motivating but so needed during today’s world.
Many Lives, Many Masters
By Brian L. Weiss, M.D.
How it can change your life:
This book dives into the realm of past-life therapy, detailing real patient experiences. Even if the concept of past lives is too woo woo for you, there are major life lessons articulated through these experiences.
Honorary mentions of classics:
- The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
- Journey of Souls by Michael Newton
- The Book of Dao by Tao Te Ching
