I’ve read a lot of self-help books. Here, Gentle Reader, I will list only the best, the most useful, the most perspective-widening, self-love-inspiring, possibility-creating tomes of wisdom I’ve encountered.
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Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood This book has a gentle and welcoming quality and tone that I’ve never felt with another book. It has helped me more than any other book to understand my fear and the pain that comes with connecting to others, and to understand and heal my isolation. It brings me to a space of compassion and gentleness with myself. This is the book I read when all I can do is cry–it brings me home to myself. |
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Non-violent Communication: A Language of Life The more I learn of NVC, the more I’m drawn to it and the life-affirming consciousness behind it. This book teahes the basics and offers inspring examples of using it in what seem like hopeless situations: inner city schools, war zones, etc. Classes and groups exist around the world to learn and practic it in more depth. Here in Portland I recommend LaShelle’s classes.NVC, along with the basic “feel your feelings”, is the most effective tool I’ve yet found for resolving stuck emotional energy and patterns. When we untangle our self-judgement for having feelings and needs and develop compassion for ourselves, healing is almost automatic.NVC teaches us to understand the language our heart speaks. |
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The Artist’s Way If you wonder if there’s creativity in you that you aren’t expressing, pick up this book. If you wonder why you feel frustrated and purposeless in your life, pick up this book. If you wonder how you can get in touch with Spirit flowing through you on a very practical level, pick up this book.The Artist’s Way is a book about creativity, but it’s more than that: it’s a program of spiritual renewal. It re-establishes your place in the flow of creation. We hold ourselves separate and refuse to believe in those inner tuggings to do, to create, to “commit to our soul”. We’re afraid, and for good reason: we aren’t usually supported in a way that helps us. This book is a concrete and very effective program to understand and transcend those blocks (which are mostly fear), and jump into the river of life. Begin to believe in yourself and your dreams, and to move toward them in safe and gentle ways. This book has changed my life.» Amazon link to The Artist’s Way |
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Emotional Clearing This book helped me manage and heal my depression. The main idea is that our emotions exist in us, and come to the surface to be cleared. We can either suppress them (which we do in myriad ways), or we can feel them, and thus release them. It’s an East/West approach, so it combines therapeutic perspectives with ideas of Karma and our spiritual journey. It’s very practical: this is how we suppress, and this is how we clear.» Amazon link to Emotional Clearing |
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How To Be An Adult A concise handbook on how to resolve your childhood “unfinished business” and grow up. This is the owner’s manual to your life. It covers anger, fear, guilt, assertiveness, boundaries, drama, co-dependence, intimacy, and spirituality. I come back to this book again and again. It is compact and powerful.» Amazon link to How To Be An Adult |
More books I find useful:
- Love Me? Love Yourself by Vern Black
- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
- Healing the Shame that Binds You by John Bradshaw
- Conscious Loving by Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks
