Wellbeing is a topic I can’t stop talking about. Our mental health is so important to us, yet we let our own happiness and mental state slide, in the place of chaotic lives and toxic relationships.
I’ve been on a journey (god I hate that phrase) but it’s true these past 12 months, from not being able to leave the house to go to work, to being able to manage a 9-5 job, and a blog on the side. As well, as living a pretty normal life… sort of.
Anyway here is my favourite wellbeing books that I have read over the past 12 months, and I can’t wait for you to read them too!
How To Stop Time
How to Stop Time is a wild and bittersweet story about losing and finding yourself, about the certainty of change and about the lifetimes it can take to really learn how to live. I absolutely loved reading this book this summer, and I really managed to connect to the character through his concept of time, and how depression and mental health can slow time down. This is a must read book!
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover – working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first-hand. He can try to tame the past that is fast catching up with him. The only thing Tom must not do is fall in love.
Ice Cream for Breakfast
Laura has been an idol of mine for a long time! She speaks the truth, she’s open and I love everything this book stands for. The book looks at the surprising art of reconnecting with your inner child in order to make your adult life that little bit simpler. You can own your own home and want to build a blanket fort on a bad day. She really makes us ‘millenials’ feel better for still wanting to live out our inner childhood dreams.
Give yourself permission to seek praise, ask for help, and have something soft snuggled against your face because you’re sad. You can pay your bills on time and still exclaim out loud when something is really f*cking cool, run a business and wear cat-covered thermals under your suit.
Calm
I have read this book time and time again. It is both a book, and a practical educational tool for managing your anxiety and mood. I tend to take this book with me when I fly, as it distracts me from the fear of flying. The book talks about how modern life is hectic and relentless: trains delayed, endless emails filling the inbox, kids squabbling before bedtime… There has never been a more important time to rediscover your pause button.
Calm is the book that will show you how to take back a little bit of peace, space and all-important calm. This book contains the simple tools, tricks and habits that will change the rest your life. It is a practical and pleasurable guide to twenty-first century mindfulness.
Mad Girl
I read this book this summer and I really connected with Bryony, and her journey. I thought I would struggle with this memoir, but after a few pages, and a chapter of two I couldn’t put it down. Her experiences throughout her life echoed with my own anxiety and OCD, and it felt so nice reading someone else experience. I even cried when I put the book down (PS. I was on the beach and was super embarrassed!) but I read stuff that I needed to hear for a long time.
This book is both hilarious, and raw. I love the way Bryony puts her whole self out there, and even talks about those weird and wonderful thoughts shes had over the years. She made me feel inspired with my own story. I’m excited to read more of her stuff – I’ve heard great things about The Wrong Knickers: A Decade Of Chaos.
The Anxiety Solution: A Quieter Mind, a Calmer You
This is a book about and for every anxious young woman – at home, in school or at work, in social situations or on their own – one that will benefit everyone from worried mums to stressed teens. I loved this book, and it helped me with my general anxiety!
Therapist Chloe Brotheridge has used the latest scientific research and her own personal experience to create a programme that has already helped thousands of women to overcome fear and stress. The Anxiety Solution will provide you with simple yet powerful practical tools to help you manage your symptoms and start feeling better every day.
Almost Adulting: All You Need to Know to Get It Together (Sort Of)
This book is amazing and by the end of it you’ll have learned not only how to dress yourself, how to travel alone, how to talk to strangers online, and how to date strangers (in PERSON!), but also how to pass as a real, functioning, appropriately socialised adult. It is a mash up of essays, lists and artwork all there to inspire you in to living a better life.
The chapters cover all aspects of life including: Making internet friends who are cool and not murderers, flirting with someone in a way to make them think you are cool and not a murderer, being in an actual relationship where you talk about your feelings in a healthy manner, eating enough protein, assembling a somewhat acceptable adult wardrobe when you have zero dollars, going on adventures without starting to smell and how sex is supposed to feel, but, like, actually though.
How to be a grown-up
Have you ever felt lost, anxious, panicky about adulthood? Have you ever spent a hungover Sunday crying into a bowl of cereal? Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and felt nothing but green-eyed jealousy and evil thoughts? Yeh me too, like all my 20’s. I loved this book and couldn’t put it down!
Daisy Buchanan has been there, done that and got the vajazzle. She dispenses all the emotional and practical advice you need to negotiate a difficult decade. Covering everything from how to become more successful and confident at work, how to feel pride in yourself without needing validation from others, how to turn rivals into mentors, and how to *really* enjoy spending time on your own, this is a warm, kind, funny voice in the dark saying “Honestly don’t worry, you’re doing your best and you’re amazing!”
What are your favourite books? I am really loving reading at the moment and would love to hear your recommendations!
Sarah
03/18/2018 at 10:37I really enjoyed The Year of Less
By Cait Flanders and Leap Year by Helen Russell, both inspired me to look after myself more. I’m definitely going to read some of you recommendations.
Sophie
03/20/2018 at 12:02OH I will have a read of those books!