When the World is in Chaos – Control what you can – Yourself

For many, January is Self-Improvement Month. Change can be be symbolic and a good time to turn a new leaf (personally). Self- Help, Self- Improvement, Personal Transformation, whatever you want to call it, in the past have held the reputation for being too much “work”, however there are now many motivating, uplifting, and entertaining reads to help shift your perspective.

2020-2022 in general has been extreme strange and disorienting to put it mildly. Yet in the literary world, most likely because of COVID-19 and stay at home orders, hundreds, and more accurately close to 600 books were set to be published in a single month! With so many different titles and genres to choose from, we have narrowed down and selected a handful of some of the most inspiring books that are available.

Below we have provided some additional information from the publisher and options for purchase if interested. Click any of the below book links to check out more booklists and how you can support your independent bookstores.

Practicing Mindfulness: 75 Essential Meditations to Reduce Stress, Improve Mental Health, and Find Peace in the Everyday

Mindfulness meditations are a great way to cultivate awareness and acceptance of the here and now-Practicing Mindfulness makes it easy and accessible with 75 evidence-based exercises designed to bring calmness and compassion into your day-to-day. From finding focus with a 5-minute The Power of the Mind exercise to embracing the experience with a 25-minute Open-Awareness Meditation, Practicing Mindfulness provides the tools you need to relieve stress, improve wellness, and practice peace of mind moment to moment and throughout the daily grind. 

Practicing Mindfulness includes: The daily mind-Discover exactly what mindfulness is, how it helps, and how these proven exercises can bring relief, relaxation, and resilience to your day-to-day.Practical advice-You’ll find plenty of help in dealing with distorted or wandering thoughts, how to handle mental blocks, and steps for staying cool and collected in all situations. Mind over matter-Ranging from short traditional meditations to longer creative exercises, you’ll find 75 easy-to-follow practices to ground yourself, like breathwork and body scans.

Let That Sh*t Go: A Journal for Leaving Your Bullsh*t Behind and Creating a Happy Life

From the author of bestselling journal Zen as F*ck, Monica Sweeney gives the gift of letting go with this journal for leaving your bullsh*t behind and creating a happy life. 

Harboring grudges and plotting revenge takes a lot of energy. While the wait for one true moment of schadenfreude sounds oh so sweet, true bliss can be found in simply not giving a f*ck. 

With Let That Sh*t Go, you’ll find moments of profanity-laced catharsis and joy through journaling activities and inspirations that are positive as f*ck. Within these truly charming pages, you’ll find ways to let go of the bullsh*t and lift your spirit a little f*cking higher. Click Here to See “Let That Sh*t Go” and help Independent Bookstores.
Also Available on Amazon.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

 Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear.

She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving

Despite our constant search for new ways to optimize our bodies and minds for peak performance, human beings are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally and reaching for a bar that keeps rising higher and higher. Why do we measure our time in terms of efficiency instead of meaning? Why can’t we just take a break? 

In Do Nothing, award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee illuminates a new path ahead, seeking to institute a global shift in our thinking so we can stop sabotaging our well-being, put work aside, and start living instead of doing. As it turns out, we’re searching for external solutions to an internal problem. We won’t find what we’re searching for in punishing diets, productivity apps, or the latest self-improvement schemes. Yet all is not lost–we just need to learn how to take time for ourselves, without agenda or profit, and redefine what is truly worthwhile.

Untamed

There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent–even from ourselves.

 For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice–the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living.

I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual

With over 500,000 readers a month at her enormously popular blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com, Luvvie Ajayi is a go-to source for smart takes on pop culture. 

I’m Judging You is her debut book of humorous essays that dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digital, connected lives. It passes on lessons and side-eyes on life, social media, culture, and fame, from addressing those terrible friends we all have to serious discussions of race and media representation to what to do about your fool cousin sharing casket pictures from Grandma’s wake on Facebook.

With a lighthearted, razor sharp wit and a unique perspective, I’m Judging You is the handbook the world needs, doling out the hard truths and a road map for bringing some “act right” into our lives, social media, and popular culture. It is the Do-Better Manual.

Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts

Are your thoughts holding you captive? I’ll never be good enough. Other people have better lives than I do. God couldn’t really love me. Jennie Allen knows what it’s like to swirl in a spiral of destructive thoughts, but she also knows we don’t have to stay stuck in toxic thinking patterns. As she discovered in her own life, God built a way for us to escape that downward spiral. Freedom comes when we refuse to be victims to our thoughts and realize we have already been equipped with power from God to fight and win the war for our minds. 

In Get Out of Your Head, Jennie inspires and equips us to transform our emotions, our outlook, and even our circumstances by taking control of our thoughts. Our enemy is determined to get in our heads to make us feel helpless, overwhelmed, and incapable of making a difference for the kingdom of God. But when we submit our minds to Christ, the promises and goodness of God flood our lives in remarkable ways. It starts in your head. And from there, the possibilities are endless.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

This bestselling book from the author of Wild collects the best of The Rumpus’s Dear Sugar advice columns plus never-before-published pieces. Rich with humor, insight, compassion–and absolute honesty–this book is a balm for everything life throws our way.

Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills–and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel.

Sugar–the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild–is the person thousands turn to for advice.

Sabotage: How to Get Out of Your Own Way

A pocket-sized investigation into self-sabotage: what it is, why we do it, and how we can break our toxic patterns. Not quite out, this title will be released on September 29, 2020. Pre order option is available.

How do we get out of our own way?With personal stories and research-based insights multi-hyphenate Emma Gannon explores her own relationship with self-sabotage and presents a quick, meaningful guide to help you recognize your own forms of self doubt, identify what is holding you back, and the steps you can take to loosen its grip.

Click to See “Sabotage” and help Independent Bookstores. Also Available on Amazon.

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