With December in full swing, it’s a great time to stop and think about what your emotional needs are.
The holidays mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but sometimes the urge to “get that holiday right,” can put a strain on a relationship or just on oneself.
The holidays also remind us of the relatives that we’ve lost, they might bring up great memories of the past, but leave us longing for a time before.
And with January just around the corner, and resolutions on the horizon, it’s a great time to start to pick up those self help books and take care of you.
Here are the top 7 best self help books to read right now:
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life – Best for someone who needs more clear boundaries. This book is exactly what it sounds like, written by two psychologists, they give you the tools to say no more often and to establish boundaries in your life.
The Body Keeps the Score – best for someone who’s battling trauma. Trauma is a part of life and the body remembers trauma, so this book is about understanding how the body works through life and how to better come to terms with what you’ve gone through. According to Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, trauma can affect the sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust, so it’s better to understand what the trauma is that we work through.
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle – best for someone who needs help in their work and social life. Prolonged stress and anxiety can lead to burn out and with this book you can better understand this cycle and close this circle. Burnout is emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a decreased sense of accomplishment according to sisters and co-authors Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA. The authors want you to understand your biological stress clock and how to manage these emotions.
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love – best for someone who wants to create stronger relationships with loved ones or new lovers. Psychologist Rachel Heller & Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Amir Levine and psychologist co write this book about attachment theory. Their idea is that there are three main attachment styles, Anxious, Avoidant, or Secure; and by understanding which attachment style you fall into, you can better navigate your relationships.
Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts – best if you need a place to start. The book is wide ranging and helps to go through the day to day emotional pains like loneliness, rejection, guilt, and low self-esteem.
Why has Nobody Told Me this Before? – best for those who want to cope with the last two years of collective trauma. Dr. Julie Smith writes from the perspective of a clinical therapist about how to fortify and maintain your mental health in trying times. She give you proven coping techniques to help work through your stresses and traumas.
Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy – best for those of us who need to really emote how we’re actually feeling. A powerful guide to owning our emotions—even the difficult ones—in order to show up authentically in the world, from the popular therapist behind the Instagram account @sitwithwhit. In a time where we all just answer “fine” to how we’re doing, this book is telling us to be ourselves and sit with our real emotions, we don’t have to pretend to be positive all the time.
