These emotional healing books changed my life.
And that is not me being dramatic. Each book I mention has had a dramatic impact on my journey.
In fact, I can point to one book that kick started my emotional healing journey. That book was Dealing with the Crazy Makers in Your Life
But what I have learned from coaching many people is that because each person's experience is different - there is no one right book.
So, besides sharing my favorite books I am also going to teach you how to pick out the right emotional healing book for you.
How to Pick the Best Emotional Healing Book for You
I look at emotional healing as having two main stages. First identifying the issue(s) and learning as much as you can about it. The second is to actually heal that situation. You can’t heal what you don’t know about or understand.So, I first recommend you look for a book on your specific situation versus general emotional healing. For example if you are going through a divorce look for a book that is specific to divorce.
Or if you are working on healing childhood trauma you may look for a book specific to something related to it. For example dealing with an alcoholic parent.
This will help you understand the situation and not feel alone (critical step for self-compassion). This will also give you a better idea of what you need to heal within the situation. There are many small nuances within different issues that finding a specialty book will be more beneficial.
If you feel like you are dealing with many issues, choose the one that seems to cause the most issues in your daily life! I knew if I was crying over the same thing repeatedly it was time to work on it.
Once you know more about the situation and what you need, then you can begin to look at books that will help you with the healing process. These books will be on specific tools such as tapping, meditation and journaling. You may also find tools that are specific to the situation you are dealing with.
The following books are ones I have read and liked enough to recommend to others! I have broken them into three groups - understanding the situation, healing tools and books that will help you build emotional health foundations.
Books About Understanding Emotional Issues
- Will I Ever be Good Enough by Karly McBride - This book is for women who have narcissistic mothers. And it is very helpful in helping you understand why you may be functioning the way you are. If you are not sure about your mom, it does offer tips on how to tell.
- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Book summary to help you understand faster!) Hands down my favorite non-fiction book. Four amazingly simple to "rules" to help you manage your life. But be warned, implementing these simple rules isn't as easy as reading the book! This book will help with both understanding and healing emotional pain.
- The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz - after you are done with The Four Agreements I recommend this book. It expands on the agreements in relationships. Offering more insight into how to have healthy relationships.
- Dealing with the Crazy Makers in Your Life by David Hawkins - my counselor recommended this book to me. And it was life changing. Hawkins covers the main types of crazy makers, so you can better see what isn't you and instead the people around you! Many who suffer from emotional trauma are lead to believe it is their fault. This book helps you sort though what is and what isn't.
Books to Help You Heal Emotional Pain
- The Tapping Solution by Nick Ortner - tapping is one of my favorite tools for helping to calm and rewrite limiting beliefs!
- Radical Forgiveness by Colin Tipping - this book completely changed the way I look at relationships with others. It was my first introduction to the idea of each relationship being for a lesson. Very good starting point for this type of forgiveness work. Includes exercises to help you forgive.
- Self Compassion by Kristen Neff - I would give this book a four star, mainly because I felt it rambled a bit. However, the tools in here are very helpful. Especially the first few chapters.
Books To Help You Build Your Emotional Strength
These are books that while can help you in one of the categories above, they are also beneficial for building up your emotional health tool kit. You don't need to be healing anything for these for them to be helpful. And if you are healing, they can help too!
Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend - I had a bit of a boundaries issue and am a recovering people pleaser. This book was critical in me learning how to stand my ground and not become depleted from over giving. I highly recommend everyone read this!
The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown - I read both of these books right at the same time. I really liked both of them. I felt they worked great together, especially for recovering perfectionist. I personally recommend you start with Daring Greatly. Then use Gifts of Imperfection as a tool kit.
* I do update this list after I read a book that I think is worthy to be included! But you can also stay up to date on books I am actively reading by subscribing to my newsletter. At the end of each week I share what book I am reading and if I like it! Sign up below.
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