books for self discovery and inspiration
June 25, 2020
Spending lots of time indoors over the last few months has really given me the chance to go inwards and discover more about myself and the areas in which I want to grow. One of the things that has helped guide this search has been these amazing self help books. Since being home, I take around an hour each morning or afternoon to sit down outside and absorb some of these books. The biggest thing that I’ve come to understand through reading these is that literally everything depends on your mindset. You can change your whole life by just deciding to! And that in itself is such an interesting notion to me that I love to dive into these books to find out different ways to live better and improve my experiences day by day.
If you’re new to self help books like I was not long ago, I recently saw this video that gives tips on how to get the most out of the books you read. I also love highlighting within the book or copying down sections that resonate with me, or if its a borrowed book, I will take a picture with my phone and highlight the section on the picture. Here are the books I’ve been reading lately as well as my current read:
Talking about how to live a creative life, this book really opened my mind to what creativity can be beyond just a career or hobby. I ended up reading this entire book within a weekend because it’s such an easy and enjoyable read. Her tone throughout is very playful and lighthearted to the point where it feels like she is really just enjoying telling you these stories. In this way, it feels less like a self-help “do these things to make your life better” type book and more just like a conversation about passion and creativity. We all approach creativity differently and as a creative person myself, her insight was really eye opening since she emphasizes creativity for the sake of it. Rather than building your career around your creativity, allow your creativity to be what it is and if you make money, that is just a bonus. What’s important is that you continue creating because you need to. It’s part of your nature and your gift to create and you can’t let your career or the fear of failure stop you from bringing new things to life.
This book for me fell into the same category as Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success as an important read for the beginnings of spiritual growth. It’s a book that you could read over and over again and constantly get new things out of it depending on how it applies to your life at that moment. Although it’s pretty short, this book is so full of life changing statements that it takes a while to truly absorb it all. I found myself taking breaks between chapters in order to really make sure I understood what I read. For me, this really helped me grasp the notion that our lives are created based on the mindset from which we approach it. In this way, you have control over your reality by having control over how you react and understand your life.
This book probably took me the longest to get through out of all of them as it’s quite heavy and covers a super wide range of topics. Although it was difficult to get through at times as it talked about fundamental fears and pains, this book lends so much knowledge to the understanding of ourselves on a deeper level. It explains that you are more than where you grew up, where you went to school and what achievements you’ve made. It allows you to see where the fundamental nature of the soul lies and how to access the larger universe through the soul. This book allows you to go beyond yourself and into a whole new understanding of our existence.
This is my current read! After really taking my time and lots of energy to read through the untethered soul, I decided I needed a quicker and more lighthearted read. The author walks us through her experiences with her happiness project, as she set resolutions for each month of the year to improve her happiness in different areas of her life. Although she speaks from her specific experiences with relationships and problems in her own life, I find she still provides really interesting insights into the small things that one can do to live more mindfully and choose to live a happier life on a broad scale. It’s in the small choices we make each day that leads us to happier lives and a happier mindset altogether!
Take care till next time,
Hanna