As I promised, here is an initial list of a few books that have been a wonderful guide in my path to wellness and those of my clients. Living a healthy lifestyle that prioritizes wellness can significantly improve quality of life and even extend lifespan.
While the basic pillars of good health like diet, exercise, sleep and stress management are well known, implementing them can be challenging.
Here’s where these books can offer practical and wise advice on topics like mindset, habit formation, emotional & mental health, the role of our hormones, nutrition & more. The knowledge gained from these books can help us in the face of challenges and may become an inspiration in our lives.
By Viktor Frankl
This is a book for finding purpose and strength in times of great despair. Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted
generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. At the heart of his theory, known as logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Man’s Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America. It continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.
By James Hollis Ph.D.
James Hollis has been my mentor for over a decade. Fortunately, he is a prolific writer so we can all learn from his wisdom. In A Life of Meaning, Dr Hollis asks us What is it that brings meaning to your life? Our culture tells us to seek wealth, power, prestige, or even enrollment in someone else’s idea of a worthy cause―yet where do we turn when these paths fail to fulfill our need for purpose? “When the old stories and beliefs that once defined us have played out and grown exhausted,” teaches Dr. James Hollis, “our task is to access our inner compass, the promptings of the psyche that help us find our way through the complex thickets of choice.”
This is Dr. Hollis’s profound exploration of the nature of meaning and how we can orient toward it or away from it with the choices we make.
Another powerful classic that brings you to the depths of your soul to reflect on the true meaning of freedom and 
nticity. Dr. Pinkola Estes tells us that “within every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature of women. But she is an endangered species. For though the gifts of wildish nature belong to us at birth, society’s attempt to “civilize” us into rigid roles has muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls.
“In Women Who Run with the Wolves, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, many from her own traditions, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman, and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine.”
By Don Miguel Ruiz
An old classic, The Four Agreements reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, this short book offers a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
By Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
“Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback to mindfulness and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.”
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad One
By James Clear
James Clear is the founder of The Habits Academy, a science-backed course on behavior change that offers practical techniques for self-improvement, including a four-step pattern for forming good habits and breaking bad ones. Clear’s habit-building concept goes beyond accomplishing specific goals and is also a mechanism for improving your self-image. He writes that actions toward changing your identity are like voting. As votes accumulate, you prove to yourself that you are the very person that you chose to be.
By Mark Wolynn
“Depression. Anxiety. Chronic Pain. Phobias. Obsessive thoughts. The evidence is compelling: the roots of these difficulties may not reside in our immediate life experience or in chemical imbalances in our brains—but in the lives of our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. The latest scientific research, now making headlines, supports what many have long intuited—that traumatic experience can be passed down through generations. Diagnostic self-inventories provide a way to uncover the fears and anxieties conveyed through everyday words, behaviors, and physical symptoms.” The authors offers many other techniques for developing a genogram or extended family tree to create a map of experiences going back through the generations., and many ways to create pathways to reconnection, integration, and reclaiming life and health. It Didn’t Start With You is a transformative approach to resolving longstanding difficulties that in many cases, traditional therapy, drugs, or other interventions have not had the capacity to touch.
This Is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods That Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More
By Uma Naidoo, MD
This is the definitive book on eating for mental health. Dr. Uma Naidoo, MD, is a Harvard graduate and go-to expert in nutritional psychiatry. Her book is an essential resource for using nutrition to fight depression, anxiety, trauma, OCD, ADHD, and other common mental health disorders by teaching the science behind the gut-brain connection.
Dr. Naidoo provides a detailed look into how the brain influences intestinal activities and the gut’s ability to influence mood and cognition. For instance, we learn that 90% of serotonin is produced in the gut and how to find balance with natural and holistic recipes and routines.
Women, Food, and Hormones: A 4-Week Plan to Achieve Hormonal Balance, Lose Weight, and Feel Like Yourself Again
By Sara Gottfried, MD
The keto diet is known for being effective for weight loss and improving mental clarity and focus. However, the diet can have adverse side effects in women, such as increased inflammation and mood swings. Dr. Gottfried, MD, believes the different responses may be linked to hormones. She has spent her career helping women balance their hormones, and her protocol makes appropriate changes to the keto diet to help women achieve weight-loss benefits without the side effects.
Dr. Gottfried offers down-to-earth advice. It’s not just theory; it’s a practical guide that speaks to the everyday experiences of women and is also genuinely helpful. It’s filled with actionable strategies for managing hormones through everyday choices.
Maximize Your Male Hormones: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments of Men’s Most Common Health Disorders
By Pamela Wartian Smith, MD, MPH
“Men may be familiar with testosterone, but many other hormones are just as important in a man’s health. Dr. Pamela Wartian Smith, MD, MPH, created this guide to help men understand, identify, and treat many common ailments, including depression, headaches, anger, mood swings, sleep apnea, and sexual dysfunction. By identifying the hormone most associated with the disorder, you will learn there is a great deal that you can do to fix the problem. Dr. Smith details the medical treatments available, but she also includes natural supplements that have proven to be helpful, as well as lifestyle changes that can help bring a hormone back in balance.”
Leave a Reply