A few years back, the world just didn’t seem as colourful to me like it used to. The mundane challenges seemed overwhelming and anxiety enveloped me. When a friend visited and gifted me author Robin Sharma’s best-seller, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, the self-help book that had created a furore in the world of self-help books, it proved to be a game-changer for me. My inner-self started to bloom and life seemed more fulfilling and meaningful steadily. It was then that I decided that amidst all kinds of books on my shelf, self-help books would always find a place of love.
Truly, each one of us faces stumbling blocks in the course of our lives. There are times when we find it hard to live up to some challenges. Reading a self-help book helps us address our bottlenecks and impacts us in such a way that we start believing we can do more at that juncture. In a nutshell, they teach us to be a better version of ourselves.
As some of the greatest challenges in life come in the form of lack of will-power, fear, jealousy and inflated egos, self-help books make us take a closer look at these and empower us with well-informed choices. The path forward can be much easier and more successful if we deeply listen to and understand our inner-self.
Soulveda enlists six self-help books that are a must-read before we bid adieu to 2022.
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
The times have been turbulent, especially after the pandemic and its after effects engulfed the world. Humanity has undergone a kind of vulnerability which was not seen before.
The former lady of the US, Michelle Obama has put forward a deep understanding of society and people in her second book, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times to be unveiled in November. After acing her debut with the best-seller Becoming, Obama is certain her new book will be like a toolbox, a collection of perspectives and stories, which she has used in various life situations and roles.
Through the book, she asks the readers potent questions like how they build enduring and honest relationships, how they discover strength and community amid differences, what tools address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness and finally, what do we do when it all starts to get too much.
Each one of us grapples with such roadblocks in life and Obama’s powerful and anecdotal writing helps find some valuable answers and insights.
Tranquillity by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters by Laura Vanderkam
All of us struggle with managing time even though we fully understand how an effective use of time can make remarkable difference in our lives. We often fail to bring our knowledge about time to execution. But if we have a desire to achieve more, then ‘lack of time’ has to be eliminated as an excuse.
Laura Vanderkam, the bestselling author of many self-improvement books, emphasizes on a resilient schedule. She observes how we spend more time fretting over how impending tasks could be completed instead of kick-starting them. In Tranquillity by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters, Vanderkam lists nine strategies for infusing joy, nourishment and fulfilment into the week.
Vanderkam studied the time journals of 150 people to devise these strategies. Apart from mundane chores, unavoidable work crises or childcare emergencies, Vanderkam suggests how people can make most effective use of their time leading to fulfilment of opportunities. She emphasizes on how time utilized effectively leads to achievement of short-term goals and dreams.
The Anxiety Antidote: How awareness and action can lead to self-control and inner peace by Kamran Bedi
Each one of us has experienced some uneasiness in our bellies before a significant examination, interview or presentation. When we feel worried on a constant basis, it takes the form of anxiety and it can be debilitating.
Kamran Bedi, the transformational life coach cum anxiety and mind set practitioner compiles practical ways to combat anxiety in his book, The Anxiety Antidote: How awareness and action can lead to self-control and inner peace. He says, “If we are taught how and what we are thinking, it can make a considerable difference in the quality of our life. We must be mindful of our thought pattern. We need to acknowledge these anxious thoughts. If we can effectively manage our thoughts, we can manage our anxiety to a large extent.”
Bedi’s self-help book is a must-have in a world that is increasingly dealing with anxiety.
A self-help book that helps beat anxiety in situations both big and small can truly help change how we deal with our lives every day.
Love yourself like your life depends on it: The positive self-help phenomenon by Kamal Ravikant
“I love myself.’ This was the constant chant of Kamal Ravikant when he found his world turning upside down in 2011. The company that he had grown and nurtured for ten years had collapsed and Ravikant had entered his gloomiest phase in life.
Ravikant’s book, Love yourself like your life depends on it: The positive self-help phenomenon is a must-read for anyone, who has struggled to get out of bed at some point in life. The insightful pages written by the author who dealt with depression himself, explain how a lack of mental wellness manifests physically as well.
Based on his own roller coaster of a ride in life, the author shares how to bounce back from a deep crisis. This self-help book is an absolutely must-read for anyone struggling to get back on their feet again.
Conscious Parenting: A guide to raising resilient, wholehearted and empowered kids by Nick Polizzi and Pedram Shojai
It is universally known that children are the light of our lives. Parenting is a truly rewarding experience and yet we often find ourselves grappling for solutions to difficult behaviour presented by our kids. Issues like how to make them follow routine or how to curb screen time keep nagging us on a daily basis.
According to the book, Conscious Parenting: A guide to raising resilient, wholehearted and empowered kids by Nick Polizzi and Pedram Shojai, the answer lies in conscious parenting where the parent gives undivided attention to the child to understand them and let them make informed choices.
After reading this guide, you may master techniques that help you connect with your children. Parents seek to lay a foundation that allows their child to grow into a confident and assertive individual with mental and emotional resilience. As parents, we often feel the jitters and use our own conditioning instead. Here mindful parenting is essential; where we listen to the child without any distraction and pre-conceived notion. This is a truly remarkable self-help book that new-age parents cannot miss.
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