What book(s) changed your life and how?

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  1. Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks. I went through a rough period of time several years ago where I was having daily panic attacks. This book helped me change the way I looked at anxiety and allowed me to handle it better.

  2. Color by Victoria Finlay. It documents the origins of all the pigments available to (wo)man. I am an artist and it grounded me in a way I can’t describe.

    Wild Swans by Jung Chang documents her family history in China starting with her grandmother. The section during the Cultural Revolution is devastating and a significant contribution to historical writing.

    I highly recommend both.

  3. Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I had just gone through a divorce and reading this powerful book by this flailing young woman who finds herself along the journey and unpacks grief and trauma was really freeing for me.

  4. The Food and Feelings Workbook! I had a terrible relationship with food before this book; the emotional attachment I had to food was very bizarre and I didn’t even realize it.

    Now I have a much healthier relationship with food, and my mental health is grateful for it!

  5. The road less traveled and the body keeps the score. They’re both about trauma and I think it helped me grasp things about myself I didn’t understand before or felt bad about. I recommend them to anyone I can honestly!

  7. “Why men love b!tches.”
    “The power of now”
    “Broke millennial.”

  9. Bible! Reading about Jesus Christ and how he first change the Jews by living a perfect life during Old Testament and then with his unjustified murder he turned it into a glorifying resurrection included us in the whole world in his salvation!

  10. Lost Connections by Johann Hari. I recommend it every chance I get.

  11. The Picky Eater’s Recovery Book by Jennifer Thomas et. al. – helped me understand my abnormal and unhealthy restrictive/avoidant eating patterns and truly helped me eat more diversely.
    Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro – made me really rethink what it means to be a human.

  12. Adult children of emotionally immature parents. It talks about family dynamics, addictions and how generations pass down trauma because they lack the knowledge of what it does to their children.

  13. She’s come undone by Wally lamb. It spurred me to seek therapy after years of abuse.

    You are a badas* so motivating when days get rough.

  14. Can’t hurt me by David Goggins helped me realize what I can truly accomplish. Super fascinating man.

  15. Having been raised by a parent who had no moral compass, I struggled daily until I read The Four Agreements. It gave me some solid footing upon which to build a more authentic and fulfilling life. Highly recommend.

  16. How to win friends and influence people… Everyone likes me now!

  17. “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. It is so helpful in figuring out what works best for *your* life. It’s a self-help book with general concepts you use to build your own life plan. No boxes to shove you in. Just overarching life advice you would be a fool to think is faulty. I’ve read this book three times and I cannot recommend it enough. I literally buy copies to give to my friends, just so they *might* read it.

  20. It probably sounds cliché but Frankenstein when I learned about why she wrote the book and what inspired her It just really hit different

  21. Man’s Search for Meaning. It’s about finding meaning in one’s suffering and using that meaning to propel you forward. It’s a depressing read though.

    The Road also changed my life combined with being in vulnerable situations and observing how so many people tried to use that to their advantage. I think about when driving a lot because people’s true personality comes out when they are alone and behind the wheel and with the things they do to each other on the road because they are running late or just on a power trip freak me out when I think about how they would be in an apocalyptic survival situation and hungry. That is one scary ass book and it fucked me up good and proper.

    Also in 2017 I found a book called ESP Experiments with LSD 25 and Psilocybin and it certainly left a mark on me and sent me down a life changing path.

    And The Red Book by Carl Jung about his descent into madness

  22. Shantaram! I know it’s a little cheesy but it was a great reminder to me that it’s OK to let go of the past and start afresh on the opposite side of the world, living life exactly how you please.

  23. Sweat Your Prayers helped me connect to my body, to spirit and move through my grief.

  24. “PTSD From Surviving to Thriving”

    It reads a little like a textbook and can be very dry and boring at times.
    However, I learned some coping skills that I didn’t have in my arsenal from this book.
    So it also helped me to understand my PTSD a little better. My PTSD isn’t from military service, I was raped when I was 9 years old and had no recollection of it until I turned 57. I’m 60 now and it still feels like it just happened a few years ago.
    If it wasn’t for this book I would be so lost (or dead).

  26. The Razor’s Edge

    The whole go your own way theme inspired me to do things I’ve always thought about doing but I never made moves.

    Interestingly, it was my Dad that lent me his copy, some 40 years after he read it and was inspired to take the leap and move across the world.

  28. Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap. If you have any had a desire to be financially independent, if you’ve ever even had a thought about being better with money, read it. It’s not at all boring and has opened my eyes.

  32. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This book gave me the tools to make intentional, meaningful changes in my life in a way that was tactical, without judging myself. It explains *so much* about how habits form and how they persist. It was *so useful* to think of habits like a rut. It never goes away, so you need to avoid the ruts, not overcome them. It was readable and entertaining and helped me establish better exercise, health and action-oriented habits.

    The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (and Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class …). I studied this book intensely, and did the whole program, about a year or two before it became super popular here in the States. It was extremely helpful, and I was able to have an actual method for organizing my things and my life. It’s not about minimalism!! It’s about learning *how to make choices.* It’s a life skill that I will forever be grateful for, and can be applied to more than just “things.”

  34. Lynsay Sands the Argeneau vampire romance novels. Made my love for books come alive! I read each book in a day or two if I could and lol-Ed a ton.

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