Home→Forums→Tough Times→Book recommendations please
- This topic has 8 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 11 months ago by Marina.
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January 17, 2019 at 4:58 am #275087Mima37Participant
I’m looking for a book to read through tough times to give encouragement and comfort.
Ive been struggling with anxiety/depression and i guess it’s been a nervous breakdown, for the last 12 months. It all started after a difficult time with my ex, extended family members causing me alot of stress and fear back in 2011/2012. I kept strong for 5 years after the events, for my children’s sakes as it was tough on them too walking away from my siblings and mother due to violent and aggressive behaviour. It was of course the right thing to do but it took us all a few years to adjust.
I suffered anxiety throughout those few years but kept going for my children’s sakes and last year I lost someone in my life who was my rock, a friend I’d known for 9 years. She obviously didn’t want me in her life anymore due to my anxiety issues. The grief and pain broke me as she just walked out and left me heart broken.
During last year I started with severe panic, anxiety and depression. As we start 2019 it’s hitting me how hard this last year has been and how years of staying strong for my children led to me breaking down after losing my friend too. Things have started to slowly improve which is great but I’ve a long road ahead. It feels like I’m having to start life over after being housebound and broken with this, but I’m ready to take steps forward now.
Sorry that got long winded. I’m looking for a book that inspired, comforts and gives hope to those going through difficult times in their lives because I feel lost right now as I start to rebuild my world. I enjoy reading and have read many books on anxiety and depression but they’re depressing in themselves haha but I’m also very spiritual and love books like The Untethered Soul. I also read The Secret and really enjoyed that.
Any recommendations much appreciated. Thank you.
M
January 17, 2019 at 5:15 am #275089nextstepsParticipantHello,
In terms of books my favourite is the untethered soul too! Ones i have found most useful are books by Thomas Moore eg the dark night of the soul and also the power of now etc by eckhert tolle. The Thomas Moore book in particular stuck with me.
I would also suggest maybe inspiring books like “running for my life” which was a quick and straightforward read. I mostly find Paul Coelhos books uplifting if a bit twee. There are also the “Mastery of self” books by Don Miguel Ruiz Jr as well as “the tenth commandment” and the sequel to that which i cant recall right now, about the law of attraction in a story setting which I enjoyed also.
Oshos books can be good. I liked his book “Intuition” best. I have read others but they end up all sounding similar to me.
Hope these help!
January 17, 2019 at 5:23 am #275091nextstepsParticipantIn terms of uplifting fiction books I would suggest:
1) the sevens sisters series by Lucinda Riley – books about a path of seven sisters finding their life stories after their father dies and leaves them with co-ordinates of their birth fanilies. Interesting and also comforting as rach sister is starting out life again.
2) Cathy Kelly or Maeve Binchley books e.g classic and uplifting.
3) sometimes childrens classics can be conforting eg wizard of oz, house on the prairie etc.
X
January 17, 2019 at 7:47 am #275101Patti NiehoffParticipantI love Byron Katie’s books — Start with Loving What Is. The Work — what she calls her technique — helps me detach from the painful thoughts and feelings I get. Favorite quote here — who would you be without your story?
January 17, 2019 at 8:29 am #275115Mima37ParticipantBrilliant recommendations. Thank you both so much.
I’ve just bought the Dark night of the soul to start with.
Thank you again. I appreciate it.
J
January 17, 2019 at 8:49 am #275129PeterParticipantI liked the book – ‘Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life’ by Philip Simmons
Philip Simmons was thirty-five years old when he learned he had less than five years to live. The book contains short stories and reflections about his experiences
It changed the way I looked at my own ‘falling’
Some passages taken from the introduction of the book
At one time or another, each of us confronts an experience so powerful, bewildering, joyous, or terrifying that all our efforts to see it as a “problem” are futile. Each of us is brought to the cliff’s edge. At such moments we can either back away in bitterness or confusion, or leap forward into mystery. And what does mystery ask of us? Only that we be in its presence, that we fully, consciously, hand ourselves over. That is all, and that is everything. We can participate in mystery only by letting go of solutions. This letting go is the first lesson of falling, and the hardest.
Think again of falling as a figure of speech. We fall on our faces, we fall for a joke, we fall for someone, we fall in love. In each of these falls, what do we fall away from? We fall from ego, we fall from our carefully constructed identities, our reputations, our precious selves. We fall from ambition, we fall from grasping, we fall, at least temporarily, from reason. And what do we fall into? We fall into passion, into terror, into unreasoning joy. We fall into humility, into compassion, into emptiness, into oneness with forces larger than ourselves, into oneness with others whom we realize are likewise falling. We fall, at last, into the presence of the sacred, into godliness, into mystery, into our better, diviner natures
We are all—all of us—falling. We are all, now, this moment, in the midst of that descent, fallen from heights that may now seem only a dimly remembered dream, falling toward a depth we can only imagine, glimpsed beneath the water’s surface shimmer. And so let us pray that if we are falling from grace, dear God let us also fall with grace, to grace. If we are falling toward pain and weakness, let us also fall toward sweetness and strength. If we are falling toward death, let us also fall toward life.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Peter.
January 18, 2019 at 6:05 am #275315Mima37ParticipantThank you Peter. That also sounds a good read.. Thank you for sharing that with me.
J
January 22, 2019 at 1:40 pm #276271KatieParticipantHi Mima37,
I’ve found Brene Brown’s books to be super powerful, helpful AND entertaining to boot. Would definitely recommend her 🙂
January 22, 2019 at 9:00 pm #276349MarinaParticipantHi Mima,
These two are transformative books. They helped me cope with some of the life challenges I’ve experienced – death of my brother and father, loss of relationships, and sickness:
1) When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
2) Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
Sending you light and love.
Marina
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