Non fiction books have been a very important part of my life and I feel I owe an awful lot to some of them. My twenties were a very strange experience, they looked pretty different to the lives of most of the people I had grown up with, having become a widow at a young age with small children. Raising my kids whilst trying to hide my pain and deal with my own grief was quite the journey but books, fiction and non fiction, were of course my biggest coping mechanism.
Non Fiction books are just so bloody hit and miss. Some of them have quite literally changed my life, leaving me walking around absolutely buzzing in the days after reading them. Others just make me roll me eyes for 300 pages. I think its very hard to recommend them because all of our minds work in such different ways. I’ve tried to pick books from different subjects here but if you want more recommendations on a particular topic from this list I may have more so feel free to message me.
Atomic Habits – James Clear
This was a recent read but it really impressed me. Its very quick and easy to digest but full of science, research and step by step instructions on exactly how to break your bad habits and build new ones that absolutely will not fail if you properly implement them. I’ve noticed so many changes already and I keep finding myself questioning why I’m mindlessly doing certain things and realising that I don’t need to. I read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People a few years ago and this one is so much better.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
On Writing – Stephen King
I have only actually read one Stephen King fiction book which is something I hope to change soon, but this little book had such an impact on me. Part memoir, part guide, if you’re interested in the craft of writing at all I highly recommend it. It was amazing to read about King’s career and to hear his journey from being a struggling teacher to going on to became one of the best selling authors of all time. It left me feeling very inspired and I wrote a first draft of a book in the months after reading it.
“Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.”
The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia – Nathan Filer
I work on a psychiatric ward with people suffering from Schizophrenia, so I do have a special interest in this subject but I wanted to include it because I feel it is such an important book. Society may be more accepting of some mental health issues these days. Mainly anxiety and depression, but we still have an awfully long way to go with illnesses such as this. Filer, who is an experienced mental health nurse does an incredible job in trying to break down some of those stigmas and the stories and accounts in here from those suffering and from their loved ones are truly heartbreaking.
“It’s not always possible to find the right words but we can still be part of the conversation. We can walk with people for a bit, sit with them, hear them.”
Secrets of The Millionaire Mind – T Harv Eker
I listened to this on audio while I was decorating my house a few years ago and it resonated so much I just kept replaying it back to back. By the time I had finished painting I had listened multiple times and the lessons had ingrained themselves so deeply that I just started practicing them with little thought. This book changed my relationship with money completely and transformed a lot of the beliefs I held about it. I know this is one that will annoy the shit out of some people and the author is a bit of a twat but if you can get past that it has some pretty solid practical advice that can change your financial mindset.
“Resenting the rich is one of the surest ways to stay broke”
Excuse Me Your Life is Waiting – Lynne Grabhorn
I am a huge believer in the Law of Attraction since I first discovered it in my early twenties. I’ve read dozens of books on it, watched all the films and documentaries and spent years practicing it and I think this is definitely one of the better books on the subject. So many of them are great at telling you that ‘thoughts become things’ in lots of different fancy ways but this one really shows you how to get on to that higher vibration and actually start manifesting your new abundant life.
“So here’s the flash: Continuing to live life as a victim of circumstance, forever focusing on what’s wrong with everything and everybody, will never, ever, bring the life desired. It will only bring one thing: more of whatever it is we’re wanting so desperately to change.”
I Am Enough – Marissa Peer
So this is a bit personal but at the beginning of the year I had something called RTT – Rapid Transformational Therapy. I’m not going to go into details about it here because its not for everyone but I can honestly say it has completely changed my life in so many ways. I have tried a few different forms of therapy over the years and never got past the first couple of sessions. I do believe that different things work for different people but to me personally, talking about bad things just left me feeling shit and I really didn’t see the point in it. After my one and only session of RTT though, which uses hypnosis, I felt so completely healed and so happy to be myself for the first time in my life after struggling with a lot of insecurities for as long as I can remember. The time since has been the happiest of my life and I just feel so alive every day and absolutely bloody euphoric at times. Marissa Peer is the therapist who created RTT and if you can get past the garish cover, this book is a really good little reminder that the only approval you ever need in life is your own.
‘Every thought you think and every word you say forms a blueprint and your mind must work to make that blueprint real.’
I have lots more recommendations so I’m going to do a part two of this post in the next couple of weeks 🙂