I have a lot to thank books for. A good book is a portal into a new life—a fast track into a new way of thinking, a new way of existing. Reading the right self-improvement books can be life-changing.
I love books as a form of media, in particular, because of how in-depth they can go into one subject. While there are plenty of positives to social media and online videos, they will never measure up to the knowledge available within a book.
Books have helped me quickly and drastically improve all areas of my life from my finances to my relationships to my self-worth. Here are my top five favorite self-improvement books.
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay
If I could choose only one book to carry around with me for the rest of my life, it would be this book. This is the most healing and comforting book I’ve ever read.
“Loving the self, to me, begins with never ever criticizing ourselves for anything. Criticism locks us into the very pattern we are trying to change. Understanding and being gentle with ourselves helps us to move out of it. Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
You Can Heal Your Life is about healing your emotional and physical problems through self-love and acceptance. Everything about your life from your mind to your relationships to money to illness and disease can be healed with the practices taught in this book.
It almost sounds too good to be true, but if you follow Hay’s teachings and put in the work, I promise you will quickly see beautiful changes in your life.
“The past has no power over us. It doesn’t matter how long we have had a negative pattern. The point of power is in the present moment. What a wonderful thing to realize! We can begin to be free in this moment!”
The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer
Reading this book is like coming back home to yourself. Too often we find ourselves lost, floating in the dark spaces of the mind, isolated from our bodies and souls. This book is a reminder to return to who we truly are—separate from our physical appearances and who we “think” we are or, in other words, the “ego”.
My favorite part of the book is when Singer talks about the importance of stepping back from your human emotions and thoughts to remember who you are—separate from your human form. He compares this practice to watching TV. He says you can teach yourself to view your emotions like a dramatic scene in a TV show—it may feel real, but you are watching the show, you are not in the show.
This concept can be difficult to grasp at first, but it’s so fun to practice once you get used to it. You’ll realize your power and see that your emotions are not who you are at your core. It’s like that one quote, “You are the sky, everything else is just the weather”.
Speaking of quotes, there was one in the book that I’ll never forget:
“You fear death because you crave life”
I know this to be true. When I’m living my life to the fullest and know that I am living up to my potential I don’t fear death. I know I’ll have no regrets at my last breath. It’s only when I’m spending my days in bed binging TV shows, neglecting my body, and withholding the simple joys of life from myself that I begin to fear death.
Overall, this book provides an incredible perspective on birth, death, and everything in between—and I’ll forever be changed.
Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money by Ken Honda
This is the most beautiful book I’ve ever read about money. I’m so thankful for the existence of this book as it helped me so much in improving my relationship with money.
“If your pattern associated with money is filled with happiness and joy, with the intention of helping others reap rewards, you will be rich. If it is filled with anger, hatred, bad memories, and feelings of competitiveness, your life will be filled with those same ingredients.”
Happy Money is all about how to make, well, happy money! What does that mean? Happy money is about becoming at peace with money and creating true wealth through gratitude, relationships, and self-worth.
I highly recommend this book as a first stop in healing your relationship with money. It’s beautifully written and made me excited to earn and spend money in a new way.
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole
If you don’t know what it is, intuitive eating is the practice of listening to our bodies and eating mindfully. It is about returning to the relationship we had with food before diet culture and before well-meaning, but sometimes harmful parenting.
“Guilt has no place when it comes to eating”
Considering I spent most of my teenage years at war with food, I have much to thank this book for. It has genuinely changed my life for the better by helping me heal my relationship with food. I now enjoy food without guilt, I no longer obsess about food all the time, and I have much more time for the things I truly enjoy.
“If you don’t love it, don’t eat it, and if you love it, savor it.”
You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh
What a miracle it is to be alive right now, here in the present moment, on planet Earth in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy! This is how this book makes me feel—like a child again, in awe of the simplest pleasures in life.
“You can live every moment of every day deeply, in touch with the wonders of life. Then you will learn to live, and, at the same time, learn to die. A person who does not know how to die does not know how to live, and vice versa”
This book has taught me to become more at peace with death. A reminder that nothing is permanent, everything changes—also it’s never the end. Dead beings decompose, enriching the soil, and nourishing baby sprouts as the emerge towards the sun. The vegetation sustains the living beings until their last breath, and the cycle continues.
We all learned this in biology, of course, it’s not new knowledge, but I find it comforting to study it from Hanh’s perspective.
I wrote a post inspired by Hanh’s teachings on ways to practice mindfulness (that aren’t meditation) if you’d like to check it out.
This book also taught me one of my favorite quotes, said by Buddha himself, “Are you sure of your perceptions?”. Be wary of the stories you create in your head. Don’t immediately assume the worst-case scenario. It’s a waste of energy and is harmful to your health.
“Are you ready to die now? Are you ready to arrange your schedule in such a way that you could die in peace tonight? That may be a challenge, but that’s the practice. If you don’t do this, you will always be tormented by regret.”
I love a book that reminds me to live my life to the fullest every day and You Are Here does just that.
♡ self-improvement books
Those are the five self-improvement books that helped me drastically improve my life. I’m so thankful for them, and I hope they’ll help you as much as they helped me.
What books have changed your life? Let me know in the comments!
