For a lot of us, being asked to stay at home is hard. Our freedom has been curtailed and suddenly the simplest of tasks we have always taken for granted — coffee with friends, a pamper and salon appointment, hair cuts, just a mooch about the shops — are no longer allowed. It’s all temporary of course and it’s to ensure we learn our lessons from countries such as Italy and Spain. We hunker down for a few weeks, we flatten the curve, we stop the spread, we save lives and we save our NHS from being overwhelmed. If you have your health, it’s an anxious time but it’s going to be ok.
Switch off the news. It will still be there when you come back to it.
Have a listen to our Find Your Balance Podcast to get some tips on managing stress and letting go of the things you can’t control.
Have a sort out of your ‘books to be read’ pile. Take a moment to read the covers and put them in order of which you’d like to read first. If you can, find a quiet corner and make it your own!
Consider a different genre than the type you’d usually read. If you want to read a trashy novel, go for it. There’s no pressure, just read what feels natural and easy and will get you back into the swing of reading again.
Here are a few of our personally recommended books guaranteed to enrich your mind, calm your brain and nourish your soul.
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Anchor
Most people want to be successful in life. And of course, everyone wants to be happy, don’t they? When it comes to the pursuit of success and happiness though, most people assume the same formula: if you work hard, you become successful, and once you become successful, then you’ll be happy. The only problem is that a decade of cutting-edge research in the field of positive psychology has proven that this formula is completely backwards. Success does not beget happiness.
Click here to order
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
How amazing does this latest book by Matt Haig sound?! (It’s not quite out at the time of writing this blog so we’ve added it to our wishlist).
Between life and death there is a library. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. Click here to order
The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy
Enter the world of Charlie’s four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons. The conversations of the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse have been shared thousands of times online, recreated in school art classes, hung on hospital walls and turned into tattoos. In Charlie’s first book, you will find his most-loved illustrations and some new ones too. Click here to order
Who Am I by Liz Bell
5-star reviews on Amazon with testimonials from the likes of Jeremy Vine, Claire Balding and Cathy Newman, this little book may be small but it packs a mighty punch. This is the perfect book for anyone who needs guidance to:
- Grow in the face of adversity
- Find yourself in your marriage
- Make changes in your community
- Figure out who you really are
- Figure out why you are here
- Be happy with the person you really are
Click here to order
Sane New World by Ruby Wax
The mental health and mindfulness bestseller from author Ruby Wax, who shows us with her usual humour why and how our minds can send us mad and how we can rewire our thinking to calm ourselves in a frenetic world. Click here to order
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-mi Hwang
This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to just lay eggs only to have them taken from her and sold at market, she glimpses her future every morning through the open barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and she comes up with a plan to escape into the wild.
Click here to order
Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life by Dr Spencer Johnson
It is the enlightening story of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Cheese is a metaphor for what we want to have in life, for example, a good job, a loving relationship, money or possessions, health or spiritual peace of mind. The maze is where you look for what you want, perhaps the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in. The problem is that the cheese keeps moving. In the story, the characters are faced with an unexpected change in their search for the cheese. One of them eventually deals with change successfully and writes what he has learned on the maze walls for you to discover. You’ll learn how to anticipate, adapt to and enjoy change and be ready to change quickly whenever you need to. Click here to order
