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Helpful books and resources

Kazzl
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

Hi everyone

Members often refer in their posts to books and other resources that have helped them. This thread is a place to list those books so all members can find them easily.

The titles might include scholarly, mass market and self-help books, specialist websites or blogs, podcasts, vodcasts or print or online journals or magazines. Please note BB has a list of websites and resources under Get Help, so maybe check there first for online resources. (Also note that we cannot include live links to online resources.)

To make things easy to find, please put the category of the content first in bold, then the title of the book and then, if you want, a brief comment.

Please note that anything listed here reflects the member's views only. Publications and other resources are not necessarily endorsed by beyondblue.

Happy reading!

103 Replies 103

SPOONO
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

This is not a book it's a fellow on YouTube who is most helpful in teaching mindfulness and dealing with anxiety and depression, and! the results of having these conditions. His name is Noah Elkrief if you enter his name in the search box on YouTube you will find a stack of helpful articles. His service is free, so go for it. I have found him a godsend.

Cheers

spoono

Rabbit33
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

I really enjoy the self-help and self-development books. They have been a huge support for me throughout my journey with depression, anxiety and self-esteem issues.

Although i've only recently started using the self-help books methods, a few of my favourites are;

- Feel the fear and beyond by Susan Jeffers. It's a book that really speaks to you and gets you involved, It says "To read this book is eye-opening, to USE this book is life-changing' . I think it's a great book for people to use.

- Staying on the path by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. - This book is filled with inspirational quotes and is quote liberating and a big eye opener for people lacking confidence.

- The little book of confidence. It's part of the 'Little series' edited by Tiddy Rowan and also provides inspirational quotes and reminders that really empower you.

I've gone and bought myself a whiteboard that attaches to the fridge and each day i read out 10-20 quotes and i pick my favourite one and write it down on the whiteboard. It helps me stay motivated, keeps me focused and is a good way to inspire myself each day and help build my confidence. Not sure if this would help anyone else but thought i'd share with you one of my little tricks.

Great post! Keep it going. 🙂

IreneM
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

HI Kazz

Great Post.

Now that I am working towards becoming a therapist I must support the two that you mentioned for Health Professionals on General Mental Health.

psychologytoday and simplypsychology

I like to support both of these but they are not just for Psych therapists they are for everyone!

If your therapist says something that does not make sense I highly recommend these two sites for a general explanation. Lets take stress for example - if you type it into a search engine and one of these two sites is on the list - go for these ones they are very simple to understand!

Irene.

RicardoD
Community Member

Just read 'Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends Upon It' by Kamal Ravikant - short, simple and helps you love yourself, something I struggle with but trying to get there.

I also read James and Claudia Altichur's 'The Power of No' but have mixed reviews on that one. . . some good bits around simply saying no to the things you don't want to do and get no benefit from, for me not so much around the divinity aspect, of higher energies etc but each to their own! 🙂

Carer07
Community Member

Hi All,

Great thread! I have found books and online resources to be such a big help during my journey of self-development and self-love. Here are some of my self-development and inspiring faves I have recently read:

My apologies - I couldn't figure out how to write in bold through the forum..

Schizophrenia: January First’ a memoir by Michael Schofield

Disability/Disfigurement: ‘Not Fade Away’ a memoir by Rebecca Alexander – Very inspiring memoir of her not letting her disabilities stop her from achieving her goals.

‘Ugly’ by Robert Hoge

Quote: “…Resilience is the by-product of working through really difficult times and seeing them as great opportunities to learn and grow.” – Daniela Di Toro

Self-love: ‘You Are Enough’ by Cassie Mendoza-Jones

‘You Were Not Born to Suffer’ by Blake Bauer

‘The Goddess Resolution’ by Mel Wells – this a good read for people who struggle with diet mentality or eating disorders

Psychology: ‘Change Your Thinking: Overcome Stress, Anxiety & Depression, and Improve Your Life with CBT’ by Sarah Edelman

‘Reach Your Goals: Without Stressing Out’ by Chantal Hofstee

Meditation & Awareness: ‘The Heart Sutra’ by Osho

I hope you find these as enlightening, inspiring, and soul-loving as I have. 🙂

I recently found website Tiny Buddha and some of their blogs very very helpful to me. I just googled up Tiny Buddha plus the topic I wanted...and found a wealth of supportive blogs from great people......some phrases were highlighted in their writings, clicking on those leads to another blog expanding on that phrase...and so on........It worked for me.....

Moon,
I have seen their posts on FB and their FB page and agree they have many interesting quotes.

I will look at their website.

Thanks for letting us know and I hope you are caring for yourself.

Quirky


Rabbit33
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

I recently just finished a book called 'The Velvet Rage' - Overcoming the pain of growing up gay in a straight man's world', written by Alan Downs
I found this book amazing and strongly recommend it to other gay men out there either struggling, identifying or simply just coming to terms with themselves and the community. Very helpful and a great insight.

Great read!!!

Croix
Community Champion
Community Champion

Croix

Soberlicious96
Champion Alumni
Champion Alumni

Hi Kazz and others,

A couple of books I have found to be very helpful over the years of my life are the following:

"Men are from Mars, women are from Venus" (1992) written by American author and relationship counselor John Gray. It helps to explain the ways in which men and women think and respond to each other, and why. Very insightful.

"When bad things happen to good people" (2004) by Harold Kushner, Jewish Rabbi. ...... I (Soberlicious - or you can call me Mel) got this book when both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer within six months of each other. My Dad had a very serious brain tumor and melanoma, and my Mum had bowel cancer. The thing I liked about this book is that it didn't seem to be 'too religious'. Well, not for me anyway. I found some very comforting words in there for what I was going through at the time.

There are a great many other self-help books out there, but these two are two that I find myself going back to time and again.

Oh, another on is called "Courage to Heal" which is for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. There are two female authors, but other than that I can't remember what year it was published, or the names of the authors. But it is another one that I went back to a number of times. I have since given it away, I think. I've got a feeling that it's a good 20 to 25 years old by now. But a great book for those looking for help with how to survive and thrive after the abuse.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Cheerio and sweet dreams. xo