8 Essential Books for Healing and Self-Discovery

Written by Beatrice Walker / May 18, 2022

Starting a life-changing, healing journey is exciting, but can also feel lonely, confusing, and overwhelming at times. Books are powerful tools for self-healers, and for those interested in making serious self-improvements. They’re also an extremely affordable and accessible resource. On my personal journey I’ve discovered many books that have seriously changed my life and are now on my list of “go-to” yearly reads. If you are in the beginning stages of your journey, or even if you’re well on your way, the following books may help you no matter what stage of the healing process you’re in.

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the concepts of mindfulness and impermanence and how to be in the present moment. This was the first “self help” book I read when I started my healing journey that led me to where I am today. I think everyone should read this book, no matter what stage in your journey to higher consciousness is.

You Are Here - Thich Nhat Hanh

You are here is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s written by Thich Nhat Hanh a Buddhist monk, and his teachings really helped me gain a better understanding of mindfulness and living in the present moment. You do not need to be a Buddhist to understand the concepts in this book, they are applicable to everyone no matter if you subscribe to a religion or not. This book is on my list of books I read every year as a nice reminder to continue to strengthen my mindfulness practice.

The Untethered Soul - Michael A. Singer

This is another book on my list of yearly reads because it’s just so good. Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul takes a deep dive into understanding the ego and how to not let it get in the way of enjoying life by learning to “let go.” This book helped me to understand the ego as just the little voice in my head and how to make friends with it instead of getting caught up in thoughts that cause unnecessary suffering.

Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change - Pema Chodron

This is a beautiful book written by buddhist monk Pema Chodron about the concept of the groundlessness of life, and getting comfortable with change. As an anxiety babe myself, not knowing what’s going to happen can make me extremely uncomfortable and anxious, and the teachings from Pema in this book really helped me to relax into the ebbs and flows of life by letting go of the fact that I’m not in control. Her teachings highlight how you can show up and enjoy life by managing how you react to change, and how to not let uncomfortable or “bad” things cause you to shut down or close off. This is another book on my yearly read list.

Getting the Love You Want - Harville Hendrix

This book was a game changer for me in understanding how I show up, communicate, and act in my romantic partnerships. Even though it’s about romantic relationships you end up learning a lot about yourself, and it helps you to understand the root problems with communication by learning your own triggers, and how they might be triggering your partner. I’m not going to lie there were a few times I had to put it down and take a break because I was so overwhelmed (triggered) from the things I learned about myself. This is a great book to read with a partner, and there are lots of communication exercises you can do in conjunction with the reading to practice the techniques in real time. But the cool thing is that you don’t need to be in a relationship to read this book, you can do the exercises on your own as well.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is an important book that I feel EVERY person needs to read. Understanding your emotional intelligence (EQ) is essential for successfully navigating, managing, and maintaining healthy, happy relationships. It offers a practical approach to improving EQ skills through various examples and exercises. A cool thing about this book is that when you purchase it, it comes with a code to take the emotional intelligence appraisal test for free, which measures your EQ level. Unlike an IQ which usually doesn’t change, your EQ can change if you practice EQ exercises. When you take the test, the site will save your score so you can take it again in a few months or a year, and compare your scores from the previous time so you can measure your EQ growth, which is pretty cool.

The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.

This book written by Bessel Van Der Kolk, a psychiatrist, researcher, and founder of the Trauma Center in Brookline, MA, takes a deep dive into the effects of trauma. It’s an intense read full of real stories and studies of trauma survivors and patients of Van Der Kolk. Just from reading this book I learned ALOT about how traumatic events can physically, emotionally, and mentally affect people long after trauma has occurred. This book also acts as a guide and offers solutions and pathways of recovery for victims of trauma, and anyone suffering from PTSD. Highly, highly recommend.

How We Heal - Alexandra Elle

This book is written by the well known influencer and writer Alex Elle. Alex created this beautiful book as a guide for people on their healing journey by sharing not only her personal story and struggles about the healing process, but also included the personal stories of many other well known women like Megan Rapinoe and Nedra Tawwab. My favorite part about this book is that it includes many helpful journal prompts and activities that you can do in real time while reading which provided much needed moments of reflection.