my favorite inspirational + personal growth books
My favorite inspirational + personal growth books ~ Enjoy!
I’ve been on an inspirational + personal growth book reading frenzy for at least eight months now!
These are some of my favorite books that I’ve read and I can’t wait to share them with you.
Written by beautifully smart authors who truly want to make a difference in this world.
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person
The mega-talented creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of How to Get Away With Murder chronicles how saying YES for one year changed her life―and how it can change yours, too.
With three hit shows on television and three children at home, the uber-talented Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say NO when an unexpected invitation arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No.
And there was the side-benefit of saying No for an introvert like Shonda: nothing new to fear.
Then Shonda’s sister laid down a challenge: just for one year, try to say YES to the unexpected invitations that come your way. Shonda reluctantly agreed―and the result was nothing short of transformative. In Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes chronicles the powerful impact saying yes had on every aspect of her life―and how we can all change our lives with one little word. Yes.
Growing Yourself Up by Jenny Brown
To be human is to be in relationships.
We can’t survive without them but at the same time it’s in our relationships that we so easily come unravelled. Either we feel like we lose ourselves or we feel burnt out from unsuccessful efforts to make things right for another. It’s in our relationships that we can experience the very best of ourselves and the very worst.
The message of ‘Growing Yourself Up’ is that you can’t separate understanding the individual from understanding relationships; they go hand in hand. All of life’s relationships are integral to increasing self-awareness and growing maturity — and it’s not necessarily the comfortable ones that promote personal growth!
Drawing from Bowen family systems theory, this book takes you on a journey through each stage of life to see the predictable patterns of relationships and to show you how to use this knowledge to make purposeful adjustments in yourself. The result, though certainly not a quick fix, is a sturdier self, sturdier relationships and a refreshing new way of viewing life’s challenges and opportunities.
Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
Do you ever suspect that everyone else has life figured out and you don’t have a clue? If so, Rachel Hollis has something to tell you: that’s a lie.
As the founder of the lifestyle website TheChicSite.com and CEO of her own media company, Rachel Hollis developed an immense online community by sharing tips for better living while fearlessly revealing the messiness of her own life. Now, in this challenging and inspiring new book, Rachel exposes the twenty lies and misconceptions that too often hold us back from living joyfully and productively, lies we’ve told ourselves so often we don’t even hear them anymore.
With painful honesty and fearless humor, Rachel unpacks and examines the falsehoods that once left her feeling overwhelmed and unworthy, and reveals the specific practical strategies that helped her move past them. In the process, she encourages, entertains, and even kicks a little butt, all to convince you to do whatever it takes to get real and become the joyous, confident woman you were meant to be.
With unflinching faith and rock-hard tenacity, Girl, Wash Your Face shows you how to live with passion and hustle–and how to give yourself grace without giving up.
Love Worth Making by Stephen Snyder
Yes, once you understand how sexual emotions really work.
This acclaimed, paradigm-shifting guide turns traditional sex therapy inside-out to reveal the hidden rules for great sex.
Gentle, compassionate, and filled with compelling stories from Dr. Stephen Snyder’s thirty years as a sex therapist working with over 1,500 individuals and couples, Love Worth Making is essential reading for anyone hoping to keep sexual inspiration alive in a committed relationship.
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
When our embarrassments and fears lie, we often listen to them anyway. They thwart our gratitude, acceptance, and compassion—our goodness. They insist, “I am not worthy.” But we are worthy—of self-discovery, personal growth, and boundless love. With Brené Brown’s game-changing New York Times bestseller The Gifts of Imperfection—which has sold more than 2 million copies in more than 30 different languages, and Forbes recently named one of the “Five Books That Will Actually Change Your Outlook On Life”—we find courage to overcome paralyzing fear and self-consciousness, strengthening our connection to the world.
A motivational and inspiring guide to wholehearted living, rather than just the average self-help book, with this groundbreaking work Brené Brown, Ph.D., bolsters the self-esteem and personal development process through her characteristic heartfelt, honest storytelling. With original research and plenty of encouragement, she explores the psychology of releasing our definitions of an “imperfect” life and embracing living authentically. Brown’s “ten guideposts” are benchmarks for authenticity that can help anyone establish a practice for a life of honest beauty—a perfectly imperfect life.
Now more than ever, we all need to cultivate feelings of self-worth, as well as acceptance and love for ourselves. In a world where insults, criticisms, and fears are spread too generously alongside messages of unrealistic beauty, attainment, and expectation, we look for ways to “dig deep” and find truth and gratitude in our lives. A new way forward means we can’t hold on too tightly to our own self-defeating thoughts or the displaced pain in our world. Instead, we can embrace the imperfection.
What are your favorite inspirational or personal growth books? Let me know in the comments below so we can add them to our arsenal.
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