★★★★☆ Elaine Aron is a leading expert on highly sensitive persons (HSPs) and her book is an excellent resource for understanding more about sensitivity, a trait that’s often misunderstood, and for providing strategies on how HSPs can use their sensitive natures to thrive.
Category: Mental Health
How to Know a Person by David Brooks
★★★★☆ There’s a loneliness epidemic in America, and it’s having devastating consequences. I see the tragic impact that feeling isolated and misunderstood is having on college students in my daily work on a college campus. I thought How to Know a Person might give me some insight into how I could take steps in my own life to address this societal health crisis.
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
★★★☆☆ I was reminded of Stolen Focus when admiring an artist friend’s ability to focus deeply while creating. This skill is increasingly rare in a society that has conditioned us all to believe we have to constantly multitask in order to be successful, valuable, or productive.
Climb Out of the Traps
Have you fallen into the trap? The negative thinking trap. You know the traps I’m talking about. The one that has you obsessing and taking things personally that probably don’t have anything to do with you. These traps zap creativity and drain productivity because they monopolize our mental energy and lock us into a narrow way of thinking.
Effortless by Greg McKeown
★★★☆☆ I listened to McKeown’s book Essentialism and it was a game changer for me. I wanted more of his wisdom on how to simplify my life and get more with less effort. Unfortunately, Effortless: Make it Easier to Do What Matters Most wasn’t as revolutionary as Essentialism.
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend
★★★☆☆ Boundaries are a critical component of a happy, healthy life. With this in mind, I sought this book out to see if there were areas where my boundaries needed a tune-up. I was not expecting the book to rely so heavily on the Bible and Christianity.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
★★★★☆ In Essentialism, Greg McKeown explains why we should all be relentlessly prioritizing and only spending time on the essentials. He encourages constantly checking in with yourself and asking, “Is this the very most important thing I could be doing with my time?” If the answer is no, it gets removed from the schedule.
Not Nice by Aziz Gazipura
★★★★☆ There is such a thing as being too nice. And, according to the author of Not Nice, if you’re someone who is plagued with too much niceness, it is causing you misery in the form of mental anguish and physical pain. In fact, he goes as far as to say your niceness is making the world a worse place for you and for others.
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
★★★★☆ After listening to me talk about feeling like I was settling for less than I deserved, my brother sent me a copy of Never Split the Difference. He had taken a masterclass based on the principles outlined in Never Split the Difference and thought it would give me some new tools to negotiate my way to more fulfillment.
Unwinding Anxiety by Judson Brewer
★★★★☆ Unwinding Anxiety was one of the more insightful resources I’ve come across on the subject of anxiety. I can sometimes get bogged down by listening to scientific explanations, but Brewer’s explanations of how our brains function were clear, easy to follow, and gave me a better understanding of how anxiety works.