Welcome to this month’s Aspire Magazine Top 10 Inspirational Books list! You’ll discover inspirational and empowering books, written by women and for women, each dedicated to sharing a universal message of love, hope and self-empowerment. Through their wisdom-filled books, these visionary female authors are illuminating the path for women on the journey of healing and self-discovery. Add these transformational books to your inspired living resource library.
I'm Not a Mourning Person: Braving Loss, Grief, and the Big Messy Emotions That Happen When Life Falls Apart by Kris Carr
From New York Times bestselling author Kris Carr, comes a transformational book about love, loss, and all the life-changing insights we receive when we embrace them. In this book, Kris shares her (embarrassing, painful, helpful, hilarious, and sometimes inappropriate) stories and observations about what to expect when you’re not expecting your world to fall apart. If your life has been turned upside down—whether it be the dissolving of a relationship or marriage, the end of a job or career, any other number of significant unexpected transitions. . . or, like Kris, you are wrestling with the pain that comes from an illness or the death of a loved one, this book is filled with real-life experiences, practices, and insights that can help you feel better—not cured—but better. It will provide comfort and community as you learn that these big messy emotions can be a catalyst to take inventory of your life, figure out what matters most, and reset. . . because as Kris says, “when we’re brave enough to tend to our hearts: Our messy emotions can teach us how to be free––not free from pain, but free from the fear of pain and the barrier it creates to fully living.”
Finding Your Way: Meditations, Thoughts, and Wisdom for Living an Authentic Life by Sharon Salzberg
Find a sense of calm and hope with this illustrated gift book from the world renowned and bestselling meditation teacher as she offers bite-sized tidbits of inspiring advice. Finding Your Way is the newest book from the one of the most beloved and bestselling meditation teachers. In dozens of clear and inspiring entries, readers will be reminded that there are many ways to stay calm and move forward. From choosing to simply "do the good that is in front of you," to reading a meaningful piece from an interview with a kind leader, to quotes from people Sharon admires, and reminders of how to practice meditation, Finding Your Way will show readers that they are always on the right path, because it is their own. Each thought, whether a single quote or a short essay, is presented in a visually calm manner, with dozens of four color illustrations to enhance and inspire the experience throughout the book.
Let Us Be Greater: A Gentle, Guided Path to Healing for Adoptees by Michelle Madrid
Adoption is a lifeline of support and opportunity, but it can bring challenges and emotional conditions that are often silenced or left unaddressed, including PTSD, risk of suicide, and fear of abandonment. Author Michelle Madrid has experienced these challenges as a foster child and international adoptee and now as an adoptive parent and adoptee-empowerment coach. Michelle has learned that the complex emotions and psychological turmoil of adoption are best healed through identification, exploration, and understanding. Written with compassion and authenticity, Let Us Be Greater will help adoptees and their families feel heard, seen, and understood.
100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success by Liz Moody
From the creator of The Liz Moody Podcast comes a science-backed guide to creating your best life. What daily habits do happiness psychologists recommend to sprinkle our lives with joy? What does the latest research show about how we can live longer? How do the world’s top gastroenterologists tackle bloating and constipation? How can we amp up our charisma, make and keep quality friendships, and overcome the burn out sapping our energy every day? 100 Ways to Change Your Life offers real answers to each of these questions, and so many more. This is a new kind of personal growth book; here, veteran journalist Liz Moody translates her years of experience interviewing the world’s leading doctors, scientists, and thinkers into a smart, choose-your-own-adventure-style read that offers concrete solutions to some of life’s biggest hurdles—physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise. Whether you decide to read the entire book at once for total transformation, a tip a day to add a dose of inspiration to your morning routine, or go directly to the sections that address your specific needs and challenges, every page of 100 Ways to Change Your Life offers powerful, habit-building tips across subjects ranging from mental health, careers, relationships, confidence, and physical health in 100 fun-to-read, easy-to-digest parts that provide highly actionable tools and mindset-shifting ideas that will change every part of your life—from the moment you turn the first page.
Homecoming: Healing Trauma to Reclaim Your Authentic Self by Thema Bryant, Ph.D.
A road map for dismantling the fear and shame that keep you from living a free and authentic life. In the aftermath of stress, disappointment, and trauma, people often fall into survival mode, even while a part of them longs for more. Juggling multiple demands and responsibilities keeps them busy, but not healed. As a survivor of sexual assault, racism, and evacuation from a civil war in Liberia, Dr. Thema Bryant knows intimately the work involved in healing. Having made the journey herself, in addition to guiding others as a clinical psychologist and ordained minister, Dr. Thema shows you how to reconnect with your authentic self and reclaim your time, your voice, your life.Signs of disconnection from self can take many forms, including people-pleasing, depression, anxiety, and resentment. Healing starts with recognizing and expressing emotions in an honest way and reconnecting with the neglected parts of yourself, but it can’t be done in a vacuum. Dr. Thema gives you the tools to meaningfully connect with your larger community, even if you face racism and sexism, heartbreak, grief, and trauma. Rather than shrinking in the face of life’s difficulties, you will discover in Homecoming the therapeutic approaches and spiritual practices to live a more expansive life characterized by empowerment, healthier relationships, gratitude, and a deeper sense of purpose.
The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life by Lisa Miller, PhD
Whether it’s meditation or a walk in nature, reading a sacred text or saying a prayer, there are many ways to tap into a heightened awareness of the world around you and your place in it. In The Awakened Brain, psychologist Dr. Lisa Miller shows you how. Weaving her own deeply personal journey of awakening with her groundbreaking research, Dr. Miller’s book reveals that humans are universally equipped with a capacity for spirituality, and that our brains become more resilient and robust as a result of it. For leaders in business and government, truth-seekers, parents, healers, educators, and any person confronting life’s biggest questions, The Awakened Brain combines cutting-edge science (from MRI studies to genetic research, epidemiology, and more) with on-the-ground application for people of all ages and from all walks of life, illuminating the surprising science of spirituality and how to engage it in our lives. Absorbing, uplifting, and ultimately enlightening, The Awakened Brain is a conversation-starting saga of scientific discovery packed with counterintuitive findings and practical advice on concrete ways to access your innate spirituality and build a life of meaning and contribution.
Selfish: Step Into a Journey of Self-Discovery to Revive Confidence, Joy, and Meaning by Stephanie Szostak
Self!sh | adj. | taking time for oneself every day. Some might call that selfish. We say own it. This is your personal playbook for your mindset. Your tool kit to cope and grow. It’s unique to you. It gets you back to the best of You. Yes, it’s a good thing to take care of yourself. You’ll bring more of what you cherish and value to the world and those around you. That's self!sh. Chances are, if you’ve picked up this workbook, you are looking for a mind shift. You want more out of life. You are self-motivated to “do the work” to heal, grow, and thrive. Take a journey inward with humility and compassion. Forget the roles you play, the job title or the status symbol. Surrender. Make space for all of you, the bold and the vulnerable. This isn’t about proving anything to yourself or anyone else. There is no audience here. Quiet down your inner critic. Follow your heart. Surprise yourself! Built around eight self-reflection exercises, this workbook will guide you every step of the way through prompts, questions and examples that will culminate in you creating your personal Playbook. You will be empowered to cultivate a sense of worth tied to your intrinsic value, your character, and your principles. You will gain clarity on what is truly important to you, what motivates you, and what gets you emotionally charged to live the life you want.
Energy Rising: The Neuroscience of Leading with Emotional Power by Dr. Julia DiGangi
Your success in life—at work and at home—rises when you harness the energy that powers your brain. A neuropsychologist explains how.
Your drive to create change, catalyze impact, and build relationships all come from neuroelectrical energy—real, electrical impulses—firing in your brain. Who you are as a person depends on how you work with this energy. When this energy rises within you, you feel empowered and dynamic. But when this energy falls, you feel down, stressed, and defeated. You may feel as if you don't control your emotional energy, that it's an inevitable consequence of the world around you and the forces bearing down on you. But that's not the case. To reach your full potential, you can learn to recognize and harness the energy in your brain. Leading neuropsychologist Julia DiGangi will teach you how through eight "codes." Some of the codes will surprise you. All will fortify you. You will learn why these codes work and how to apply them to your own challenges through exercises and reflections. When you start viewing your life less about the activities you do and more about the natural energies within and around you, your power to live and lead with impact grows exponentially. Energy Rising offers you a provocative and neuroscientifically accurate path to greater emotional power, influence, and connection, both at work and at home.
Talking on Eggshells: Soft Skills for Hard Conversations by Sam Horn
With an eye to the contemporary challenges of email, remote work, and virtual conversations, Sam Horn updates concepts from her bestselling book Tongue Fu!, which is used by organizations around the world for communication skills training. Talking on Eggshells is a user-friendly resource offering what readers want and need to speak up instead of shutting down, face difficult conversations head on, and keep their cool when others don’t. Presenting forty character-building situations people encounter regularly, the book shows what to say and what not to say so readers are never tongue-tied or tongue-twisted again.
The Transformational Nature of Grief by Cara Hope Clark
After losing her beloved husband to suicide in 2012, Cara knows all too well that when we lose a loved one, it can feel like our world has been turned upside down. Lost in the darkness of grief, you may not know where to turn for guidance or how to navigate this new terrain.
Cara shows us that by learning to embrace the resilience of our inner spirit and tapping into our divine inspiration, we can gain access to hope, peace and meaning in our lives once again. When approaching grief from a place of reverence and receptivity we are able to discover the magic of our souls, where there are innumerable gifts waiting to be revealed.
Let the Transformational Nature of Grief take you on a journey of self-discovery, illuminating your path forward through the darkness of grief to embrace the light of your soul.
