Clear Your Mind & Hit Refresh With These 5 Perfect Self-Help Books

By Chloe Cowman

Between almost physically melting with the amazing good weather lately and having a mental meltdown from all the real world and internet noise, now is as good a time as any to do a little brain decluttering.

Self-help books have moved on a lot since the 90s. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Women who Run With Wolves and The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People were all really popular and targeted the consumerist desire to become rich that dominated the late nineties. Now though, it’s all about changing your life for the better; making your home comfier with The Little Books of Hygge and Lagom, decluttering with The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up or not caring at all with The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving A F*ck.

Whatever your thing is; mindfulness, making better choices, or plain old soul-searching, we’ve got you covered:

The Confidence Kit by Caroline Foran.

Caroline returns following the success of her number one bestseller, Your Bullsh*t Free Guide To Living With Anxiety, with her brand new book, The Confidence Kit. Here, she shows us how to take our inner fears and anxieties and turn them into the building blocks needed to become a confident person. Packed with practical advice on how to overcome the fear of failure and how to step outside of your comfort zone, this is a great little book for anyone who needs help to take that extra step in their life, but lacks the confidence to do so.

The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Gray

Have you ever finished a Dry January feeling physically, mentally and financially better but found yourself falling straight back into old habits by February the 2nd? Author Catherine Gray had her fair share of binges and blackouts until she decided to investigate why we drink and the effect it has on our bodies. Then she documented all the scary stuff; sober dates, Christmases, weddings, breakups and sex.  The ideal book for anyone looking to feel better, ditch the drink, or even just reduce their alcohol intake.

Eat Up: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want by Ruby Tandoh

Ruby Tandoh wants us to fall back in love with food – it is one of life’s greatest pleasures, after all. In Eat Up, she celebrates the joy of food and arms us against the fad diets, food crazes and bad science that leave us feeling guilty about what we eat. It’s also packed with mouth-watering recipes and life advice from the likes of Roald Dahl, Nora Ephron and Gemma from Towie.

Braving The Wilderness by Brené Brown

Celebrated by the likes of Oprah, Reese Witherspoon and the late great Maya Angelou, Brené Brown is the current queen of self-help. An international bestseller, she has the academic chops to back up her knowledge on human behaviour – she’s a research professor and has spent the past sixteen years studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy. Braving the Wilderness is peppered throughout with her own lived experiences but also references her research to show us that we are, as a species, experiencing a spiritual disconnection, living as we do in an age of increased polarisation. In Braving the Wilderness, she introduces four key practices to reconnect ourselves and others.

How To Be Human: The Manual by Ruby Wax

A neuroscientist, a Buddhist monk and Ruby Wax walk into a bar. It sounds like a joke but actually it’s the combination of these three people together that make this book so intriguing. In How To be Human, we learn how the brain works, what makes us ‘us’, mindfulness exercises and answers to all the important questions; how our thoughts and emotions work, relationships, kids, and what the future holds. As well as upgrading your phone, you can now upgrade your mind with the manual on How To Be Human.

If you’ve found the right self-help book for you, you might be interested in our guide to celebrity book clubs and to Royal Wedding reads for those having withdrawals…