Stress Awareness Month: Book Recommendations
When I learned that there was a Stress Awareness Month it made me feel… a little stressed! Sometimes it seems like there’s a new awareness day/week/month every time I turn around and I can hardly keep up! No one is expecting me to per se, but for things that I really care about, I actually want to help increase awareness and education!
It’s important for everyone to really understand what stress and anxiety look and feel like for them, no one person experiences these things like the next. It’s always important to know where to go for help. Mental Health America provides some tips on how to reduce your stress by utilizing a Stress Screener. Or you could visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website and familiarize yourself with strategies for stress management. On that site, we’re encouraged to care for ourselves one small way each day. Sounds easy enough, right?!
Below you’ll see a brief list of some of my suggested books to help you slow down, increase your self-awareness, and find ways to care for yourself. None of them are traditional “self-help” books, but rather, titles that engage creativity, the senses, and more.
What titles would you add to this list?
If you’ve read any of these, what were your thoughts? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section!
A Book That Takes It’s Time: An Unhurried Adventure in Creative Mindfulness - This is great for those who enjoy simple arts and crafts and a colorful layout with the turn of each page being something very different. To really make myself not hurry through, I set a little “rule” that I couldn’t flip ahead until I’d read every page, considered every prompt, and really soaked things in. For me, it helped!
Poetry (and artwork!) by Morgan Harper Nichols and Rupi Kaur - The words of these two have been really helpful to me in times of darkness and when I've needed a quick, but meaningful way to love on myself through encouragement, positive affirmations, and new perspectives on what it is to be a woman, to be a human!
Mantra Wellness Magazine comes out four times a year and is a good mix of light-hearted imagery, spiritual insights, and health tips. I really look forward to this happy mail showing up in my mailbox every few months!
Cycles: The Science of Periods, Why They Matter, and How to Nourish Each Phase - This is brand new and definitely a different self-care/awareness vibe, but so important and something I've found to be really helpful. I’ve already gifted it to one friend and can see it becoming a go-to gift for many others in the future.
