I’ve been there. Staring at the self-help section of the bookshelf at Indigo, scrolling on Amazon, hoping for something to catch my eye and wondering, OK but are any of these useful? In my work supporting people with anxiety I have read a lot of books on anxiety. Some of them have been incredibly helpful. Some have been useless, or even worse - potentially harmful. Some of the most help on my personal and professional journey to help turn the tide on the rising rates of anxiety were books not specifically written about anxiety at all!
So this is my Tranquil Minds Booklist; a round up of some of the best books I’ve read (and one book I wrote) for managing anxiety. I hope you find what you are looking for.
Best Self Help Books For Anxiety
I thought I’d start with the obvious ones, self help books written for managing anxiety.
Best for Healing Anxiety Through Lifestyle Medicine
Create Calm: The Professionals Guide to Overcoming Anxiety From the Inside Out by Dr. Katie Thomson Aitken ND
When I started researching books written about lifestyle medicine for anxiety, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Many of the books out there were either too restrictive, encouraging extreme diets for example, and using fear tactics to suggest that this is THE ONLY WAY or books were very focused on a specific lifestyle piece, such as a meditation program, but had little or nothing to offer in the way of holistic lifestyle support. Seeing this gap I wrote and published Create Calm. This is an overview of the lifestyle medicine techniques that can be done from home to better manage anxiety. In my opinion, this is what everyone needs to know if they are feeling overwhelmed by anxiety to help them get back on track, and back on their own to do list.
Best Anxiety Book For Helping Children (and kids at heart)
The Anxiety Workbook for Kids: Take Charge of Fears and Worries Using the Gift of Imagination by Robin Alter and Crystal Clarke
This anxiety workbook is amazing for kids (and kids at heart) as it taps into the gift of imagination to redirect it from creating fears and worries towards solutions and resiliency. With lots of practical tips for managing all kinds of worries, including an excellent section on “managing real worries” this book is an excellent choice for children and creative adults who know their creativity is a superpower and who want to learn to control their power, rather than have it control them!
Best Fiction Book for Healing Anxiety
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist is one of my go to answers to “What book really changed your life?” I beautiful story about learning how to listen to and then choosing to follow your heart, the fact this book has been translated into so many languages really speaks to the universality of the messages inside it. It is both easy to read and contains deep wisdom. When anxiety comes from a place of “Is this what I’m meant to be doing with my life” The Alchemist is a great place to start.