7 best self-care books
O From moving memoirs to practical pocket guides
SELF-CARE has often been dismissed as a millennial fad – but these books promote the idea that looking after your well-being is sensible rather than selfish. And for those who suffer with mental health issues, it’s essential.
These self-care books range from moving memoirs with handy tips woven throughout, to practical pocket guides filled with interactive exercises.
Each begin with their own definitions of ‘self-care,’ but all agree that learning to listen to your own needs will ultimately help you become healthier and happier.
Remember This When You’re Sad is both a memoir and a vital selfcare manual. Writer and socialmedia editor Van Eijk, shares her own story of lifetime suffering with mental-health issues – including depression, anxiety and borderline personality disorder – and pairs it with pragmatic advice for those facing similar issues.
The book is divided into 15 digestible chapters with to-the-point heads, such as “remember this when you’re scared of your own brain” and “remember this when you can’t stand your own body”. What follows is razor-sharp prose that reads like advice and anecdotes from a trusted friend.
The Self-Care Project busts the myth that self-care is “selfish”, presenting it instead as imperative for our overall health, happiness and wellbeing. Author Jayne Hardy is the founder and CEO of mentalhealth charity The Blurt Foundation, and depression, as she writes in an early chapter, “gobbled up most of her twenties”.
In 10 practical chapters, Hardy offers straightforward advice on how to assess your own needs and build self-care into an already busy schedule – tips range from changing your relationship with your phone to creating the ultimate “comfort retreat”. You should finish the book with a better understanding of your own wants, needs and boundaries.
Take A Moment: Activities to Refocus, Recentre And Relax Wherever You Are is a colourful guide filled with easy activities for readers that was created in partnership with mental health charity Mind, and all the proceeds go to the organisation.
Designed for use on the go, it easily slips into a handbag or rucksack too. A practical and accessible guide to self-care.
Written by sisters and seasoned wellness pioneers Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips, Self-Care For The Real World is a deep dive into doing your best for yourself whatever your circumstances.
The book, which is clean and minimalist in design, is broken down into easily absorbed, instructive heads: expect sections such as “self-care for social media” and “what to do when you’re heartbroken”. The tone is didactic but unpatronising, friendly yet not overfamiliar.
There are recipes, bright photography, yoga flows and bulleted sections such as the ‘Staywell travel guide.’ It’s a thoughtful street map to self-care that will also look beautiful on your shelf.
Pretty and pocket-sized, The Little Book of Self-Care crams an impressive amount of information into some 200 pages. Mel Noakes, an NLP practitioner who has gained recognition as the Self Care Coach, begins with her personal story: she suffered with an eating disorder, low self-esteem and a “fundamental lack of self-care”, before she finally learned how best to look after herself.
The book’s core is split into three parts – ‘mind,’ ‘body’ and ‘life’ – and Noakes advises that the reader dips in and out of the book, testing various tips and figuring out which ones sit best with them.
In The Self-Care Revolution, Suzy Reading, psychologist, yoga teacher and author, wastes little time in her opener. The reader is plunged immediately into a visceral description of Reading’s experience as she struggled with postnatal depression, exhaustion and grief for her desperately ill father.
This personal narrative provides firm grounding for the informative, research-backed guide to self-care that follows – the long list of references at the book’s end is testament to the author’s skills.
Reading strikes an inclusive tone as she introduces the concept of the “vitality wheel”, which the book is focused around. The wheel comprises “eight avenues of nourishment” (including sleep, rest, relaxation and breathing; movement and nutrition and coping skills) and each chapter deals with a single spoke in this selfcare wheel.
Christy Abram is the founder of Brown Girls Write, a “self-care initiative” that encourages women of colour to share their stories. Abram shares her own in Speak Your Truth, Heal Your Heart, a straight-talking and uncensored presentation of the abuse and neglect that led Abram to a deep depression.
Concrete tips include creating a “worry jar”, learning to recognise your own triggers and finally making an actionable self-care plan.
The latter involves identifying your “discomforts” and choosing activities that counter them (be it meeting up with a friend or listening to a particular song) – you can then draw on items from your “selfdirected” plan in times of particular need.