📚 Healing Power of Reading, 3 Awesome Documentaries, and more.

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• If you want to make reading more enjoyable, use all 5 senses.

• This passage was published in 1876, but is truer today than ever before.

• Last weekend I was out for my morning walk when the craziest thing happened.

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📚 Books Summary:

This week’s book is “Bibliotherapy” by Bijal Shah.

Bijal is the founder of Book Therapy and a bibliotherapist.

It’s a form of therapy where she prescribes people books and works with people to help them better understand their suppressed emotions, such as anxiety or trauma. She also shares how to choose the right book and apply it as a tool for transformation.

Here are 3 lessons from the book:

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1) The Health Benefits of Bibliotherapy

Bibliotherapy refers to the use of specific books to address a therapeutic need.

One of the main benefits of bibliotherapy is that it increases your self-awareness.

By reading about characters and situations in books, you can gain new insights into your own emotions and behaviors. Reading can also serve as a warning of what not to do by seeing where characters fail, and avoiding going down the same path. Books can also offer solutions to similar problems to our own.

Secondly, reading provides you with a safe space where you can let down your guard. Since you’re focusing on the character and not yourself directly, you can explore your own issues without the fear of judgment that you might feel when talking to another person. This is especially useful for people with avoidant attachment styles.

Lastly, reading, like meditation, produces changes in the brain that increase executive function and better regulation of your emotions, so that you are better able to select the relevant emotion for a given situation, reducing symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression.

But which books should you read…?

📖

2) Books for Problems from A to Z

At the end of the book, Bijal shares a ton of book recommendations (both fiction and nonfiction) for a wide range of problems, from anxiety to trauma.

I’m not going to list all 100+ book recommendations here, but here are a few common problems and book prescriptions that you might find helpful:

• Anxiety:

  • “Turtles All the Way Down” by John Green (fiction)

  • “My Age of Anxiety” by Scott Stossel (nonfiction)

• Burnout:

  • “There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job” by Kikuko Tsumara (fiction)

  • “Burnout” by Emily and Amelia Nagoski (nonfiction)

• Depression:

  • “Mrs Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf (fiction)

  • “The Upward Spiral” by Alex Korb (nonfiction)

• Grief:

  • “The Sky is Everywhere” by Jandy Nelson (fiction)

  • “The Grieving Brain” by Mary-Frances O’Connor (nonfiction)

• Regret:

  • “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig (fiction)

  • “The Power of Regret” by Dan Pink (nonfiction)

• Trauma:

  • “Beloved” by Toni Morrison (fiction)

  • “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk (nonfiction)

If any of the books here speak to you, consider buying them.

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3) The 3-Step Process to Bibliotherapy

If you don’t have a bibliotherapist near you and want to try the self-therapy approach, here’s how:

Step 1: Select the appropriate book.

Find an area of your life that you’d like to work on or an issue you are currently facing (anxiety, loss, depression, etc). Then search for a book about that subject or one where the character faces a similar challenge to your own (reading book summaries can help you find the right book). As you read your book, ask yourself if you can connect with the subject or characters. If you can’t relate, find a different book that speaks to you.

Step 2: Have a conversation with the book.

Don’t just read the book, turn it into a conversation with the author by taking notes on the lines you’ve loved, writing down how they make you feel, and considering the possible reasons why the text resonated with you. If the book changes how you think about a topic, write down what changed and what lessons you learned from it.

Step 3: Consolidate your thoughts and feelings.

After finishing the book, take time to consolidate your thoughts and feelings. Think of it almost as having a conversation with yourself. Journal about all of the thoughts and feelings that the book provoked in you and what you learned about yourself from it. This step of reflection and journaling is vital, so take it seriously and do not skip it.

Note: This is not medical advice. If you’re facing a serious mental health issue, please seek help from a qualified therapist or counselor.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) Bibliotherapy is a form of therapy that uses books to promote mental health and well-being, give it a try.

2) Buy one of the books listed above, or for the full list of books Bijal recommends, get a copy of “Bibliotherapy” and jump to the end.

3) Follow the 3 steps to bibliotherapy:

• Select a book that suits your needs.

• Interact with the book by taking notes and asking questions.

• Consolidate your thoughts and feelings, and reflect on what you’ve learned.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Here are 3 amazing documentaries I highly recommend watching:

1) The Century of the Self: If you’re interested in influence, persuasion, or politics, you’ll find this documentary fascinating. It explains how Sigmund Freud’s nephew used Freud’s teachings to create the advertising industry, how psychology was used to create a mass-consumer society, and so much more. It’s about 4 hours long, but it’s worth watching. And it’s free to watch on YouTube.

2) The Defiant Ones: If you’re interested in music or entrepreneurship, this documentary is for you. It tells the story of legendary music producer Jimmy Iovine and the famous rapper Dr. Dre. Together, the two changed the music industry forever and created the famous Beats headphones.

3) Endurance: If you’re into history, exploration, or resilience, watch this documentary. It tells the incredible story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and how he tried to cross the Antarctic by ship in 1915, but got stuck in the ice. That began a two-year journey to survive the extreme conditions of the Arctic. Highly recommend.

Your opinion matters!

Thank you for your support,

Alex W.