Psychology Books I Want to Read
Book Conversations 01
If you know me in person, you know that I am not a non-fiction reader. For me personally, reading was supposed to be a form of escape from reality. It isn’t supposed to slap you in the face with cold hard truths and explanations about how you might be the problem. In my cute little fictional world, I never have to worry about bettering myself for others and more importantly, improving myself for… myself. In the past few months, my mindset has definitely changed a little bit. It’s a beautiful experience to learn and grow and get to know yourself. Even though I still haven’t picked up a non-fiction book, here are some that I am currently in the process of collecting to start my journey. (Specifically in psychology)
A little background on this one; working in a bookstore, I had a colleague completely obsessed with these books. If you heard her talking to a customer about psychology books, these three would always pop up as recommendations. So, I kind of started doing my own research (and asking her questions), because I was curious and I felt like it was time to focus on rewiring my brain in a positive way, if that makes sense.
The recommended reading order:
How to do the work
How to be the love you seek
How to meet yourself.
Let’s start with the first one: How to do the work.
As my research would suggest, this is the best one to start with as it focuses almost completely on you and how your mindset works. It takes you through the process of realising that a lot of coping mechanisms you use and the way your brain thinks are all correlated to your childhood and upbringing. It helps you realise those patterns you go through and how to break the cycle. As someone who has experienced a bit of traumatic events, I kind of had my brain conditioned in a way it was ‘supposed to think.’
Logically yes, I knew and know what is wrong and right but as a child craving acceptance and love and support, you kind of put that on a back burner in order to receive even a glimpse of the good stuff. Kind of like an addiction. Do I need therapy? Yes. Will I ever go to therapy? Also yes. If and when finances allow but for now, I am able to take baby steps in order to improve my mental health and thinking patterns.
How to be the love you seek
As a chronic people pleaser, I definitely have the hardest time enforcing boundaries into my life with the people around me. This book is great as the second recommendation as it showcases after focusing on yourself and your mindset, you have to set in those boundaries in relationships around you in order to continue the improvement. These relationships could be familial, friendships or romantic relationships.
A lot of the time, the relationships in our lives are the ones hindering our growth; it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to cut that person out of your life, but enforcing lines into the relationship that you are comfortable with is not asking for too much. It gives you space to breathe and it allows for an environment where other people don’t get to influence you or your mental health anymore.
How to meet yourself
How to meet yourself is kind of like a practical guide to help assist transitioning the theory of book one and two into your life. It has journaling and prompts and treats itself as a little mini therapy session bit by bit.
So yes, these three books are high on my must read psychology list and I can’t wait to collect them all and start this journey full force.
Gentle discipline book
A very controversial topic that I love to get into with the people around me. Sarah Ockwell-Smith has a whole range of books that specifically focus on gentle parenting. It is something that I would more than likely enforce with my future children (not happening anytime soon but it’s good to be prepared).
As it was mentioned above, your childhood basically paths the way into your way of thinking and your way of life as an adult. I was a very sensitive and introverted child and my brother very out-going and energetic. Traditional parenting might have been the most efficient way to raise him but traditional parenting did plant mountains of doubt into my mind. Don’t get me wrong, my parent did the best they could with what they had and my appreciation is endless for that. Nobody’s perfect- as Hannah Montana so wisely once said- and it’s okay.
But gentle parenting is the one thing that can ensure that my children have confidence in who they are and gentle parenting is the one thing that can make that difference in their lives. I don’t want their whole day being spent self-deprecating because they broke a glass six hours ago, I want them to clean up their mess and have the rest of the day be beautiful, because accidents happen.
Gentle parenting is not for everyone, even though I would like for it to be. But in my very very very far future pregnancy, I do plan on reading a lot of Sarah’s range to help me understand better and to have statistics to back up my argument *insert side eye emoji*
This takes me to the end of my very lovely rant about which psychology books I would like to read and why.
Until the next one.
Okayy. Byeeee.