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New Year 2024: Take a step closer to self love with these 10 books

Books can be your best friends if you want! Here are the top 10 self-love books that can help you improve your mental health!
Read these books, and thank us later! Image courtesy: Shutterstock
Yashwani Arora Updated: 21 Dec 2023, 11:29 am IST
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Ladies, if you had promised yourself to read more in 2023 and walked back on it, let us tell you it is never too late to start! Some people tilt towards fiction and fantasy novels, but some also have an affinity towards books that motivate. Self-love, self-help, and self-improvement guides have found many takers across the world, and there are some evergreen gems that you can learn so much from.

Whether you want to be more courageous and confident, learn new strategies for your business, or just simply upgrade your personality, such books have the potential to guide you on your self-care or self-love journey. The holiday season can be the best time to indulge in a new hobby or upgrade your reading list for the upcoming year!

While there may be a plethora of such books by some of the best authors, we tried to narrow down 10 recommendations. As a voracious reader, I can say that some of these titles have really helped me unlock my potential and improve upon my mindset and personality.

Personally, I feel reading such books has a tendency to nudge you into self-introspection about important aspects of life like spirituality, financial stress, self-love, relationships, and work-life balance.

Here’s my list of the top 10 books that teach you about self-love:

1. Ikigai

By Héctor García, Francesc Miralles

This is a book that helps you unlock your true self and your happiness. Ikigai is famously described as a Japanese secret to a long and happy life. Once you finish it, you will feel a change of perspective to lead a healthier and happier way of life. It has some answers to basic questions as to why some people keep doing the same thing tirelessly over the years even though it may be mundane. It motivates you to find your ‘ikigai’ (happiness) and live it!

2. Eat That Frog

By Brian Tracy

If you are tired of poor time management, this is the right book for you. The author uses ‘frog’ as a metaphor, denoting the most important and the biggest tasks on your to-do list. The language is easy to read and you can complete it in one go. It is a book you can read over and over again over the weeks for motivation to get your work done and accomplish anything in your work environment.

“The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place.” This is a quote from Eat That Frog, and reminding yourself about it will give you the kickstart you need!

3. How To Win Friends and Influence People

By Dale Carnegie

This is one of the finest books for effective communication.It has 92 such techniques divided into 9 chapters which address different scenarios. As an introvert, it helped me a lot to communicate better in the workplace and even in my personal relationships. This book will help you build stronger communication and social skills. The biggest lesson from this book is the importance of empathy and trying to understand the other person’s point of view. Add this to your list if you find it difficult to communicate or want to enhance your social skills.

4. Atomic Habits

By James Clear

This book is a great source of motivation and one of the best books that can help you transform your life by simply working on your habits. Our habits make us who we truly are. Though we cannot change or make habits overnight, the idea is to make it as easy as possible to start embracing better practices and turning to a more productive path. Here’s a two-minute rule from the book you can take a leaf from already! “When you start a new habit, it should take two minutes to do.” Well, add this to your list to practice and build better habits.

5. The Alchemist

By Paulo Coelho

The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times. The Alchemist is the kind of novel that tells you that everything is possible as long as you really want it to happen.Sometimes, simple things are the most valuable and only people who are wise enough, can appreciate them. The Alchemist is one of those books that will make you ponder upon what you may have been doing wrong all the while, and what can you change.

6. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant takes you through words of wisdom by the author, who is an entrepreneur, philosopher, and investor. It is a collection of Naval’s learnings from his experience from the last ten years, and is shared as a curation of his most insightful interviews and poignant reflections. Through Naval’s own words, you will learn how to walk your own unique path towards a happier, healthier and wealthier life.

7. The Mountain Is You

If you are so tired of being too hard on yourself but don’t know why and how to stop, this book is for you. If you just feel too sensitive and can’t seem to let go of the things hurting you, it’s definitely for you. I love the style of writing and how the writer validates every single feeling and thought and starts from there, instead of offering you unrelated positive suggestions. I’ve never felt this comforted in a while.

8. Good Vibes, Good Life: How Self-Love Is the Key to Unlocking Your Greatness

By Vex King

Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King talks about very important things like self love, humility, failure, meditation, empowering thoughts and living a greater life. It talks about providing good vibes to ourselves by practising self-care, overcoming toxic energy and prioritizing our well-being. It tells you to be mindful and practise meditation, strive for building positive habits which eventually will invite a positive life, trust the universe and be a shining star for your own self.

9. Men Are from Mars, Women Are From Venus

By John Gray

This is an evergreen read on relationships. It is one of the most famous books to help you get an insight on finding the right partner and understanding your relationship with your partner. It navigates you through a better understanding of men and women as individuals and strategies to strengthen your bond with each other despite differences.

10. Don’t Fucking Panic

By Kelsey Darragh

While this book is filled with stories, it also adds up as fun as it engages you to reflect, find peace in colouring pages, anti-anxiety bingo boards and so much more! This is such a great book for people who aren’t sure if therapy is the right place to start with for their mental health journey. It touches upon a lot of the small things people write off as just stress, and also doesn’t sugarcoat the anxiety that comes from even attempting to work on self evaluation.

So, ladies, we hope this book list helps you have a better and happier New Year!

Yashwani Arora

Yashwani is best described as a voracious reader and ardent writer. She is a techie who enjoys both writing and coding. When she is not engrossed in either of these two, she enjoys exploring new places and trying new foods. ...Read More

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