5 Non-Spiritual Self-Help Books To Help Sail Through Trying Times

Capitalism feeds off our body image issues and fuels the systems of oppression that impede our journey to becoming comfortable in our own bodies. Famous poet and activist Sonya Renee Taylor, in this stunning nonfiction, radicalizes the masses to take to self-love to defeat the violent forces restraining us. She asks her readers to confront the shame they have internalized over the years regarding their bodies. This is the first step to owning our truth not just on an individual but also on a global level. By respecting differences, we can work towards building a world that is more just and compassionate towards everyone.

Relationships are hard, and the charm of the honeymoon phase wanes off after a while. How do you make your relationship sustainable for long? What happens when love remains the same, but the sexual attraction between partners poofs away? Perel has tackled some tough topics in this book with grace, nuance, and sharp insight. For 20 years she has helped couples whose homes were devoid of sexual passion work through their marriage. This book is a meditation on how marriages can never be judged in terms of binaries. Perel offers a fresh new perspective on the intermingling of the domestic with the erotic and open relationships. For everyone grappling with or just trying to better understand breakups and infidelity, this book can prove to be especially helpful.

This book is packed with Tyra Banks and her mother Carolyn Landon’s life-changing advice on loving yourself a little harder. Tyra’s journey from an anxious preteen to a successful supermodel was nowhere close to perfect. But that’s the charm of it all, as striving for perfection can often be limiting and creatively debilitating. Though Carolyn emphasizes that she isn’t the type of mother who is best friends with her daughter, it’s evident that her pep talks, tough love, and wisdom bordering on excellent humor helped Tyra become what she is today. It’s a must-read for every parent and child out there trying to make meaning out of imperfection.

In our tech-saturated world, we hardly have the luxury of spending time with ourselves — the need for instant replies and the constant pressure to stay connected trigger our anxiety. Newport offers a highly educative account on how to filter out the chaos of the world of technology and build a constructive approach towards productivity. He has laid down the groundwork that needs to be done to gain control of our time and triumph against the guile of the attention economy that commodifies our attention span.

Parents are not perfect, as they are humans just like us, even though in our childhood we may have put them on a pedestal. Some parents emotionally cripple their children for life. Forward’s book is an honest, raw, and insightful take on how to overcome the emotional baggage they have inflicted upon us, not overnight, but gradually. The first step is to break out of the delusion that our parents are one-dimensional and their love for us is not flawed. Her crisp prose urges and guides the readers to identify the relationship patterns with their primary caregivers and seek professional help accordingly. She has drawn an empathetic roadmap for everyone still hurting from their festering childhood wounds.