Books, Holiday, Recommended, Seasonal
Reading Rituals
This year, many people will have been deprived of their usual way of celebrating Christmas. Whether this is normally ‘tContinue reading
Why I’m re-reading The Book of Hygge (2016) and having myself a hygge Samhain this October
If you somehow missed the hygge hype of the last couple of years (which would mean you didn’t enter any…
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (1995)
This popular book of the 1990s made the case for emotional intelligence as a greater indicator of success than IQ. Recognising and identifying emotions is the first step in being able to choose how to respond and manage them, and Goleman includes devastating examples of what happens when emotional intelligence…
MBCT for Dummies, Patrizia Collard (2013)
Presented in the familiar and easy to digest ‘for Dummies’ format, this book is a great introduction for anyone looking to start exploring mindfulness, from mindfulness attitudes and practices, to establishing mindful routines to incorporate in daily life . Collard’s passionate and engaged treatment of MBCT includes poems, quotations and…
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression, Segal, Williams and Teasdale (2nd edn 2018)
This is the core text for anyone interested in MBCT, but is specifically aimed at clinicians and psychologists wishing to teach the programme. It includes comprehensive coverage of the development and rationale for MBCT, a detailed account of the structure and content of the programme, with examples of inquiry, and…
Introduction to MindLit
When people say they read for escapism, I can’t help feeling that they have missed a trick. Reading for me…
The Present Moment in E. M. Forster’s ‘Howard’s End’ (1910)
The following passage illustrates what it means to come in to the present moment, how to do it, and what…
Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, Winifred Gallagher (2009)
Essential reading on attention and why it matters. Our experience, our lives are made up of what we pay attention to and so attention is a route into the life we want to have. Attention can be a choice and it can be cultivated. A key text on ‘flow states’…
The Outrun, Amy Liptrot (2016)
This autobiographical work about alcohol addiction sets Liptrot’s recovery against the wild landscape of Orkney (where ‘the sea has enough power to throw a seal over a fence’). Sober, she feels ‘like a fraud accepting praise…because I want to drink and feel it’s impossible that I won’t again. Yet I…
End Emotional Eating: Using Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Skills to Cope with Difficult Emotions and Develop a Healthy Relationship to Food, Jennifer L. Taitz (2012)
DBT is one of the ‘third wave of behavioural therapies’ originally developed to help those in emotional pain and who as a consequence self-harm. Mindfulness and acceptance are key elements of DBT. Forget willpower, self-control, motivation and learn about awareness, urge-surfing and treating yourself with kindness. Much of this is…
Writing down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg (1986)
This book was recommended to me by a lovely teacher that I trained with, my only regret is that it sat on my shelf for about 15 years before I got around to reading it. This is a liberating read – and if you want to write but are beset…