Manage your mind with these health and wellness reads

CHARLESTON, S.C. - No one knows books and gives better recommendations than librarians. That's one of our favorite things to do, and we spend a lot of time researching and reading new books and old ones to keep our recommendations fresh. 

With our branches closed to the public, having those conversations is a lot more difficult. But it's not impossible! And that's why CCPL's librarians have been digging through our digital resources to build list upon list of digital recommendations.

Pair our series of meditation and mindfulness videos with this list of books put together by Theresa Wagner, Adult Services Librarian at the Johns Island Library. 

"Over the last few years, I have educated myself on improving habits, managing my weight and improving my outlook on life. I have put together this collection of fantastic reads on health, wellness and managing your mind," she said.  

Atomic Habits by James Clear   | OverDrive audio | hoopla audio

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
design your environment to make success easier;
get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits—whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin | OverDrive audio

During her multibook investigation into understand human nature, Gretchen Rubin realized that by asking the seemingly dry question "How do I respond to expectations?" we gain explosive self-knowledge. She discovered that based on their answer, people fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behavior, so using this framework allows us to make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress, and engage more effectively.

More than 600,000 people have taken her online quiz, and managers, doctors, teachers, spouses, and parents already use the framework to help people make significant, lasting change.

The Four Tendencies hold practical answers if you've ever thought...
People can rely on me, but I can't rely on myself.
How can I help someone to follow good advice?
People say I ask too many questions.
How do I work with someone who refuses to do what I ask—or who keeps telling me what to do?

With sharp insight, compelling research, and hilarious examples, The Four Tendencies will help you get happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. It's far easier to succeed when you know what works for you.

The Obesity Code by Jason Fung

Everything you believe about how to lose weight is wrong. Weight gain and obesity are driven by hormones-in everyone-and only by understanding the effects of insulin and insulin resistance can we achieve lasting weight loss. In this highly readable and provocative book, Dr. Jason Fung sets out an original, robust theory of obesity that provides startling insights into proper nutrition. In addition to his five basic steps, a set of lifelong habits that will improve your health and control your insulin levels, Dr. Fung explains how to use intermittent fasting to break the cycle of insulin resistance and reach a healthy weight-for good.

Finish by Jon Acuff | OverDrive audio

According to studies, 92 percent of New Year's reso-lutions fail. You've practically got a better shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina than you do at finishing your goals.

For years, I thought my problem was that I didn't try hard enough. So I started getting up earlier. I drank enough energy drinks to kill a horse. I hired a life coach and ate more superfoods. Nothing worked, although I did develop a pretty nice eyelid tremor from all the caffeine. It was like my eye was waving at you, very, very quickly.

Then, while leading a thirty-day online course to help people work on their goals, I learned something surprising: The most effective exercises were not those that pushed people to work harder. The ones that got people to the finish line did just the opposite— they took the pressure off.

Why? Because the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals is not laziness, but perfectionism. We're our own worst critics, and if it looks like we're not going to do something right, we prefer not to do it at all. That's why we're most likely to quit on day two, "the day after perfect"—when our results almost always underper­form our aspirations.

The strategies in this book are counterintuitive and might feel like cheating. But they're based on studies conducted by a university researcher with hundreds of participants. You might not guess that having more fun, eliminating your secret rules, and choosing something to bomb intentionally works. But the data says otherwise. People who have fun are 43 percent more successful! Imagine if your diet, guitar playing, or small business was 43 percent more suc­cessful just by following a few simple principles.

If you're tired of being a chronic starter and want to become a consistent finisher, you have two options: You can continue to beat yourself up and try harder, since this time that will work. Or you can give yourself the gift of done.

You are a Badass by Jen Sincero | OverDrive ebook | OverDrive audio

Bestselling author, speaker, and world-traveling success coach Jen Sincero cuts through the din of the self-help genre with her own verbal meat cleaver in You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. In this refreshingly blunt how-to guide, Sincero serves up twenty-seven bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, life-changing insights, easy exercises, and the occasional swear word. Via chapters such as 'Your Brain Is Your Bitch,' 'Fear Is for Suckers' and 'My Subconscious Made Me Do It,' Sincero takes you on a wild joy ride to your own transformation, helping you create the money, relationships, career, and general all-around awesomeness you so desire. And should you be one of those people who dreads getting busted with a self-help book in your hands, fear not. Sincero, a former skeptic herself, delivers the goods minus the New Age cheese, giving even the snarkiest of poo-pooers exactly what they need to get out of their ruts and start kicking some ass. By the end of You Are a Badass, you will understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can't change, how to change what you don't love, and how to start living the kind of life you used to be jealous of.

The Calorie Myth by Jonathan Bailor

Contrary to what most diets would have you believe, the human body does not recognize all calories as equal. Some foods are used to boost brain power, fuel metabolism, and heal the body-while others are simply stored as fat. In The Calorie Myth, Bailor shows us how eating more of the right kinds of foods and exercising less, but at a higher intensity, is the true formula for burning fat.

Why? Because eating high-quality foods balances the hormones that regulate our metabolism. When we eat these foods, our bodies naturally maintain a healthy weight. But when we eat sugar, starches, processed fats, and other poor-quality foods, the body's regulatory system becomes "clogged" and prevents us from burning extra calories. Translation: Those extra 10 pounds aren't the result of eating too much . . . they're the result of eating the wrong foods!

Bailor offers clear, comprehensive guidance on what to eat and why, providing an eating plan, recipes, and a simple yet effective exercise regimen. Losing weight doesn't have to mean going hungry or spending hours at the gym. The Calorie Myth offers a radical and effective new model for weight loss and long-term health.

Grit by Angela Duckworth | OverDrive audio

The daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of "genius," Angela Duckworth is now a celebrated researcher and professor. It was her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience that led to her hypothesis about what really drives success: not genius, but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance.

In Grit, she takes us into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, based on the principle that little, everyday decisions will either take you to the life you desire or to disaster by default. No gimmicks. No Hyperbole. No Magic Bullet. The Compound Effect is a distillation of the fundamental principles that have guided the most phenomenal achievements in business, relationships, and beyond. This easy-to-use, step-by-step operating system allows you to multiply your success, chart your progress, and achieve any desire. If you're serious about living an extraordinary life, use the power of The Compound Effect to create the success you want. You will find strategies including: How to win-every time! The No. 1 strategy to achieve any goal and triumph over any competitor, even if they're smarter, more talented or more experienced. Eradicating your bad habits (some you might be unaware of!) that are derailing your progress. The real, lasting keys to motivation-how to get yourself to do things you don't feel like doing. Capturing the elusive, awesome force of momentum. Catch this, and you'll be unstoppable. The acceleration secrets of super achievers. Do they have an unfair advantage? Yes they do, and now you can too!

Time Warrior by Steve Chandler

Time Warrior is a revolutionary, non-linear approach to dealing with time, as bold as it is fresh and new. What is non-linear time management? Non-linear time management is a commitment to action in the present moment. It's looking at a task and choosing NOW or "not now." If it's not now, it's got to be NEVER, or placed in a time capsule that has a spot on the calendar and therefore out of the mind. The mind must remain clear and empty of all future considerations. In non-linear time management there is no line extending from my mind into the future. No tapeworm of unfinished business coming out of my body. Non-linear time management is best expressed by Elvis Presley when he sings, "It's now or never, come hold me tight." The old-fashioned time management programs had a huge, burdensome focus on the future. The line of tasks stretched out forever into the future. It was fear-based and it was overwhelming to have so much of a future to carry around with you. It resulted in massive, pathological procrastination. Everything got put off in the name of perfectionism. Nothing was bold or reckless anymore. Therefore there wasn't much astonishing success happening for the world-weary practitioner. But when Chandler teaches people to go non-linear, a strange thing happens. New life and energy come in. When they open their emails they don't get to save them for later. They have to deal with them if they open them. Like little attackers in a computer game, there is no longer anywhere to hide. Life becomes a great game and everything is handled right now on the spot. All fear comes from picturing the future. Putting things off increases that fear. Soon we are nothing but heavy minds weighing down on weary brains. Too much future will do that. Only a warrior's approach will solve this. A warrior takes his sword to the future. A warrior also takes his sword to all circumstances that don't allow him to fully focus. Chandler is a coach by profession, and when he works with a client who is "overwhelmed" with too much to do and not enough time to do it he will often ask them to give him an example of one of the things they are burdened by every time they think about it. The client will give him an example and they will do that thing right now. The client is amazed. The only thing missing in this client's life was a bias for action. Most people think too much. Then they compound that problem by studying the feelings that come up for them as a result of that thinking. All this time that they spend thinking and feeling they could have been taking action. In a non-linear way. Linear time starts with your birth and ends (at the end of the line) with your death. Along that long linear line it's just one damn thing after another. Then the lights go out. What was the point? Non-linear time management stops all that weary nonsensical treading on the road to one's destiny. Rather than inching along horizontally you must simply rise up. Your life can now become vertical. Now you don't postpone challenges, you rise to them. You become a warrior. And it works. How, exactly, does it work? This book will show you exactly how it works.

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks | hoopla audio

In The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks, the New York Times bestselling author of Five Wishes, demonstrates how to eliminate the barriers to success by overcoming false fears and beliefs. Fans of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Secret will find useful, effective tips for breaking down the walls to a better life in The Big Leap.

 

Food Study Guide by Mark Hyman

In this four-session video-based Bible study (digital video not included), The Daniel Plan team explores both the spiritual and the health benefits of following a healthy lifestyle by focusing on the second essential of The Daniel Plan: Food.

The sessions include:

1. Learning to Live Abundantly
2. Jumpstart Your Health
3. Cravings, Comfort Food, and Choices
4. Designing Your Eating Life

Each session will highlight testimony from those who have incorporated The Daniel Plan into their everyday lifestyle, plus tips on getting started and medically based information on maintaining a healthy lifestyle by following The Daniel Plan.

Switch on your Brain by Dr. Caroline Leaf

According to researchers, the vast majority--a whopping 75-98 percent--of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life. What we think about truly affects us both physically and emotionally. In fact, fear alone triggers more than 1,400 known physical and chemical responses in our bodies, activating more than thirty different hormones! Today our culture is undergoing an epidemic of toxic thoughts that, left unchecked, create ideal conditions for illnesses. Supported by current scientific and medical research, Dr. Caroline Leaf gives readers a prescription for better health and wholeness through correct thinking patterns, declaring that we are not victims of our biology. She shares with readers the "switch" in our brains that enables us to live happier, healthier, more enjoyable lives where we achieve our goals, maintain our weight, and even become more intelligent. She shows us how to choose life, get our minds under control, and reap the benefits of a detoxed thought life.

The 5 a.m. Club by Robin Sharma

Legendary leadership and elite performance expert Robin Sharma introduced The 5am Club concept over twenty years ago, based on a revolutionary morning routine that has helped his clients maximize their productivity, activate their best health and bulletproof their serenity in this age of overwhelming complexity. Now, in this life-changing book, handcrafted by the author over a rigorous four-year period, you will discover the early-rising habit that has helped so many accomplish epic results while upgrading their happiness, helpfulness and feelings of aliveness. Through an enchanting-and often amusing-story about two struggling strangers who meet an eccentric tycoon who becomes their secret mentor, The 5am Club will walk you through: How great geniuses, business titans and the world's wisest people start their mornings to produce astonishing achievements. A little-known formula you can use instantly to wake up early feeling inspired, focused and flooded with a fiery drive to get the most out of each day. A step-by-step method to protect the quietest hours of daybreak so you have time for exercise, self-renewal and personal growth. A neuroscience-based practice proven to help make it easy to rise while most people are sleeping, giving you precious time for yourself to think, express your creativity and begin the day peacefully instead of being rushed. "Insider-only" tactics to defend your gifts, talents and dreams against digital distraction and trivial diversions so you enjoy fortune, influence and a magnificent impact on the world. Part manifesto for mastery, part playbook for genius-grade productivity and part companion for a life lived beautifully, The 5am Club is a work that will transform your life. Forever.

The Food and Feelings Workbook by Karen Koenig

An extraordinary, powerful connection exists between feeling and feeding that, if damaged, may lead to one relying on food for emotional support, rather than seeking authentic happiness. This unique workbook takes on the seven emotions that plague problem eaters - guilt, shame, helplessness, anxiety, disappointment, confusion, and loneliness - and shows readers how to embrace and learn from their feelings. Written with honesty and humor, the book explains how to identify and label a specific emotion, the function of that emotion, and why the emotion drives food and eating problems. Each chapter has two sets of exercises: experiential exercises that relate to emotions and eating, and questionnaires that provoke thinking about and understanding feelings and their purpose. Supplemental pages help readers identify emotions and chart emotional development. The final part of the workbook focuses on strategies for disconnecting feeling from food, discovering emotional triggers, and using one's feelings to get what one wants out of life.