Books for Stress Management and Relaxation
Our Recommended Reading
Arriving at Your own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness
Jon Kabat-Zinn
In Arriving at Your Own Door Jon Kabat-Zinn selects 108 messages of profound wisdom that can lead to both healing and transformation. These daily readings on mindfulness help us to awaken to the great work of awareness – awareness that can aid us in inhabiting our world with peace and sanity.
The Breathing Book: Vitality & Good Health Through Essential Breath Work
Donna Farhi
A practical guide for using the breath to relax the body during stressful situations, to develop better concentration, improve athletic performance, enhance sexual pleasure and to cultivate inner peace.
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.
The program of the stress reduction clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center invites the reader to embark upon a journey of self-development, self-discovery, learning and healing. Originally developed to help persons with life-threatening illness, the program has been thoroughly researched and found to be useful in reducing stress and increasing health and wellbeing.
Guided Imagery for Self-Healing
Martin Rossman, M.D.
Dr. Rossman presents a clear overview of imagery, what it is and how it works, and then provides readers with specific scripts that can be used to achieve deep relaxation and healing. Guided Imagery is a vital resource of self-care for anyone dealing with physical or emotional health problems, helping people get in touch with inner strength.
Heal Thyself: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine
Saki Santorelli
Santorelli, director of the nationally acclaimed Stress Reduction Clinic, explores the ancient roots of medicine and shows us how to introduce mindfulness into the crucible of the healing relationship. He offers many insights and effective methods for cultivating mindfulness in our everyday lives. Practices taught in the book include a series of breathing exercises, yoga, and silent meditation.
The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation
Thich Nhat Hanh
For those who struggle with sitting still for meditation, this simple book offers a wonderful alternative: walking meditation. Practical techniques guide the reader to using this most ordinary of daily activities to deepen one’s mindful awareness of the present moment, increase relaxation and concentration, and reduce stress.
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Eckhart Tolle
Tolle’s message is simple: living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment. He shares ideas about personal integration with uncommon eloquence and a deep understanding of the human condition. A spiritual guidebook that has the potential to inspire the reader to live more fully in the present.
Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations and Exercises From The Power of Now
Eckhart Tolle
This manual makes an excellent companion guide to Tolle’s The Power of Now and is rich in exercises and meditations to help readers get out of their minds so they can live more peacefully in their bodies.
Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times
Judith Lasater
Experience the best rest of your life with restorative yoga. Relax and Renew contains a general sequence of supported yoga postures and breathing techniques to heal the effects of chronic stress, as well as programs for back pain, headaches, insomnia, jet lag, and breathing problems. There is a special section for women during menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause as well as a guide to using props and a section on resources.
The Relaxation Response
Herbert Benson, M.D.
This groundbreaking book is based on studies at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Benson shows that relaxation techniques such as meditation provide immense physical benefits from lowered blood pressure to a reduction in heart disease. The book teaches a simple meditation technique to help the reader attain the relaxation response.
The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook
Martha Davis, et.al.
This sixth edition self-help classic offers many self-assessment tools and calming techniques to help overcome anxiety and promote physical and emotional wellbeing. It presents a comprehensive look at stress, its physical manifestations and the multiple ways it can be managed. Chapters on breathing, relaxation, meditation, thought stopping, stress management, time management, assertiveness training, and body awareness offer the reader focused approaches to dealing with the many varieties of stress.
Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in our Busy Lives
Wayne Muller
We have lost the necessary rhythm of life: the balance between work and rest. Consequently, we may feel exhausted and deprived in the midst of great abundance. Muller talks in the book about how the tradition of Sabbath created an oasis of sacred time within a life of unceasing labor and shows us how in these harried times to create a special time of rest, delight and renewal.
Staying Well with Guided Imagery
Belleruth Naparstek
Naparstek, psychotherapist and guided imagery authority, gives the reader an understandable road map for using one's imagination to support personal health, growth, for and wellness. She provides a wide variety of imagery exercise that cover: strengthening the immune system, improving emotional well-being, and overcoming common ailments. This book has been a wonderful resource for me and for my clients.
Stillness Speaks
Eckhart Tolle
Tolle emphasizes the art of inner stillness, the place where thoughts, ego and attachments fall away and we’re left only with what the moment has to offer. He writes, “When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.”
Wherever You Go There You Are
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Dr. Kabat-Zinn has trained a generation of professionals in his approach to stress reduction. In this book he offers a simple path for cultivating present moment awareness in one’s life.
