As we seek to recalibrate after the new year and settle into a sense of peaceful balance, we can think of the days and months ahead as an open book….literally. With a soft blanket, comfy chair, flickering candles or crackling fireplace, we can crack open a good book and dive into a faraway world or discover a new idea.
We often read to relax and renew. Why not also choose titles that open our minds and hearts to spiritual goals? Here are some suggestions for books about spiritual balance:
1) Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
This 1955 classic might seem more like a positive summer read than the right call for a cozy winter afternoon. But the author’s advice that we “should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea” resonates for me year-round. Imagining waves gently rolling in and out is a picture of the balance nature models for us as we seek our true center.
2) Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
In this beautiful book, Remen addresses major spiritual topics, like suffering, healing, love, faith, and miracles. The way the book invites us to listen to the stories and experiences of others gives the reader a balanced feeling. Some stories will resonate with our own lives. Others will bring a fresh perspective that can act as a corrective to our thinking. All will help us find balance in facing challenges.
3) The Yoga Effect: A Proven Program for Depression and Anxiety by Liz Owen and Holly Lebowitz Rossi
If you’ll permit me to quote from a chapter called “Balance” in my own book: “A balanced existence, one that is grounded in clarity and self-awareness, is attainable even in those with a complex set of emotional challenges.” Embodied practices like yoga, or whatever gentle movement technique works for you, bring you to a place of physical balance. This can echo and enhance your journey toward emotional and spiritual equilibrium as well.
4) Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
If your feet aren’t firmly on the ground you travel in life, how can you hope to achieve spiritual balance along the way? Haupt’s book combines personal experience with scientific insights. It explores the ways in which everything on the planet is “radically interconnected.” Find your place, find your roots, and you’ll be ready to walk through your days with equanimity.
5) A Wellness Journal by YOU
The marketplace abounds with personal journals to help find spiritual balance as you make notes about your inner life. Some feature categories or prompts like work, family, emotions, prayers, progress toward goals, or other aspects of a well-rounded, reflective life. When you take the time to put pen to paper—for gratitude lists, vent sessions, aspirational ideas, or simple sketches or doodles—you are calling forth your inner voice and leaving no area of your life unexplored.
6) A Grateful Heart Devotional Journal by The Editors of Guideposts
Also, when it comes to journaling, nothing opens up the heart and mind like expressing gratitude and recounting one’s blessings. From some of Guideposts’ most beloved writers, these 120 devotions share Bible passages and motivational quotes about gratitude. To help you tap into your own thoughts, there are questions and gentle prayer prompts and plenty of room to note your reflections, personal prayers or any creative expressions flowing from your spirit. For journaling newbies, there’s even a how-to guide.
What books about spiritual balance would you recommend?
