In this post I am going to share with you 5 of my favourite anxiety self-help books! I will point out from the get go that not all of them are anxiety-specific. This is by design, as it is so important to take a holistic approach to healing your anxiety. Don’t worry though, each of these books does relate back to managing anxiety in some way or other, I promise!
Anxious and Empowered: 80+ Tools to Help You Manage and Befriend Your Anxiety
I couldn’t have a list of my favourite self-help books without including my own, now could I?
“Anxiety does not have to limit our joy. We can feel anxious AND experience wonderful things.”
-Shanen Smith
What I like about this book:
I’m obviously a tad biased when it comes to this book. Instead of taking my word for it, check out what others have had to say about it in their Amazon reviews:
“I’ve been dealing with anxiety for decades, this book explained how anxiety works in your brain. It also gave me lots of ideas on how to manage and keep my anxiety in check. I really liked the self-reflection questions at the end of each chapter. They were something I should always ask myself but always managed to forget.”
“This was a great way for me to get to know myself, my stressors, and how my body/mind react to being in fight or flight situations. This book is filled with easy and practical tools that can be used by anyone. I found value in learning about how to address myself. Now it’s time to be mindful of things as they happen, and acknowledge my needs.”
“This book offers amazing tools, strategies and techniques to overcome the worrisome aspect related to anxiety. They author has an amazing way with words and eases you into interesting subjects using an appropriate sense of humour – once I started reading I couldn’t put it down!! […] I really enjoyed the organisation of the book, you don’t have to follow the numbers on the page to find a strategy that works for you, if you see one that interests you, you can start from there. Granted that I did read it cover to end my first time around, I did keep tabs on the strategies offered that I wanted to come back on to try out!”
“Anxiety bites! Having said that , learning to cope/manage one’s anxiety requires some outside help at times. The last thing I want from a self help book is a writing style that puts me to sleep. This book has many tips, resources and advice to help the reader navigate their anxiety in a kind to themself approach while keeping the read easy to comprehend and informative. I like that the format allows for an easy navigating experience.”
What makes this book worth it for people with anxiety:
I mean, it is called ANXIOUS and empowered, after all. And it’s literally full of tools and strategies for managing your anxiety. Need I say more?
The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook
I’ve included this recommendation because self-compassion is a crucial part of healing from anxiety. Trying to heal from anxiety is especially difficult if we are constantly shaming ourselves for our experiences. Luckily, The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook is a fantastic tool for easing yourself towards greater self-compassion.
“Learning to embrace yourself and your imperfections gives you the resilience needed to thrive.”
-Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer
What I like about this book:
1- When you purchase the book, you get access to downloadable audio files that correspond to many of the guided activities throughout the book, which makes trying out the exercises that much easier.
2- This book is very interactive as it’s in a workbook format. I found it’s best to work through it slowly (and the authors actually encourage this), instead of expecting yourself to read it all in one go.
3- The chapters are nice and short, hence digestible. Each chapter begins with an overview of the topic it is covering and real examples from people who have completed the authors’ program, followed by several self-reflection questions, exercises, informal practices and/or guided meditations.
4- The authors don’t expect you to like or practice every single thing they recommend. Rather, the workbook is designed for you to take what you like and leave what you don’t like. Because there are so many different exercises and practices, you can try them out and just continue applying the ones that resonated most.
What makes this book worth it for people with anxiety:
It’s common to feel very down on yourself after experiencing anxiety, and to even shame yourself for your experiences. This of course is not conducive to healing and can actually keep us stuck in an anxious loop even longer.
By increasing our self-compassion, we can respond to our anxiety and ourselves in a kinder way. Think of it this way: when you’re trying to complete a task, do you think you would get it done faster and better if someone is standing beside you yelling mean things, or offering encouragement?
Tapping In: A Step-By-Step Guide to Activating Your Healing Resources Through Bilateral Stimulation
Bilateral stimulation is a key technique in an evidence-based therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR for short. It’s also a great and accessible technique for soothing anxiety. Luckily, we can access the benefits of bilateral stimulation even if we aren’t participating in EMDR therapy. The book Tapping In is a digestible guide to doing just that.
“Bilateral stimulation such as drumming, tapping, or dancing naturally soothes us, possibly reminding us of the beat of our mother’s heart when we were in the womb.”
-Laurel Parnell
What I like about this book:
1 – The book outlines a very simple and accessible strategy that can be used to manage and soothe anxiety.
2 – The book also covers how to use this resource in many other ways, such as to achieve peace and calm, feel empowered, increase spiritual connection or even improve sleep.
What makes this book worth it for people with anxiety:
As the quote above outlines, bilateral stimulation through tapping alone can help to soothe anxiety and is a fantastic coping strategy that can be used discretely.
Anxiety also often results in (or is the result of) many other issues, and this book outlines how bilateral stimulation can be used to manage these issues as well.
Flex: Reinventing Work for a Smarter, Happier Life
To truly heal our anxiety and regulate our nervous system, we need to take a look at how each area of our life might be contributing to the problem. Work-life balance and burnout have been very hot topics over the last few years, and they definitely relate to anxiety. It’s hard to feel calm and grounded when we are putting most of our energy into work and almost none into the things that make us feel good. And frankly, we live in a society that encourages this. Flex offers a refreshing take on this topic and some realistic problem-solving tips for making positive change in your life.
“When we learn how to flex, we gain a superpower that allows us to challenge what is holding us back and to reinvent the rules for a smarter, happier life.”
-Annie Auerbach
What I like about this book:
1- The layout/visual aspect of the book alone is very soothing as there is plenty of white space on each page – it feels like my nervous system is sighing with relief just from opening the book and not being overwhelmed by tons of tiny print.
2- The author offers lots of validation for those of us trying to keep up with the frantic pace of this modern world that is frankly just not sustainable or healthy.
3- This book really makes you think about how you can restructure your life so that it works better for you and results in better work-life balance. Obviously we won’t be able to apply all the suggestions that the author offers. But with the amount of creative suggestions offered, you’re bound to find at least one solution that could work with your current situation.
What makes this book worth it for people with anxiety:
It’s honestly astonishing to me that not everyone who works a 40-hour work week (or more) has anxiety. Did you know that this type of work schedule first became popular in a time when men were the primary bread winners, and women were mostly staying at home and taking care of all the household tasks? Fast forward to the 21st century when this is typically not the case AND our financial climate is an absolute disaster. Between work, commute, meal prep, chores, sleep, etc, there’s not much time left over for the things that bring us joy and help us to feel relaxed.
This is a perfect recipe for a dysregulated nervous system and anxiety. An important step to regulating our nervous systems is achieving better work-life balance, and this book offers creative solutions for doing just that. Unfortunately, most of us won’t be able to retire tomorrow or significantly cut down our hours, but we can feel more balanced through implementing some other positive changes.
How To Break Up With Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life
Smart phones are a blessing and a curse, especially when it comes to anxiety. They can be a fantastic resource for managing your anxiety. But they can also easily become an unhealthy coping mechanism and avoidance strategy. If you are looking to change your relationship with your phone and no longer use is as a crutch for avoiding anxiety, this book might help.
“Breaking up with your phone means giving yourself the space, freedom, and tools necessary to create a new, long-term relationship with it, one that keeps what you love about your phone and gets ride of what you don’t. A relationship, in other words, that makes you feel healthy and happy – and over which you have control.”
-Catherine Price
What I like about this book:
1- The author takes a gradual approach to reducing phone usage, which helps to build more sustainable change.
2- This book really helps you to evaluate your personal relationship with your phone usage instead of generally stating what is problematic usage and what isn’t.
3- The author doesn’t take an all-or-nothing approach – the ultimate goal isn’t to throw your phone away or switch back to a flip phone by the end of the book; rather, it’s to decide what you want your relationship with your phone to look like and help you achieve just that.
What makes this book worth it for people with anxiety:
Doom scrolling or switching between 543 apps or tabs at once can keep us stuck in a survival response instead of helping us to come out of our anxious state. This book can help to make your phone usage more mindful and intentional, which is conducive to a grounded, non-dysregulated state. It also sheds light on your relationship with your phone, and increases your awareness of what is helping you, and what is hurting you, so that you can make positive change that aligns with your authentic self.
Conclusion
I hope you are feeling inspired to check out one (if not all) of these anxiety self-help books. Let me know your favourites in the comments below, and feel free to leave suggestions for books not on this list!
PS – looking for some more resources to support your anxiety healing journey? Check out these posts:
