Mental Wellbeing

Featured Books

Further Reading

• A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled -  shows us a scientific solution to these modern problems: mindfulness. I know what you're thinking - what if I don't want to stare at a butterfly wing or hear the single ting of a wind chime? This book's definition of mindfulness isn't about sitting erect on a hillock, legs in a knot, humming a mantra that's probably the phone book sung backwards.

• The Upside of Stress - McGonigal highlights new research indicating that stress can, in fact, make us stronger, smarter, and happier—if we learn how to embrace it. This book brings together cutting-edge discoveries on the correlation between resilience—the human capacity for stress-related growth—and mind-set, the power of beliefs to shape reality. 

•  How to be Happy at Work -  makes the case that happiness―and the full engagement that comes with it―is more important than ever in today’s workplace, and she sheds new light on the powerful relationship of happiness to individual, team, and organizational success.

• Resilience - provides a guide to building emotional, mental and physical resilience by presenting ten factors to help anyone become more resilient to life's challenges. Specific resilience factors such as facing fear, optimism, and social support are described.

• 13 things mentally strong people don't do - Everyone knows that regular exercise and weight training lead to physical strength. But how do we strengthen ourselves mentally for the truly tough times? 

• The Book of Knowing  - Learn to understand the way you think and you will be able to deal with many of life's difficult moments. This book can give you life's most essential skill: the ability to notice and manage your thoughts. This skill can fundamentally change your present and your future. 

• Boost: the science of recharging yourself in an age of unrelenting demands - This is a book about recovery. Not recovery from drugs, alcohol, or surgery, but recovery from the numerous and relentless demands we face in handling our everyday obligations. 

• The power of kindness: why empathy is essential in everyday life - Based, in part, on Dr. Brian Goldman's personal search around the world, from Canada to Brazil, India to Japan, to rediscover and rekindle his own capacity for caring by meeting with and learning from those whose stories teach and inspire us to become our best selves.

• How to be human: the manual : a monk, a neuroscientist and me - How to Be Human is, without exaggeration, a lifeline; wise, practical and funny, it is a handbook for those in despair. It is actually for everyone alive, for the curious, or disillusioned or muddled or just plain happy.

• Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions - What really causes depression and anxiety - and how can we really solve them? Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking anti-depressants when he was a teenager. He was told that his problems were caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate whether this was true and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong. 

• Art of the good life: clear thinking for business and a better life - Since the dawn of civilization, we've been asking ourselves what it means to live a good life: how should I live, what will truly make be happy, how much should I earn, how should I spend my time? In the absence of a single simple answer, what we need is a toolkit of mental models, a guide to practical living. In The Art of the Good Life, you'll find fifty-two intellectual shortcuts for wiser thinking and better decisions, at home and at work. They may not guarantee you a good life, but they'll give you a better chance.

• The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection - This groundbreaking book explains the revolutionary new science of psychobiotics and the discovery that your brain health and state of mind are intimately connected to your microbiome, that four-pound population of microbes living inside your intestines.

• The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well - Denmark is often said to be the happiest country in the world. That's down to one thing: hygge. 'Hygge has been translated as everything from the art of creating intimacy to cosiness of the soul to taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things. 

• Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze - In this witty and bestselling book, Danish philosopher and psychologist Svend Brinkmann argues that we must not be afraid to reject the self–help mantra and ′stand firm′. The secret to a happier life lies not in finding your inner self but in coming to terms with yourself in order to coexist peacefully with others. By encouraging us to stand firm and get a foothold in life, this vibrant anti–self–help guide offers a compelling alternative to life coaching, positive thinking and the need always to say ′yes!′

• Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams - Walker answers important questions about sleep: how do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses.

• The Weekend Effect: The Life-Changing Benefits of Taking Time Off and Challenging the Cult of Overwork - Encroaching work demands—coupled with domestic chores, overbooked schedules, and the incessant pinging of our devices—have taken a toll on what used to be our free time: the weekend. With no space to tune out and recharge, every aspect of our lives is suffering: our health is deteriorating, our social networks (the face-to-face kind) are dissolving, and our productivity is down.

• The Mystery of Sleep: Why a Good Night's Rest Is Vital to a Better, Healthier Life - In the past forty years, scientists have discovered that our sleep (or lack of it) can affect nearly every aspect of our waking lives. Poor sleep could be a sign of a disease, the result of a vitamin or iron deficiency, or the cause of numerous other problems, both sleeping and waking. Yet many people, even medical personnel, are unaware of the dangers of poor sleep. Enter Dr. Meir Kryger, a world authority on the science of sleep, with a comprehensive guide to the mysteries of slumber that combines detailed case studies, helpful tables, illustrations, and pragmatic advice.

• Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy - Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces.

• Bipolar, Not So Much: Understanding Your Mood Swings and Depression - This book presents a revolutionary new understanding of the concept of depression and offers readers skills and strategies to manage it. No longer is this a one-size-fits-all diagnosis, and antidepressants are no longer the one-size-fits-all treatment. Mood disorders are now seen to form a spectrum of problems, from common depression on one end to full bipolar disorder on the other. In between these extremes are multitudes of people who are on the middle of the mood spectrum, and this book is for them.

• The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It - With cutting-edge sleep science and time-tested techniques, The Sleep Solution will help anyone achieve healthy sleep and eliminate pills, pain, and fatigue. If you want to fix your sleep problems, Internet tips and tricks aren’t going to do it for you. You need to really understand what’s going on with your sleep—both what your problems are and how to solve them. The Sleep Solution is an exciting journey of sleep self-discovery and understanding that will help you custom design specific interventions to fit your lifestyle.

• Working with Mindfulness: Keeping calm and focused to get the job done - Working with Mindfulness will show you how to apply the transformative power of mindfulness to your busy working life. 

• How To Have A Good Day: Think Bigger, Feel Better and Transform Your Working Life - In How to Have a Good Day, economist and former McKinsey partner Caroline Webb shows readers how to use recent findings from behavioral economics, psychology, and neuroscience to transform our approach to everyday working life. Advances in these behavioral sciences are giving us ever better understanding of how our brains work, why we make the choices we do, and what it takes for us to be smart and savvy. But it's not always been easy to see how to apply these insights in the workplace - until now.

• Mindfulness for Women: Declutter Your Mind, Simplify Your Life, Find Time to 'Be' - No matter who we are, or what stage of life we are at, we all long for similar things; to be happy, connected with others, in touch with a sense of calm and peace, vital, alive and joyful. And we long to be able to ride out the tough patches that hit all of us from time to time with some degree of grace and dignity.The good news is that we can fulfil these longings at any time, in any place. 

• Why We Are Wired To Worry And How Neuroscience Will Help You Fix it - Why do our brains seem obsessed with problems, both real and imagined? Believe it or not, it’s not your fault—it’s your default! Sharie breaks this all down so you can finally understand why your brain loves worrying about problems and how you can stop and finally get off your Worry-Go-Round™ Your brain is programed to believe that impending doom is around every corner due to an outdated evolutionary trait that helped ancient humans survive. 

• Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life - As a Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, Dolan conducts original research into the measurement of happiness and its causes and consequences, including the effects of our behaviour. 

• Do Nothing!: Stop Looking, Start Living - Damian Mark Smyth is a teacher of this understanding and he takes you through some common misconceptions about how we create our own realities to help you realise that humanity has, for the most part, been looking in the wrong direction. The ‘outside-in’ world of fame and money is not the way to be fulfilled - just look at the amount of rich and famous people in rehab and therapy. His approach is more in tune with who you really are. From relationships to money, the business environment, parenting to sport and even addiction, Damian will show you where the secret lies and how you too can access it, without doing anything.

• Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness - In Fully Present, leading mindfulness researchers and educators Dr. Sue Smalley and Diana Winston provide an all-in-one guide for anyone interested in bringing mindfulness to daily life as a means of enhancing well-being. Fully Present provides both a scientific explanation for how mindfulness positively and powerfully affects the brain and the body as well as practical guidance to develop both a practice and mindfulness in daily living, not only through meditation but also during daily experiences, such as waiting in line at the supermarket, exercising, or facing difficult news.

• Handling death and bereavement at work - This book is an essential guide for anyone in an organisation who has to take responsibility in the event of death. It covers issues such as what do in the event of a sudden death at work, managing staff who are terminally ill, and practical help after death including funerals. It is a unique and constant point of reference for anyone concerned with one of the most challenging issues to be faced in the workplace.

Page updated 2023-04-17