Books I Recommend to Support Your Sobriety
In this blog post I will share with you the books I recommend to support your sobriety.
Reading books is one of the great joys of my life and even more so since I stopped drinking. Being able to fully focus on a novel or a personal development book since being sober has enabled me to expand my mind beyond anything I could have imagined.
By the time I stopped drinking, I had been reading every personal development book I could get my hands on for about 17 years. What started out as a hope to find some answers to the difficulties I was facing at the time became an obsession, one that I still have today.
I love other people’s ideas of what might work to help me feel better about some aspect of my life, trying them out and seeing that part of my life improve. Wayne Dyers quote – “Don’t die with your music still in you.” is one that fuels my love of writing and my determination to one day write a book for you – it’s in progress!
Sometimes the ideas I’ve read about don’t quite hit the mark, and there are some books that I could quite cheerfully burn after trying to read the first chapter! After years of reading this kind of material, I’ve come to learn what I like and what I don’t.
Personal Development Inhibitor
One of the things I have learned about working with you is that alcohol is a perfect personal development inhibitor. When you open the bottle to alleviate or avoid stress, depression, fear, anxiety or any other negative emotion, you are preventing yourself from learning valuable life skills which will contribute to your personal growth.
When you are facing a stressful situation without alcohol, you have no choice but to work out how to handle the root cause of your stress. If work is the cause, then your sober mind will speak to your manager, deal with any backlogs, learn new coping mechanisms or change jobs and do whatever is necessary to remove the stress.
Using alcohol at the point of feeling stressed stops any of those opportunities from presenting themselves. This leads to a stuck situation that has no hope of being resolved.
Personal Development Books
When you stop drinking you are often left in a position of having little to no normal life coping skills. If you have been drinking since you were young, the chances are you never managed to learn appropriately about what to do when life gets difficult. Sometimes the feelings can be overwhelming and will often lead you back to alcohol because you feel adrift and scared that you don’t know how to cope.
This is why I always recommend personal development books to clients when I am one-to-one coaching.
If you have stopped for a while and gone back to alcohol, it may be that this is why you started again. Sobriety can leave a growth vacuum that you need to fill with learning that will support your personal growth. Here’s a list of books that I have read that I regularly suggest to my clients:
Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Dr Wayne W Dyer
Probably my favourite book of his. He shows you how the ancient wisdom of the Tao can be brought into today and give you strategies for changing the negative thinking that often stops us from fulfilling our true potential.
The Source by Dr Tara Swart
I have re-read this book a number of times. It’s a lovely blend of science and spirituality and Dr Swart shows us how both disciplines can and do work together.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
This is a great book for understanding the nature of habits and offers lots of advice on how to change yours. Whilst he doesn’t talk about alcohol directly it’s a useful book that will help you understand how your drinking habit works.
Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione
This book offers you the chance to personify your demons and give them what they really need. It’s an incredibly powerful exercise which can have rapid results.
The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Simply presented Buddhist wisdom directly from the Dalai Lama. This is a seasonal read for me.
The Empowered Highly Sensitive Person by Amanda Cassil, Phd
This book is for you if you know you are a very sensitive person.
Drink? The New Science of Alcohol + Your Health by Professor David Nutt
This is the only alcohol related book I recommend. Non-preachy and non-judgemental, you will learn about how alcohol affects your body and mind and will help you make informed choices.
Lastly, I am a huge fan of anything by Wayne Dyer so here is a link to a page which lists all of his books: CLICK HERE
I hope you find at least one of these books useful and I would love to hear from you if you do try them.
Much love always, Jules xxx
P.S. If you would like to get more personal book recommendations and would like to consider working with me one-to-one you can find out about coaching HERE.
