20 February 20241 MIN READ
As Anglo-Irish writer Richard Steele once said, reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. You may be drinking your eight cups of water and moving your body three times a week, but when was the last time you spent time nourishing your mind and focusing on your mental wellbeing?
Taking care of your mental health is a vital part of staying healthy in our increasingly busy modern world. It affects how you think, how you feel, and it comes with huge benefits including reducing stress, being more present in your everyday life, and building resilience.
We’ve assembled a list of 7 beautiful books that will help you focus on your mental wellbeing. From journals to manage anxiety and memoirs to illustrated books inviting you to find inspiration in nature.
A little bit of worry in your everyday life is totally normal. You might worry about traffic on your commute, about whether you took the chicken out of the freezer for dinner, or if you remembered to pay for that upcoming school trip. But for some people, worry can feel overwhelming. If you’re feeling physical symptoms related to worry, it’s more likely that you’re experiencing anxiety.
Your Anxiety Journal, written by professional counsellor Amy Birch and illustrated by Charlotte Pepper, is a practical book filled with simple exercises to calm the mind and relieve stress. This simple guided journal is designed to help you rein in anxiety with guided exercises and strategies that can help you tackle unhealthy thought patterns and build habits to help prevent anxiety from taking over.
Perfectly travel-sized, this journal is designed for use on the go, so you can create a moment of calm no matter where you are. Plus, it’s filled with charming illustrations, alongside inspiring quotes, to help you find peace of mind when you need it most.
Emma Mitchell, author of The Wild Remedy, has suffered with depression for 25 years. In this richly illustrated and evocative diary, she shares her own personal experiences of depression and charts her journey over the course of the year when she made the life-changing decision to move away from the city and re-connect with nature as a form of healing.
You’re invited to join Emma on this journey, as she walks the local paths and trails, sharing her nature finds over the course of a year and proving that nature can be as medicinal as any pharmaceutical. Reflecting on how these encounters impact her mood, Emma’s candid account of her own struggles is a powerful testament to how reconnecting with nature may offer some answers to today’s mental health epidemic.
This truly unique book – filled with sketches, paintings and photography – is a Sunday Times bestseller and featured on BBC’s Springwatch. It also received praise from Sue Perkins, former presenter of The Great British Bake-Off, who said “this is a beautiful, beautiful book, and I can’t recommend it enough”.
When it comes to mental health and wellbeing, small changes can add up to significant benefits. In Your 5-Minute Journal, qualified counsellor Amy Birch has compiled a series of daily prompts that can help you find gratitude and de-stress, making taking care of your mental health accessible to even the busiest of people.
The act of writing is a powerful tool for improving mental wellbeing. Journaling about gratitude reduces stress, increases happiness, and improves self-esteem. Designed to be a calming and supportive space, you can use this journal in whatever way suits you best. Whether you want to jump start your day with five minutes of journaling in the morning or take some time before bed collecting your thoughts, this book will help you find moments to celebrate each and every day.
Created to be a yearly guide, Your 5-Minute Journal encourages you to reflect and focus your thoughts, alongside more in-depth check-ins and challenges. It also contains gorgeous illustrations by Emilie Anne Jenks alongside inspiring quotes to keep you motivated throughout the year.
The Wild Remedy Journal is the follow-up to The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell, inviting you to accompany her on the road to natural healing. Full of Emma’s exquisite artworks and photographs, this journal contains many of her own observations and reflections, along with prompts and ideas that will help to unlock your own experience of nature.
This unique nature journal includes activities, drawing prompts, contemplative quotes, and lots of space for you to write about your inner thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Most of all, this stunning book is the perfect tool to support wellbeing, by inviting you to experience nature for yourself and find healing in the natural world.
We believe Chris Packham – English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter, and author – said it best: “‘At a time when disconnection from wildlife threatens our mental health, this book offers the perfect adaptor to plug our brains back into natures’ therapeutic socket. Page by page it reconnects us to the real, wild world we live in. A must-read for any modern-day Homo sapiens.”
As you’ve probably gathered from the books we’ve discussed so far, connecting with nature and being more grounded in the world around you can be hugely beneficial for your mental health. In The Wisdom of Flowers, you’ll find essential life lessons for joy and wellbeing.
This breathtaking book, written by Liz Marvin and illustrated by Rosie Dore, takes 60 of the world’s most fascinating flowers and flowering plants and shares their unique symbolism. It also focuses on the characteristics and strengths that allow them to thrive, inspiring you to follow their example and make the most of every moment.
Within its pages, you can find gorgeous drawings of all kinds of flora, including the corpse flower from Indonesia, the bat-face cuphea and the chocolate cosmos flower from Mexico, the Pohutukawa tree from New Zealand, the lipstick tree and the giant water lily from South America, the voodoo lily from the Mediterranean, and the skeleton flower from Japan. The perfect gift for yourself, or a friend, The Wisdom of Flowers has something for everyone.
Part of cultivating wellbeing and improving your mental health involves taking the time to discover who you are, what you value, and the kind of person you want to be. Through creative exercises and mini journaling activities, The Book of Me allows you to spend time with your unique, multi-faceted self.
With short introductory narratives, and trigger headings to provoke thought, creativity and self-awareness, this book is a celebration of individuality and a chance to take stock of your life, your dreams and goals, and reflect on what’s truly important to you.
In additional to encouraging self-exploration and self-awareness, The Book of Me is full of vibrant full-colour illustrations which will spark your creativity. Keep it forever and use it as a point of reference whenever you need a moment of self-care.
We all deserve happiness. Taking the time to cultivate healthy habits not only boosts your individual wellbeing, but it can be a huge contributor to your overall happiness. This beautiful little journal is here to bring joy to your day, by encouraging you to be more present and turn your focus away from negativity.
Filled with empowering quotes and affirmations along with practical exercises and tips, this journal will encourage you to reflect upon the moments and experiences that bring you happiness and inspire you to harness your happiness in a meaningful way.
Noting the things that make you happy and expressing gratitude for them has been proven in a study by Harvard Health to make you feel more ‘positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships’. The illustrations within will help you tune out negativity in your day-to-day life and focus on what brings you joy.
If you enjoyed this, we highly recommend you check out our blog, where you can find even more recommendations from the O’Mara team.
