29 Best Emotions, Self-Help Books

Grounded in the Buddhist practices of mindfulness and compassion, this handbook of meditations and reflections offers techniques for diffusing anger, conquering fear, and cultivating love.

Distilled from the pages of his bestselling works, Taming the Tiger Within is a handbook of meditations, analogies, and reflections that offer pragmatic techniques for diffusing anger, converting fear, and cultivating love in every arena of life–a wise and exquisite guide for bringing harmony and healing to one’s life and relationships.

Acclaimed scholar, peace activist, and Buddhist master revered by people of all faiths, Thich Nhat Hanh has inspired millions worldwide with his insight into the human heart and mind. Now he focuses his profound spiritual wisdom on the basic human emotions everyone struggles with on a daily basis.

Selections are from No Death, No Fear; Anger; and Going Home.

Rejection Proof is Jia Jiang’s entertaining and inspiring account of conquering his fear of rejection, offering a completely new perspective on how to turn a no into a yes.

Jia Jiang came to the United States with the dream of being the next Bill Gates. Despite early success in the corporate world, his first attempt to pursue his entrepreneurial dream ended in rejection. Jia was crushed and spiraled into a period of deep self-doubt. But he realized that his fear of rejection was a bigger obstacle than any single rejection would ever be, and he needed to find a way to cope with being told no without letting it destroy him. Thus was born his “100 days of rejection” experiment, during which he willfully sought rejection on a daily basis–from requesting a lesson in sales from a car salesman (no) to asking a flight attendant if he could make an announcement on the loud speaker (yes) to his famous request to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the shape of Olympic rings (yes, with a viral video to prove it).

Jia learned that even the most preposterous wish may be granted if you ask in the right way, and here he shares the secret of successful asking, how to pick targets, and how to tell when an initial no can be converted into something positive. But more important, he learned techniques for steeling himself against rejection and ways to develop his own confidence–a plan that can’t be derailed by a single setback. Filled with great stories and valuable insight, Rejection Proof is a fun and thoughtful examination of how to overcome fear and dare to live more boldly.

A companion workbook to Dr. Sue Johnson’s million-copy bestseller Hold Me Tight, packed with exercises, conversation prompts, and activities to help couples strengthen their bond, deepen their intimacy, and cultivate a lifetime of love.

Dr. Sue Johnson’s landmark book Hold Me Tight has helped more than 1 million readers strengthen and repair their romantic relationships. Now, finally, comes a companion workbook designed to help couples open up, reestablish safe emotional connection, and renew their bond.

Drawing on the latest developments in Emotionally Focused Therapy, a field pioneered by Dr. Johnson, The Hold Me Tight Workbook is packed with sage wisdom and science-backed advice, as well as compelling conversation prompts, exercises, activities, and resources to help couples work through conflict and achieve greater levels of intimacy. Whether you’re celebrating your 50th anniversary or your first, The Hold Me Tight Workbook is an invaluable guide to cultivating a deeper connection — and more fulfilling relationship — with the person you love most.

There are 54 single people in the United States and approximately 40 million of them have tried online dating. If you haven’t taken the plunge, it’s time to learn how to find and catch the one. Professional speaker and life coach Gail Kasper has helped people improve their image, create a strong personal message, and stand out amongst the crowd. Having been through divorce, Gail has spent an extensive amount of time in the dating world, studying both online and offline romance. This audio program provides the 5 must-do’s for your online dating profile and the 10 critical no-no’s for any first date! It’s time to do it right! You only get one chance to make a first impression!

Bring an end to emotional eating by getting to the root of the problem.

Most books about emotional eating tend to focus on how to strengthen self-restraint or how to identify what triggers it. The former can make the problem worse, while the latter may be different each time it occurs. Both approaches fail to help emotional eaters understand why they feel compelled to do something that they don’t want to do in the first place. This understanding is the key to changing this behavior.

Howard Farkas, who has more than two decades of professional and teaching experience as a clinical psychologist specializing in emotional eating, explains the underlying motive that drives the behavior: emotional eating is not a passive failure of self-control but an active impulse to reject the control of dieting. This defiant need “to be bad” usually leaves the person feeling guilty and anxious about their eating and recommitting to their diet until the cycle repeats and the compulsive eating recurs.

8 Keys to End Emotional Eating provides a detailed plan for breaking this pattern. By explaining the root cause that drives the desire to binge, Farkas offers practical skills to help you learn to change your mindset about dieting and end the impulse to binge. His road map for the future will help readers maintain healthy eating habits for years to come.

A psychologist explores the intersection of love and madness through the riveting stories of the patients he has treated

In The Incurable Romantic, Frank Tallis recounts the extraordinary stories of patients who are, quite literally, madly in love: a woman becomes utterly convinced that her dentist is secretly infatuated with her and drives him to leave the country; a man destroys his massive fortune through trysts with over three thousand prostitutes — because his ego requires that they fall in love with him; a beautiful woman’s pathological jealousy destroys the men who love her. Along the way, we learn a great deal about the history of psychiatry and the role of neuroscience in addressing disordered love. Elegantly written and infused with deep sympathy, The Incurable Romantic shows how all of us can become a bit crazy in love.

In this “powerful personal story woven with a rich analysis of what we all seek” (Sergey Brin, cofounder of Google), Mo Gawdat, Chief Business Officer at Google’s [X], applies his superior logic and problem solving skills to understand how the brain processes joy and sadness–and then he solves for happy.

In 2001 Mo Gawdat realized that despite his incredible success, he was desperately unhappy. A lifelong learner, he attacked the problem as an engineer would: examining all the provable facts and scrupulously applying logic. Eventually, his countless hours of research and science proved successful, and he discovered the equation for permanent happiness.

Thirteen years later, Mo’s algorithm would be put to the ultimate test. After the sudden death of his son, Ali, Mo and his family turned to his equation–and it saved them from despair. In dealing with the horrible loss, Mo found his mission: he would pull off the type of “moonshot” goal that he and his colleagues were always aiming for–he would share his equation with the world and help as many people as possible become happier.

In Solve for Happy Mo questions some of the most fundamental aspects of our existence, shares the underlying reasons for suffering, and plots out a step-by-step process for achieving lifelong happiness and enduring contentment. He shows us how to view life through a clear lens, teaching us how to dispel the illusions that cloud our thinking; overcome the brain’s blind spots; and embrace five ultimate truths.

No matter what obstacles we face, what burdens we bear, what trials we’ve experienced, we can all be content with our present situation and optimistic about the future.

You know the feeling: You thought you said exactly what you wanted to, but somehow a different message comes across. You end up feeling misunderstood…and the relationship that you’re building — at home, on the job, on a date, or in an interview — slips a little further out of your control.
Talk is the key to any relationship and conversational style is the key to any conversation. In That’s Not What I Meant!, Dr. Tannen helps you recognize your own conversational style and understand the styles of others.
Whether you are dealing with a person who’s too quiet or someone who’s a conversational bulldozer, learning to understand conversational style will help you deal with any situation. Through this understanding, you can prevent small differences from sparking big arguments, really hear what was said — and what wasn’t.
That’s Not What I Meant! will give you the tools to save any conversation — or relationship.

When Jill Goodman’s picture-perfect marriage implodes, she’s heartbroken. Still reeling from the shock, the only thing she receives in the hasty divorce settlement is the deed to her husband’s sprawling beach house on the New Jersey shore. Overpriced, with a dark history and a crippling mortgage far outside her means to pay–the house is a symbol of everything Jill’s lost. She hates the sight of it but knows she must face it if she’s to move on. With no other choice, Jill travels to Dewberry Beach intending to sell the house quickly–but the task is not as easy as she expects. Still, she can’t help but be charmed by the little town’s leafy streets, sweetly old-fashioned ways and even the unexpected attentions of a handsome local with dark eyes and a teasing smile. For the first time, she can see a path back to the girl she was before she met her husband… Then Jill dives deeper into the house’s dark past and Marc’s part in it, and she stumbles across a terrible secret that changes everything. Torn between the right choice and the easy one, Jill realizes the key lies with her ex-husband. But he would do anything to keep the truth from coming to light…

A national bestseller, Authentic Happiness launched the revolutionary new science of Positive Psychology—and sparked a coast-to-coast debate on the nature of real happiness.

According to esteemed psychologist and bestselling author Martin Seligman, happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Real, lasting happiness comes from focusing on one’s personal strengths rather than weaknesses—and working with them to improve all aspects of one’s life. Using practical exercises, brief tests, and a dynamic website program, Seligman shows readers how to identify their highest virtues and use them in ways they haven’t yet considered. Accessible and proven, Authentic Happiness is the most powerful work of popular psychology in years.

Keep your head held high even on the bad days with 70 mindful self-care strategies to find happiness.

In a time when social media encourages us to constantly highlight how great we’re doing and how #Blessed life is, there seems to be little room for the inevitable truth: in every life, there are days that are NOT great.

Yet decades in the self-help world have taught Eveline Helmink–editor-in-chief of Happinez magazine and a self-titled cheerleader for failure and discomfort–that true emotional growth comes from realizing that it’s often on our worst days when we learn the most about what empowers, strengthens, and revitalizes us–and yes, brings us happiness.

In The Handbook for Bad Days, Helmink teaches you how to take advantage of bad days as moments for self-discovery and emotional understanding. Her compassionate, no-bullshit approach encourages you to detox from the social media world and rethink your coping strategies, exploring topics such as,
-The benefits of a good cry
-Why, sometimes, it’s okay to give up
-Why a fuzzy pink cardigan and some Celine Dion is just as good as a Sanskrit mantra

The Handbook for Bad Days is the ultimate guide for anyone who strives to be present, not perfect. Perfect for fans of Glennon Doyle, Elizabeth Lesser, and Krista Tippet, The Handbook for Bad Days is a call to face our worst days with courage and intentionality.

Heal psychological wounds on your own

Move on from the emotional trauma of your past: Contrary to what many people believe, we can recover from emotional trauma relatively quickly and completely on our own, without thousands of dollars spent on therapists. Whether it’s extreme trauma such as sexual abuse or the horrors of war, or less dramatic but, psychologically speaking, just as serious wounds involving shame and guilt, we don’t need to spend years in intensive therapy to recover. Keep Pain in the Past explains a process that allows you to do most, if not all, of the recovery on your own.

Train yourself in psychological self-healing: While most people know what they can do on their own to treat physical ills–like using ice on a muscle sprain–they don’t realize that they can apply certain psychological principles to treat anxiety, depression, and many other conditions. Keep Pain in the Past will teach you the critical twenty-first century skill of treating psychological wounds on your own.

Treat yourself and heal old wounds: As much as people may suspect that some trauma from their past is affecting them negatively, they struggle to do anything about it. They take refuge in denial, avoidance, or addictions rather than grapple with that long-ago emotional pain–because honestly, surfacing that pain hurts. Keep Pain in the Past will help you identify and face this pain and find closure on your own. Use Dr. Chris Cortman’s easy-to-master method to remember, feel, express, release, and reframe the trauma that has been haunting you for years.

Learn from the success of others: Follow their example in healing yourself. Discover how Sheri, a thirty-seven-year-old attorney, recovered from panic attacks that seemed to come out of nowhere. Follow the journey of Mark, a twenty-nine-year-old army veteran who experienced the horror of war in Afghanistan, as he healed from the downward spiral that had caused him to lose his job and become increasingly uncommunicative with his family. Explore how Melinda, a forty-two-year-old professor who struggled to sustain a romantic relationship, confronted her torturous childhood and has now found love that is still going strong after three years.

Keep Pain in the Past achieves what conventional therapy does not. After reading this book, you will be able to:

Confront the emotional baggage of your pastReach closure by completing the eventDiscover a life unhaunted by the trauma of your past

Learn to move through pain to find clarity and healing using author, entrepreneur, and social media influencer Ashley LeMieux’s unique “Clarity Mapping” tool that will inspire and empower you to chart a course toward the future you deserve.

In her debut memoir, Born to Shine, founder of The Shine Project Ashley LeMieux shared life-changing lessons found in the darkest seasons of life. I Am Here continues her journey to healing and transformation using the process she developed called “Clarity Mapping.” This tangible tool walks the readers through setting intentions, understanding why they are worthy of the life of their dreams, identifying the things they carry that no longer serve them, noticing the people they can serve, and finally, identifying the truest version of themselves.

I Am Here will help women reframe their thoughts, reimagine their lives, and reclaim their power, helping them determine priorities and create a plan to start moving toward their dreams.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk and Siblings Without Rivalry, a new edition of the timeless paperback and audio guide that provides parents with need-to-know basics about how to communicate effectively with their children–now with additional material and workbook exercises.

Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish’s down-to-earth, respectful approach to parenting has improved the lives of countless families throughout the world. Now, the authors’ wisdom and advice are collected in this concise new edition of How to Be the Parent You Always Wanted to Be–an essential workbook and audio guide to their widely embraced and empowering methods of parenting–uniquely designed for busy parents on the go. Faber and Mazlish address the struggles parents face every day. By listening to this recording and doing the workbook exercises, you’ll learn how to:

*Deal with your children’s strong emotions

*Set firm limits and still maintain goodwill

*Express your angry feelings without being hurtful

*Engage your children’s cooperation

*Resolve family conflicts peacefully

Loaded with real-life stories, delightful cartoons, and answers to commonly asked questions, this new multimedia edition demonstrates simple, proven skills that can make relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling authors of How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk and Siblings Without Rivalry, a new edition of the timeless paperback and audio guide that provides parents with need-to-know basics about how to communicate effectively with their children—now with additional material and workbook exercises.

Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish’s down-to-earth, respectful approach to parenting has improved the lives of countless families throughout the world. Now, the authors’ wisdom and advice are collected in this concise new edition of How to Be the Parent You Always Wanted to Be—an essential workbook and audio guide to their widely embraced and empowering methods of parenting—uniquely designed for busy parents on the go. Faber and Mazlish address the struggles parents face every day. By listening to this recording and doing the workbook exercises, you’ll learn how to:

•Deal with your children’s strong emotions

•Set firm limits and still maintain goodwill

•Express your angry feelings without being hurtful

•Engage your children’s cooperation

•Resolve family conflicts peacefully

Loaded with real-life stories, delightful cartoons, and answers to commonly asked questions, this new multimedia edition demonstrates simple, proven skills that can make relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding.

Why does talk in families so often go in circles, leaving us tied up in knots? Linguist Deborah Tannen reveals why talking to family members is so often painful and problematic — even when we’re all adults.
Searching for signs of acceptance and belonging, we find signs of disapproval and rejection. Why do the seeds of family love so often yield a harvest of criticism and judgment? In I Only Say This Because I Love You, Tannen shows how important it is, in family talk, to learn to separate word meanings, or messages, from heart meanings, or metamessages — unstated but powerful meanings that come from the history of our relationships and the way things are said.
Presenting real conversations from people’s lives, Tannen explores what is actually going on in family talk, including how family conversations must balance the longing for connection with the desire for control, as we struggle to be close without giving up our freedom.
This eye-opening audiobook explains why grown women so often feel criticized by their mothers — and why mothers feel they can’t open their mouths around their grown daughters, why growing up male or female, or as an older or younger sibling, results in different experiences of family that persist throughout our lives. BY helping us to understand and redefine family talk, Tannen provides the tools to improve relationships with family members of every age.

Why does talk in families so often go in circles, leaving us tied up in knots? Linguist Deborah Tannen reveals why talking to family members is so often painful and problematic — even when we’re all adults.

Searching for signs of acceptance and belonging, we find signs of disapproval and rejection. Why do the seeds of family love so often yield a harvest of criticism and judgment? In I Only Say This Because I Love You, Tannen shows how important it is, in family talk, to learn to separate word meanings, or messages, from heart meanings, or metamessages — unstated but powerful meanings that come from the history of our relationships and the way things are said.

Presenting real conversations from people’s lives, Tannen explores what is actually going on in family talk, including how family conversations must balance the longing for connection with the desire for control, as we struggle to be close without giving up our freedom.

This eye-opening audiobook explains why grown women so often feel criticized by their mothers — and why mothers feel they can’t open their mouths around their grown daughters, why growing up male or female, or as an older or younger sibling, results in different experiences of family that persist throughout our lives. BY helping us to understand and redefine family talk, Tannen provides the tools to improve relationships with family members of every age.

Inside every mother is a fierce, resilient, intuitive woman who has the ability to tap into an indomitable mindset and create heroic outcomes–for her children, her family, her community and for herself–she is a Warrior Mom.

In Warrior Mom, (previously published as Miracle Mindset), celebrity health expert and four-time New York Times bestselling author, JJ Virgin reveals how one life-altering event taught her to trust her instincts, pay attention to the details that matter and defy the odds–and she shares how you can too.

In 2012, JJ Virgin was in a hospital room next to her sixteen-year-old son who was struck by a hit-and-run driver and left for dead. She was told by doctors that he wouldn’t last through the night and to let him go. With every reason to give up, JJ chose instead to invest her energy into the hope that her son would not just survive, but thrive. In Warrior Mom, she shares the lessons that gave her the courage to overcome the worst moment of her life.

During this difficult time, she learned valuable personal lessons that helped her rebuild her life and find success and purpose in herself, her work, and teach her sons and community how to face their own obstacles and trials. Lessons like “Don’t Wish It Were Easier, Make Yourself Stronger” and “Your Limitations Will Become Your Life” will lead you to your own personal power and purpose, even when the deck seems stacked against you.

With true stories from her life, her clients, and other well-known thought leaders, she can help you transform your mindset and your daily habits to endure the difficult battles that life sends your way. Insightful, personal, and completely relatable, this book proves that miracles are possible when you show up, remain positive, and do the work.

Learn the scientific benefits of positivism!

Sometimes it’s easiest to look for the worst in every situation–our brains have evolved to scan for problems in order to help avoid them. But you can transcend this natural negativity–if you know how.

The Science of Positivity teaches you how cynical thought habits are formed, and how you can rewire yourself to go beyond them. Neurochemical expert Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD, empowers you to transcend negativity by creating new thought habits. You’ll learn simple, practical actions you can take to shift your thinking to a way that causes your brain to reward optimism with the release of happy chemicals. You can even permanently replace cynical thought patterns with realistic and optimistic thoughts.

In just minutes a day for six weeks, you will build new pathways to see the world in new ways. Frustration is an inevitable part of life, but rather than using cynicism to manage frustration, you can rewire your brain to get beyond it.

What do you feel when you gaze up at the Milky Way, see a beautiful rainbow, or stand before a mountain that seems impossibly high? Often it’s a profound sense of awe, the overwhelming feeling we experience when we encounter something vast that transcends our understanding. Awe-inspiring moments are all around us, ranging from the grand to the commonplace, and can hold a key to a happy, meaningful, and healthy life. Awestruck serves as a guide to help you tap into the powerful, life-changing benefits of awe. Beginning with a comprehensive explanation of the emotion, Jonah Paquette introduces us to the power of awe and how it can help alleviate struggles in our modern life, including stress, social isolation, and time pressure. Continuing with over sixty practices, this book provides an accessible and tangible path to bring more wonder into your everyday life. Awestruck shows us how to reclaim space for moments of reverence and ultimately find more joy and fulfillment in our lives.

Statistics show that anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating have doubled since the 1960s. A food addiction, like any other addiction, can overtake a person’s life as they struggle to escape an out-of-control existence. As a teen, Gail Kasper fought a secret battle with the food addiction, bulimia. Hear her story and how she won this battle, having taken her life from a place of no self-esteem to becoming a complete and totally empowered person. Her 5-step process will give you the practical tools toachieve personal contentment and a new way of living.