Books

I’ll keep updating this page with some of the books I’ve found informative and encouraging.

Real life stories:

  • Girl in the Dark, Anna Lyndsey. Lyndsey developed extreme light sensitivity which means she has to spend much of her life in a blacked out room. A beautifully written account which really touched me.
  • Grace and Grit, Spirituality and Healing In the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber, Ken Wilber. Philosopher Ken Wilber’s account of his wife’s death from cancer. I was bowled over by this searingly honest book which skilfully weaves personal memoir with philosophical teaching on Integral Theory. The chapter on him going off the rails is a must-read for any carers and gave me a valuable insight into the strain of looking after someone who’s ill.
  • CFS Unravelled, Dan Neuffer. This is one of the best books on CFS I’ve read. Dan set out on a quest to discover the causes of CFS and Fibromyalgia. My husband also read this and describes it as, “no-nonsense with a clear, scientific rationale and far less ‘self-help’ than many of the other books.” He says if you haven’t got a background in science some of it is quite challenging but it’s worth making the effort as it all ties together at the end and makes a lot of sense.
  • Recovery From Chronic Fatigue, Bruce Campbell. (Free online) Campbell experienced a sudden onset of CFS in 1997 which lasted for four years. The chapter on loss chimed with my own experience. Interestingly, he eschewed any form of supplementation, focussing instead on rest. He describes his secret weapon as ‘pre-emptive rest’ – something I am starting to appreciate the importance of.
  • Recovery from CFS, 50 Personal Stories, Alexandra Barton. Interesting breadth of different experiences but the quality of writing is so varied that it’s not one of my top-picks. It could have done with a good edit.
  • Sane New World: Taming the Mind, Ruby Wax.

Mindfulness & Meditation

  • Buddha’s Brain – the practical neuroscience of happiness, love and wisdom by Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius.
  • Happiness – A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, Mattieu Ricard
  • A Path With Heart, Jack Kornfield. I bought this from the Buddhist centre in Manchester when I had my first month off work in May 2015. An accessible guide to meditation. Kornfield trained Buddhist monk and returned to the US to teach meditation.
  • Coming to our Senses, Healing the World and Ourselves Through Mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn. An in-depth discussion on the benefits of mindfulness from the man who pioneered the mindfulness movement.

Medical Advice

  • Rushing Women’s Syndrome, Dr Libby Weaver.

Spiritual Development

A word of caution on this section. Many of the books are exuberantly American, self-help preachy and/or quite intense. For a British agnostic journalist I find myself often having to suspend my critical faculties to be able to deal with the flowery spirituality of the language. That said, I’ve found much comfort and wisdom here.

  • Man’s Search for Meaning,Viktor E Frankl.
  • Feel The Fear & Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffries. A self-help bestseller. Solid advice on overcoming anxiety.
  • The Enneagram Made Easy, Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele.
  • The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram, Sandra Maitri.
  • The Wisdom of the Enneagram, Don Richard Ruso and Ross Hudson.
  • Integral Mindfulness, From Clueless to Dialled-In, Keith Witt.
  • Integral Life Practice, Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard & Marco Morelli.
  • Core Transformation, Reaching the Wellspring Within, Connirae Andreas and Tamara Andreas. I found this guide to personal development a really helpful approach which clarified some of my key behavioural traits. The business/performance approach isn’t so helpful when you’re trying to stop being an over-achiever.
  • Diamond Heart, Book One, Elements of the Real in Man, AH Almaas. Almaas argues that personality is the cover for the loss of your Personal Essence. An interesting read though on doing further background research I felt a little uncomfortable about the slightly cultish sounding Ridhwan Foundation which teaches this approach.
  • You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay.

Other