Self-improvement doesn’t have to mean conforming to societal norms or sacrificing your unique identity.
Are you a free spirit looking to improve yourself and live your best life? Self-improvement doesn’t have to mean conforming to societal norms or sacrificing your unique identity. In fact, there are plenty of books out there that can guide you on your journey to self-improvement while still honoring your free spirit.
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of must-read books for free spirits who want to improve themselves and their lives. From mindfulness and spirituality to creativity and adventure, these books offer valuable insights and inspiration for anyone looking to grow and evolve as a person. So, if you’re ready to embark on a self-improvement journey that aligns with your free-spirited nature!
Blood Sex Magic: Everyday Magic for the Modern Mystic
by Bri Luna
Blood Sex Magic is an invitation and an awakening–a guide toward a life of connection to self and spirit, to the seen and unseen realms, and to magical traditions past and future. Bri Luna honors traditions from her African American and Mexican roots and celebrates magic that is “from dirt and blood, jewels and bones, moon and sun.”
Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us about the Good Life
by Kristen R Ghodsee
In the 6th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras–a man remembered today more for his theorem about right-angled triangles than for his progressive politics–founded a commune in a seaside village in what’s now southern Italy. The men and women there shared their property, lived as equals, and dedicated themselves to the study of mathematics and the mysteries of the universe.
Ever since, humans have been dreaming up better ways to organize how we live together, pool our resources, raise our children, and determine who’s part of our families. Some of these experiments burned brightly for only a brief while, but others carry on today: from the Danish cohousing communities that share chores and deepen neighborly bonds, to matriarchal Colombian ecovillages where residents grow their own food; and from Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra “alloparents” to help raise children not their own, to China where planned microdistricts ensure everything a busy household might need is nearby.
Finding the Fool: A Tarot Journey to Radical Transformation
by Meg Jones Wall – Theresa Reed
Finding the Fool is a tarot resource and study guide that goes beyond standardized, traditional interpretations, opening the door for readers of all genders, identities, and experience levels to build a unique and personal relationship with the cards. For Meg Jones Wall, the path of the tarot is bigger than what can be found in only one deck, one way, or one teaching. Breaking through barriers to show up as who you truly are–that is the radical journey to self-discovery and transformation, and this book serves as a companion and guide along that journey.
The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
by Robert Waldinger – Marc Schulz
What makes a life fulfilling and meaningful? The simple but surprising answer is: relationships. The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and healthier lives. In fact, the Harvard Study of Adult Development reveals that the strength of our connections with others can predict the health of both our bodies and our brains as we go through life.
The invaluable insights in this book emerge from the revealing personal stories of hundreds of participants in the Harvard Study as they were followed year after year for their entire adult lives, and this wisdom was bolstered by research findings from many other studies. Relationships in all their forms–friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers, tennis partners, book club members, Bible study groups–all contribute to a happier, healthier life. And as The Good Life shows us, it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you already have, and never too late to build new ones. The Good Life provides examples of how to do this.
How to Be Weird: An Off-Kilter Guide to Living a One-Of-A-Kind Life
by Eric G Wilson
A guidebook for beating the monotony of the everyday by purposefully cultivating the surprising joys that come from living an off-kilter life
It’s all too easy to get caught up in the often monotonous nature of our day to day–moving from one rote task to the next, only to rinse and repeat the next day. Weirdness, however, is an easily accessible antidote to these feelings of languishing. The quirky, eccentric, and peculiar can take us out of our normal habits of thought and perception, surprising us by breaking up our routines and reminding us that there’s more to life than the everyday.
In How to Be Weird, Eric G. Wilson offers 99 fun and philosophically rich exercises for embracing all the weird in the world around us–taking aimless walks, creating a reverie nook, exploring the underside of bridges, making tombstone rubbings, finding your own Narnia, and more.
More of You: The Fat Girl’s Field Guide to the Modern World
by Amanda Martinez Beck
Too often, fatness has been viewed as a moral failing. Fat Christian women in particular are shamed and marginalized by the message that they are failing God because they can’t change their bodies. More of You will challenge that status quo, teaching readers to resist the shame and guilt that is pressed onto them by the world and instead to embrace their bodies, take up space, and learn to navigate the world in ways that allow them to flourish.
With wit and candor, Amanda Martinez Beck, a fat woman herself, compiles her hard-won wisdom to give the skinny on thriving in a fat body to others who have been pushed to the margins of acceptance. Offering helpful tools like The Fat Girl’s Bill of Rights and a script for a weight-neutral doctor’s visit, this book addresses real needs in the fat acceptance community, from how to find self-love in a thin-obsessed world, to navigating a world built for butts smaller than yours, to advocating for equality and justice for fat women’s medical care.
Adventure Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Choosing Challenge
by Belinda Kirk
For the past twenty-five years, Belinda Kirk’s professional life has revolved around adventure. She’s seen it change people first hand: turning the timid into the confident, the addicted into the recovering, and the lost into the intentionally wandering. As a force for change, adventure can be powerful like few others.
This book is about this transformational power, and the first to explore why adventure is essential to our wellbeing. From managing anxiety and overcoming fear, to finding self-worth and building interpersonal connections, to being happier, healthier, and more playful, ADVENTURE REVOLUTION draws lessons from more than two decades of experience leading groups into the wilderness around the globe. Illuminated with Belinda’s personal narrative, her own research with modern hunter-gatherers, and the latest findings in neuroscience and behaviour, ADVENTURE REVOLUTION presents a compelling case for ditching the living room in favour of a longer, happier, and more adventurous life.
Your Way There (to Being Fully Alive): Concepts and Tools for Mindful Transformation
by Gretta Keene – Murray Murray
Between social distance and social media, meaningful connection in the 21st century is complicated–not just with others, but with ourselves too.
With decades of experience in psychotherapy, Gretta Keene warmly introduces positive psychology tools. For elevating relationships, navigating challenges, and savoring the joy of being alive.
After all, like weather, life happens. You can’t change the weather–but you can learn how to change your response.
Paired with whimsical artwork by William Murray. The friendly language of Your Way There makes concepts like “reparenting” and “new neural pathways”. Feels not just approachable, but possible.
There Is No Right Way to Meditate: Revised and Expanded Edition
by Yumi Sakugawa
Take a moment and breathe. With Yumi’s uplifting guidance, you will dig deeper into your soul to discover the tranquility already surrounding you.
In There Is No Right Way to Meditate, award-winning artist. Yumi Sakugawa helps you tap into your inner self and finally find the peace that you’ve been seeking. With new and revised content, each page offers a unique perspective on how to lead a more mindful life. This book is full of captivating ink illustrations and encouraging words. Like, “It’s okay if the only thing you did today was breathe.”
Return to Nature: The New Science of How Natural Landscapes Restore Us
by Emma Loewe
Discover the new science and ancient wisdom on why nature makes us healthier and happier. In body and soul from the co-author of The Spirit Almanac and mindbodygreen’s Senior Sustainability Editor.
For centuries, we have known that getting outside is good for us. Yet we have become increasingly disconnected from the earth that nourishes us. With most of us spending 87% of our days indoors. In response, writer and environmentalist Emma Loewe demonstrates the power of nature’s healing properties. And protect it in the future, so that it can be healthy and nurturing for generations to come
My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place
by Meik Wiking
An inspiring book from Meik Wiking, the New York Times bestselling author of The Little Book of Hygge. About how to use space, light, and Danish design to transform your home to fit your needs.
Now more than ever before, our homes need to be a place of comfort. A place to feel safe when we shut the door. Our homes are where we can truly be ourselves, unwind, and create special memories with our family and friends. Inspired by Danish design and traditions, Meik Wiking’s beautiful book. My Hygge Home shows us how to turn our home into a cozy sanctuary.
Interested in poetry collections? Check out more poetry online at here!
