Here are some of my favorite books from last year, in no particular order. All of these have helped me in my journey of recovery and growth.

Belonging: Bonds of Healing and Recovery by Matthew Linn, Dennis Linn and Sheila Fabricant Linn | This book is definitely on my top five all-time list! It’s been profoundly helpful for me, and I know it’ll continue to be. The Linns write with amazing simplicity, grace and love. They do a phenomenal job integrating emotional and spiritual growth. One of my big take-aways: According to many psychotherapists, shame is at the core of the “psychic pain” that fuels addiction, and belonging (i.e., unconditional love) is the key to recovery and healing.

Healing Spiritual Abuse & Religious Addiction by the Linns | Yep, the Linns again. One of my big take-aways: According to the Linns, part of healthy spirituality is giving myself and others spiritual freedom.

Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally by Marcus Borg | This was an important book for me, in part because I grew up in an environment that taught that the Bible is God’s Word — that God wrote the Bible through human authors, that everything in the Bible is true and, in fact, that the Bible contains the Truth. One of my big take-aways: According to Borg, the Bible is a human product, and the authors of the Bible were expressing their best understanding of God, Jesus, humanity and the universe.

Practically Shameless: How Shadow Work Helped Me Find My Voice, My Path and My Inner Gold by Alyce Barry | If you’d like to better understand how doing Shadow Work may help you mature emotionally and spiritually, this is a great place to dive in. Alyce (whose brother is Cliff Barry, one of the pioneers of Shadow Work) writes so clearly and vulnerably. One of my big take-aways: According to Alyce, the human shadow could be called “the box built by shame,” and healing the shame transforms the box into a life of more freedom and love.

Healing the Child Within: Discovery and Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families by Charles Whitfield | This book is considered a classic, and now I know why — it has been so helpful! Most of us (if not all of us) have some Inner Child, or Child Within, recovery work to do. This book is a great place to start! One of my big take-aways: According to Whitfield, the Child Within is our True Self (as opposed to our false self or codependent self).

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle | This book might be in my top five of all time, at least top ten. Very few books I’ve read have as much spiritual authority as this book. It’s one of the best descriptions of the transformational journey from ego (or false self) to True Self. One of my big take-aways: According to Tolle, it’s not the emotional pain (what Tolle calls the “pain-body”), but identification with it that causes the suffering that I inflict on myself and others. (Sounds like “shame,” doesn’t it? Do you sense a theme in these books and in the transformational journey?)

Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh | I’ve told several of my friends that if this was the one and only book that every human being read, we’d all do just fine … in fact, the world would be an absolutely wonderful place to live. Like Tolle’s book, this book has some serious spiritual authority. This truly is a classic. So simple, yet so deep and profound. It might crack my top five of all time list. One of my big take-aways: According to Hanh, to have direct experience of God, or of Ultimate Reality, we must abandon our notions of God, Buddha, nirvana, self, non-self, birth, death, being and non-being.

True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh | OK, this is a very slim book (104 pages) about how to deeply love another human being (and yourself). Hanh writes with such beautiful simplicity, grace and tenderness. One of my big take-aways: The Four Mantras: “Dear one, I am really here for you.” “Dear one, I know that you are there, and it makes me very happy.” “Dear one, I know that you are suffering, that is why I am here for you.” “Dear one, I am suffering, please help.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Books, Emotional & Spiritual Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.