Here are 100 books that The Power of Mess fans have personally recommended if you like
The Power of Mess.
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I've been a psychologist for 35 years, and for my whole life I've been fascinated by our inner worlds and concepts that are hard to grasp but affect us significantly. I read these books to help myself and my clients, and I keep developing as a person through them. I have read a lot about ego and development, and many of the books in this genre are difficult to access for the general reader. I have chosen these five books for their skill in making complex issues easier to understand. I truly believe that a commitment to self-development leads not just to reaching your goals and realising your potential, but to contentment and happiness.
I love the way this book explains how our individual development contributes to the greater whole, the expansion of the collective consciousness, which is the only way the world can improve.
It’s a big topic, but I do love the way Tolle argues that our egos are the problem (in the form of our delusions and irrationality) as well as the solution (our ability to mature beyond just thinking of ourselves) to humanity. I admire how Tolle asks us to consider our complaining, criticisms, and judgments in terms of our fragile and needy ego, and how we need to take better responsibility for how we impact others.
There is a whole section on living as a performance as opposed to being authentic and true to yourself, which got me questioning myself in a constructive way.
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'A wake-up call for the entire planet. A New Earth helps us to stop creating our own suffering and obsessing over the past and what the future might be and to put ourselves in the now' OPRAH WINFREY
'My No. 1 guru will always be Eckhart Tolle' CHRIS EVANS
THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE CHART-TOPPING PODCAST OPRAH & ECKHART TOLLE: A NEW EARTH _________
Are you ready to change your life?
In Eckhart Tolle's ground-breaking book, he gives you the spiritual framework to: - Understand yourself…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I wasn’t always a joyful person. But today I’m freaking sunshine, and full-out committed to being an effective member of the team that’s elevating the level of love and joy in the world! My positions on that team have included writing dozens of mega-selling books (my own, and as a ghostwriter), founding my online Joy School at LisaMcCourt.com, hosting my Do Joy! podcast, and collaborating on projects with many other popular teachers of consciousness and joyful living. My books have sold over 9 million copies, earned 7 publishing industry awards, and garnered over 9,000 glowing Amazon reviews. Joy is my jam. I know a joyful book when I read one!
One of the secrets of my wildly successful joy trainings is an elevation of self-love. I say “secret” because self-love is a tired, cliched topic.
For some, it implies a self-indulgent pursuit for weaker-willed people than we like to admit ourselves to be. Others, who know they don’t have it, deep down believe they aren’t worthy of it anyway. It’s heartbreaking because self-love is the key to everything we believe we want. And it’s not about bubble baths or buying the shoes.
It’s about how we talk to ourselves all day long, day after day, with that voice in our heads. Spending time with Scott Stabile via the insightful musings in this precious book will create a shift in your relationship with that voice. And that shift will upturn everything.
From the author of the acclaimed Big Love, a funny, profound, and inspired collection of short prose on the transformational power of self-acceptance
Overwhelmed by a heartbreaking series of personal tragedies that defined his early life, Scott Stabile seemed destined for hardship and misfortune. Instead, he found the transformative power of love and the courage to walk away, which he detailed in his beloved collection of essays Big Love: The Power of Living with a Wide-Open Heart.
In Enough as You Are, Stabile delivers more of these liberating truths with a heart-expanding collection of poetry and short prose…
I wasn’t always a joyful person. But today I’m freaking sunshine, and full-out committed to being an effective member of the team that’s elevating the level of love and joy in the world! My positions on that team have included writing dozens of mega-selling books (my own, and as a ghostwriter), founding my online Joy School at LisaMcCourt.com, hosting my Do Joy! podcast, and collaborating on projects with many other popular teachers of consciousness and joyful living. My books have sold over 9 million copies, earned 7 publishing industry awards, and garnered over 9,000 glowing Amazon reviews. Joy is my jam. I know a joyful book when I read one!
Two of my favorite things in the world combine to make this one of my favorite books of all time.
The first is reading something that inspires that sacred moment of recognition; a glimpse into the vulnerable heart of an author sharing a slice of humanness that makes me nod my head in recognition of that bit of humanness within me as well. The second is wildly skillful word-weaving mastery for conveying such insights.
This collection of tender, poignant essays zings right into my heart and fills me with compassion and admiration for us beleaguered, hopeful inhabitants of Earth. A brilliant, honest, and ultimately optimistic observation of the human condition.
In this collection of observations, contemplations, and insights, award-winning author Thomas Lloyd Qualls offers a down-to-earth oracle to help decipher the riddles of modern life.
Part field notes from a seeker's journey and part teachings of a would-be monk who doesn't get to live on the side of a mountain, Happiness Is an Imaginary Line in the Sand is convincing in its stubborn insistence that a better world is not only possible, but within our grasp.
The author lives not in a cloistered world of saffron robes, but is knee deep in the muddiness of life. A lawyer who represents…
Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
I wasn’t always a joyful person. But today I’m freaking sunshine, and full-out committed to being an effective member of the team that’s elevating the level of love and joy in the world! My positions on that team have included writing dozens of mega-selling books (my own, and as a ghostwriter), founding my online Joy School at LisaMcCourt.com, hosting my Do Joy! podcast, and collaborating on projects with many other popular teachers of consciousness and joyful living. My books have sold over 9 million copies, earned 7 publishing industry awards, and garnered over 9,000 glowing Amazon reviews. Joy is my jam. I know a joyful book when I read one!
My books and trainings are all about joy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t geek out on the science behind it all.
I’ve long admired Eldon Taylor’s approach to bridging the gap between spirituality and what is considered hardcore scientific understanding at this current stage of human evolution, and this book addresses a question that underlies all of the work I do.
If more people could release the widespread, ridiculous idea that spiritual concepts (understood and practiced by our far wiser ancestors thousands of years ago) are somehow not as “real” as the other arbitrary, culturally-accepted paradigms they subscribe to, we’d have a far more joyous, compassionate, successful society.
Eldon provides a fact-based bridge for readers to cross in this well-researched book!
A pragmatic case for the rational viability of a spiritual belief in a higher power. [Taylor] makes a compelling case that the scientific worldview--one that sees humans as "meat machines"--is inconsistent with people's experiences of themselves and is not nearly as rationally superior as it is so often presented. This alone makes the author's compact consideration a worthwhile read. A philosophically astute challenge to the rational supremacy of science over its spiritual rivals. Kirkus Reviews
As a kindergarten teacher and mom, I have dealt with messy kids. It’s part of who they are! These books are a funny, enjoyable way to try to get kids to enjoy clean up time, and understand that messes are normal!
Llama Llama is a classic in our house, and this book is such a clever way to show cause and effect when it comes to messes.
I love how it uses imagination to get kids thinking about their role in keeping things tidy. Bonus points for the sweet mama/child moment!
Lama has a messy room that he doesn’t want to cleanup. His mama asks Lama to think of a world where mamas didn’t clean up. With the chaos that a dirty mama leaves behind, Lama quickly cleans up and realizes that even little llamas need to help clean.
Mama Llama teaches Llama Llama a humorous lesson in cleaning up in Anna Dewdney's bestselling Llama Llama series.
Time to pick up all your toys! Why is Mama making noise? Mama says it's cleaning day. Llama only wants to play.
Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama is growing up, but he still loves to play with all his toys! When Mama Llama says it's time to clean up, Llama responds like any child more interested in playing than cleaning . . . by ignoring her! But Mama has an imaginative response of her own. What if she never cleaned? What would happen…
I didn’t choose clutter as a topic—it chose me. Around the time Marie Kondo became a tidying-up sensation, my mother suffered a breakdown and could no longer live in her dangerously cluttered house. I’m an only child, so it fell to me to figure what to do with it all. So much stuff! It got me wondering: How did clutter get to be such a huge problem for so many people? The books on this list helped answer that question and made me feel less alone in the struggle with stuff. I hope you find them useful too.
Dealing with a lifetime’s worth of possessions feels like a heavy task—heavy in every sense. In this breezy book, Margareta Magnuson reminds readers that it doesn’t have to be a drag. Figuring out what to do with all your things can be cathartic, liberating, even fun, a chance to relive some of the highlights of your life and celebrate where you’ve landed. It’s also a kindness to your nearest and dearest. As she wisely observes, “A loved one wishes to inherit nice things from you. Not all things from you.” I wish I could go back in time and give a copy of this book to my mother with that passage highlighted.
Dostadning, or the art of death cleaning, is a Swedish phenomenon by which the elderly and their families set their affairs in order. Whether it's sorting the family heirlooms from the junk, downsizing to a smaller place, or using a failsafe system to stop you losing essentials, death cleaning gives us the chance to make the later years of our lives as comfortable and stress-free as possible. Whatever your age, Swedish death cleaning can be used to help you de-clutter your life, and take stock of what's important.
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
In 2012 I started a minimalist journey, inspired by my 1,500 square foot house that could no longer comfortably contain the possessions belonging to me, my partner, and our then 2-year-old triplets. I was a full-time working mom with little time to declutter, yet I knew that if I didn’t change our home, the stress of our stuff would rob us of valuable space and time to enjoy our young family. Over a period of eight months, I let go of about 70% of our possessions, and I’ve never looked back. I’ve since taught hundreds of thousands of busy parents how to do the same through my blog, book, TEDx, keynotes, classes, and coaching.
I was introduced to this book by a client of mine who, due to her severe ADHD, was struggling to manage her life while pursuing her dream of a graduate degree. I got my own copy and have since recommended it to nearly all my personal clients! This book is written with plenty of bullet points, clear pictures, and open space on the pages to help ADHD brains focus and get the information they need. Although the author addresses readers with ADHD specifically, I think the title of this book should be “Organizing Solutions for Everybody!!!” It’s one of the few organizing books I keep on my own bookshelf.
If you're one of the 10 million American adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), every day is a struggle to keep your home, your office, your electronics, and your calendar organized. Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, 2nd Edition presents a simple but effective, long-term solution to get you back in control of your life. Written by professional organizer Susan Pinsky, this book outlines a practical, ADHD-friendly organizing approach that emphasizes easy maintenance techniques and methods for maximum efficiency, catering to the specific needs of the ADHD population. Color photos, useful tips, and bulleted lists make this a quick…
I speak from experience because within the decade of 2009–2019, I downsized from my enormous home and cleared out both of my parent’s houses. I felt like I was drowning in stuff when I added up all three houses. Lighter Living is a collection of my insights from, and candid reflections on, my journey of owning less. The benefits of lighter living are so broad and deep that they can’t be boiled down to one end result. My hope is that you will find the process of consolidation to be satisfying and fulfilling. That was my experience. My choice of a lighter lifestyle has brought me a greater sense of well-being. In a world that often seems stressful and chaotic, that’s a feeling I cherish.
Sometimes I just need a major kick-in-the-butt motivational book. In 2020, author Julie Hall renamed her previous book entitled Boomer Burden: Dealing with Your Parents Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff. The content is the same, but the title and cover changed. Julie Hall is a personal property expert, who wishes to show you how to clear a family home and minimize family feuds. The book is filled with excellent advice and guidance and also a few horror stories to motivate the reader to take positive action sooner than later. It is a wake-up call if you need one!
Every day, hundreds of adult children become middle-aged orphans when their elderly parents pass away. . . but what should you do with what they've left behind? Professional estate liquidator Julie Hall provides essential guidance for any executor, heir, or beneficiary.
You've heard the horror stories: arguments over stuff, an inheritance lost forever when easily deceived parents are scammed, siblings estranged, an adult heir taken from daily responsibilities for months because of the enormous task of clearing out a childhood home. It doesn't have to be that way.
The Estate Lady, professional estate liquidator Julie Hall, knows what to do.…
You know how most young kids go through a phrase where they ask “why” about everything, and then they ask it again, and again, and again? Well, I never really outgrew that. I studied journalism because it gave me permission to be curious about new things every day, and to ask experts “why.” Marketing gave me a new way to chase my curiosity: Why are people clicking this ad, opening this email, following that social account or searching for that phrase? I’ve helped 30% of the Fortune 100 answer the questions about why their content is working, or isn’t, and my first book, The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas, was born from my introspective curiosity about how my own idea generation process worked.
This book is a hefty one—I recommend the audiobook if you’ve got a bad back—but it will help you understand how your brain works in a way that almost no other book can. And the better you understand your mind, the better you’ll be able to make it do what you want, and how to protect yourself from the things that might otherwise sabotage your creative thinking.
In The Organized Mind, New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin offers practical solutions to the problems of information overload. ___________________________________________________
Overwhelmed by demands on your time? Caught in an unproductive spiral of emails and multitasking?
You're not alone. When we're deluged with information our creativity plummets, our decision making suffers and we grow absent-minded. Nowadays, we drown in our inboxes, forever juggle several tasks at once and try to make complex decisions ever more quickly. This is information overload.
Combining the latest neuroscience with everyday examples, Daniel Levitin explains how to take back control…
Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration
by
Mark Doherty,
I have woven numerous delightful and descriptive true life stories, many from my adventures as an outdoorsman and singer songwriter, into my life as a high school English teacher. I think you'll find this work both entertaining as well as informative, and I hope you enjoy the often lighthearted repartee…
I'm the founder of Life Organized Inc, a firm specializing in the organization of people, their lives, and physical spaces. Known for creating solutions that are as aesthetically appealing as they are practical, I transform spaces from the inside out. My areas of expertise include home and office organization, time management, digital decluttering, organizing for academic success, maximizing productivity while working from home, and management of everyday chaos. I'm a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the NYU Stern School of Business.
People who live with clutter and disorganization are far more likely to struggle with weight issues than those who keep their homes orderly. In my years of organizing kitchens and pantries, I’ve seen that buying healthy food is only a small part of healthy eating; organization of that food and meal planning are equally important. In Fridge Love, Kirsten Hong not only shares how to organize your refrigerator so healthy foods are easily accessible, but also shares recipes and meal planning tips.
A one-of-a-kind guide to organizing your fridge-including practical tips for meal prep and storage, plus more than 100 recipes-that makes it easier to eat better, save money, and get the most out of your food
Practicing "fridge love" is a roadmap to eating healthier, saving money, and reducing food waste while enjoying a beautiful and harder-working fridge. This book-part organizational guide and part food-prep handbook-is your guide. Author Kristen Hong adopted a nutrient-dense, plant-based diet in an effort to lose weight and improve her health. But amidst the demands of day-to-day life and a busy family, she found it impossible…
