To be honest, this time of year is too cold and dark to even think about radical transformation, but perhaps there might be quiet and spaciousness enough for reflection on what it is to be human, and what it means to face challenge and adversity, and each of these books—in different ways—are perfect companions for such an endeavour.

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Secrets of Giants: A Journey to Uncover the True Meaning of Strength, by Alyssa Ages

About the book: Alyssa Ages was the strongest she’d ever been, able to flip monster truck tires and walk with 300 pounds on her back. She felt invincible, until the day her body betrayed her, leaving her vulnerable and grasping for control. Rebuilding her strength slowly brought her back to life. She began to wonder: What if strength isn't about how much we can lift? What if it's about how we manage life’s struggles?

In Secrets of Giants, Ages, now a mom of two, embarks on an immersive journey to the fringe of the weight-lifting world, the sport of strongman. She hoists kegs and lifts boulders in suburban parking lots, attempts to pull a 50-ton truck using only a rope, and occasionally frightens her neighbors by dragging a sled full of weights down her quiet tree-lined street. She meets a powerlifter-turned-boxer who shares how lifting taught her to become a master of the mundane. A ten-time World’s Strongest Man competitor is brought to tears illustrating how the gym helped him survive an abusive childhood. A pro strongwoman muses on managing setbacks before stepping on stage to deadlift the weight of a baby grand piano. Psychologists, researchers, and coaches offer insights into the fascinating ways that the pursuit of strength can permeate every aspect of our lives, from building resilience and confidence, to finding joy in discomfort, to teaching us to handle adversity.

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We've Got This: Unlocking the Beauty of Belonging, by Ritu Bhasin

About the book: Many of us feel constant pressure to mask and curate who we are—to perform as someone we’re not rather than be who we are. And it hurts us. But we don't need to live this way.

With We've Got This, award-winning and globally recognized DEI and empowerment expert Ritu Bhasin delivers a much-needed guidebook on how to heal, thrive, and stand in your power in the face of hate and hardships. She reveals how to unlock belonging—for yourself and for others.

Ritu knows firsthand that the path to belonging can be both beautiful and hard. As a child of working-class immigrants of color, she experienced relentless struggles with racist bullying and cultural confusion growing up. Even as a successful lawyer and business leader, Ritu grappled with knowing, embracing, and being her authentic self—until she realized the freedom that comes with claiming belonging, which she passionately shares in these pages.

Combining empathy, humor, and research with life-changing wisdom and savvy, We've Got This is the guide for finding belonging and joy that readers from across backgrounds have been waiting for.

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Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! Daily Meditations for the Ups, Downs & In-Betweens, by Kate Bowler

About the book: Kate Bowler believes that the cultural pressure to be cheerful and optimistic at all times has taken a toll on our faith. But what if we could find better language than forced positivity to express our hopes and our anxieties?

Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! is packed with bite-size reflections and action-oriented steps to help you get through the day, be it good, bad, or totally mediocre. This is a devotional for the rest of us—which is to say, the people who don’t have magical lives that always work out for the best. As she composed these meditations during a season of chronic pain, Bowler understands how every day can be an obstacle course. She encourages us to develop our capacity to feel the breadth of our experiences. The better we are at identifying our highs and lows, the more resilient we become.

Like modern-day psalms, Bowler’s spiritual reflections look for the ways we can expand our capacity for courage, love, and honesty—while discovering divine moments with God. With bonus sections to use during the seasons of Advent and Lent, this is an easy book to read along with other people too.

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Goodbye, Perfect: How to Stop Pleasing, Proving, and Pushing for Others. . . and Live For Yourself, by Homaira Kabir

About the book: Why are so many conscientious women needlessly hard on themselves for things they readily forgive in others? Why do so many competent women shy away from risks and opportunities, or fear speaking up in the workplace? And why do so many ambitious women feel like a fraud despite the success and achievements they have rightfully earned?

For fans of Brene Brown and lovers of inspiring self-help titles, Goodbye, Perfect is a must-read leadership and self-care book for women who have fallen into the toxic traps of perfectionism, approval seeking and endless doing. At its core, it teaches us how to embrace the gifts our lives embody, and reclaim joy, ease and psychological well being as fundamental tenets of a brave and purpose-driven life.

This is the essence of living for yourself. It is about living the life you're here to live.

With a clear and science-based explanation of the two types of high confidence, and highly relatable stories from both her personal and professional life, author, coach and thought leader Homaira Kabir helps us understand why most women struggle with fragile confidence, and how it is the greatest barrier to their biggest lives. She offers an uplifting and empowering way to reclaim our lives, both professionally and personally; instead of fighting the behaviors that we know are getting in our way, we unhook from the need to engage with them. It is the journey of optimal confidence.

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Let It Go: Free Yourself from Old Beliefs and Find a New Path to Joy, by Chelene Knight

About the book: A warm, candid and essential book that will guide the reader to carve a new path to joy as unique as each individual. Created by the founder of Breathing Space Creative Literary Studio, acclaimed writer and editor Chelene Knight, Let It Go draws on personal experience and the advice of leaders from various Black communities to share hard-won tools for joy-discovery—tools such as how to say no with love; how to call back activities that feel good; how to reshape communication with those closest to you; how to revise language; and most of all, how to learn to let go in order to redefine what we think joy is.

Organized around the seasons and the natural cycle of reflection and renewal, Let It Go showcases, through conversation and solitary reflection, the broad spectrum of Black realities and reveals the colourful kaleidoscope of joy and your own ways to find it.

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It's On Me: Accept Hard Truths, Discover Your Self, and Change Your Life, by Sara Kuburic

About the book: So many of us feel lonely, unfulfilled, or trapped—in our roles and relationships, in cycles of self-sabotage and bad decisions, by our patterns and misguided attempts to feel happy or to feel something. According to existential psychotherapist Sara Kuburic, it doesn’t have to be so difficult. Really.

The answer is found in facing ourselves—whatever version that might be, regardless of whether we like the person we see reflected back to us. It’s about accepting full responsibility for the choices and actions that create our reality. It’s about finally taking ownership of this person we call our “Self.” It’s about realizing that it’s on us to figure out the two most essential questions: “Who am I” and “Why am I here?” and then to live accordingly.

In It’s on Me, Kuburic unpacks “self-loss,” giving us new vocabulary to understand this rarely talked about experience and offers tools she’s used for years to help clients recover. Self-loss becomes apparent when we do not recognize ourselves in our actions, words, or relationships; when we lose sight of who we truly are, and feel the pain and emptiness from performing or observing life, rather than living it. Guiding us through her unique process of self-reflection, acceptance, and discovery, Kuburic proves that we can

• experience but not feel overpowered by our emotions
• establish a healthy connection to our bodies
• set loving boundaries to define ourselves and heal our relationships
• declutter our physical and mental environments to create space for our true Self to thrive
• find meaning and purpose in a seemingly meaningless world

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Apples on a Windowsill, by Shawna Lemay

About the book: Apples on the Windowsill is a series of meditations on still life, photography, beauty, and marriage. Full of personal reflections, charming anecdotes, and the history behind the art of still lifes, this lyrical memoir takes us from Edmonton to Rome to museums all over North America as Lemay discusses the craft of writing, the ups and downs of being married to a painter, and her focus on living a life in art and in beauty. A must read for fans of The Flower Can Always Be Changing, Everything Affects Everyone, and Rumi and the Red Handbag.

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Where Tenderness Lives: On Healing, Liberation, and Holding Space for Oneself, by Heather Plett

About the book: A journey of self-exploration, forgiveness, and individual and collective healing.

Where Tenderness Lives is a loving exploration of what it means to unravel what we've learned from our families, societies, religions, and cultures in order to heal and create a purposeful and joyful life. In this illuminating book, acclaimed author Heather Plett reveals:
- How trauma - from the earliest patterns of our upbringing to devastating events - can shape our lives and our personalities
- How treating ourselves with radical tenderness can be the balm of healing for our wounded selves, and how this healing can invite others into their own healing
- How learning to hold space for ourselves - our hopes, our aspirations, and our desires - is one of the most worthwhile pursuits of a life well-lived

Each chapter in this heartfelt and honest book contains a revelation about how to move from shades of fear and doubt to freedom and joy. Through stories that range from what it meant to grow up Mennonite to surviving a horrific assault; from leaving a marriage that no longer worked to the poignant moment her grown daughters leave home, Plett provides a vocabulary of understanding how we grew into the people we are and how to move on from what no longer serves us.

By reflecting on her own life with vulnerability and self-compassion, Plett provides a springboard for your own self-exploration, as well as a path to individual and collective healing.

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Dialed In: Do Your Best When It Matters Most, by Dana Sinclair

About the book: For readers of Atomic Habits and Grit, a top performance psychologist, who has coached elite athletes, surgeons, and business leaders, shares her proven plan to getting the best results when the pressure is on.

What do a major league baseball catcher struggling with pop ups, an operating room doctor tense before a surgery, and a slumping sixteen-year-old tennis prodigy all have in common? They’re elite performers who are not achieving excellence, and they’re not sure how to improve.

Enter Dr. Dana Sinclair. For more than twenty years, Dr. Dana has worked with the best of the best to improve results, from NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL teams to IndyCar drivers and Olympic athletes. She helps performers shift their focus and deliver optimal performance in high-pressure moments that define greatness. Her methods also work for students and teachers, business leaders and managers—anyone motivated to improve. Her approach is simple: figure out what gets in your way, develop actions to address it in the moment, and then stick to the plan. It’s not about how you feel, it’s about what you do!

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Your Body Is a Revolution: Healing Our Relationships with Our Bodies, Each Other, and the Earth, by Tara Teng

About the book: It’s time to fully inhabit our lives, to reclaim what has been stolen from us, and to embrace the wisdom our bodies long to share.

Too many of us are living disconnected from our bodies, chasing a constantly moving target of ideal, and accepting the societal narrative about which bodies are deserving of safety and protection. In an effort to keep ourselves safe, we shame, push aside, and assimilate parts of ourselves that don't align with the cultural norm. In turn, we are disconnected from our bodies and therefore from our humanity, losing sight of the true nature of who we are.

Embodiment coach Tara Teng helps us untangle ourselves from centuries of body-based oppression built into our societal systems or masquerading as religion. When we embrace our relationship with our bodies, we come into alignment with all things: ourselves, each other, the earth, and our spirituality. When we embrace ourselves, we can take back what society says is too much — too loud, too feminine, too masculine, too gay, too worldly, too unique. Now is the time to journey back to our bodies and to celebrate our whole selves.

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