There’s a ton of books that have helped me with self care, here’s a few

Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod

I can honestly say this book changed my life. The message is incredibly simple – make time every single day for activities that recharge you – but cannot be overstated. Hal Elrod really taught me how to build consistent habits. That’s critical, because discipline equals freedom.

The Book of Joy – Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu

As corny as it sounds, I found The Book of Joy by googling “how to be more happy.” And this book did the trick! It largely focuses on how meaningful friendships, gratitude, and compassion make a huge difference in day-to-day joy. Over time I’ve found that these good actions create good feelings and then it snowballs into more good actions. Get the audiobook if you can, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu are good friends and hearing them tease and bicker is priceless.

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

My grandmother says “everything you own requires emotional maintenance.” I didn’t realize how true that way unless I read this book and got rid of a lot of things I didn’t need. Suddenly I had lots of little happy moments throughout the day instead of many “oh darn I need to take care of X later” thoughts. The space you life in should fill you up with energy, not sap energy away. Once we optimize our life for happy moments, life gets a lot better.

Dahmapadda – Buddha

If you’re looking for wisdom, then the Buddha is a safe bet. Have you thought about how dangerous desire is? It presupposes that the present moment is lacking, it assumes there’s something wrong with who we are now. That’s murky water, because if you want to get better then hating yourself won’t help.

As a Man Thinketh – James Allen

This book is a bit older but is just as important now as when it was written. The core message is how negative thoughts can create negative actions and then negative habits. It helped me a lot to understand the risk of negative thought loops so I could catch them and use mindfulness to stop them sooner. Then you can choose positive actions to break the cycle.