7 Books for Aligning Your Life in 2022

Happy New Year! Below are seven books to help you grow spiritually, heal your relationship with food and alcohol, and live your most aligned life in 2022.

1. In The FLO, by Alisa Vitti

Synopsis:

This is the book you wish you read in middle school. If you are a woman, reading this book will leave you feeling excited about your identity, empowered by your ability to support your health and wellbeing, and more hopeful that you can find sustainable solutions to all of your energy, mood, and menstruation issues. Vitti provides practical answers to questions like: “why am I struggling so much at work?”; “why can’t I stay committed to the same exercise routine all month?”; and “how come being a woman feels so hard sometimes?” In language that is both scientific and accessible, Vitti educates readers on the health benefits of balancing one’s hormones, honoring women’s cyclical nature, and making simple shifts in diet and lifestyle according to each menstrual phase.

Who would benefit from reading it:

• Women who menstruate
• Women struggling with symptoms from hormonal birth control
• Women looking to feel more energized, calm, and in control of their health
• Sex ed teachers
• Medical professionals who work with women

How it will help align your life:

Upon reading the book, you will understand the hormonal changes a woman’s body goes through in each of the four phases of the menstrual cycle, as well as how these changes impact energy, mood, metabolism, sex, stress, and work. You will gain strategies to organize your life in a way that honors your menstrual cycle, reduces stress, and optimizes your health. Implementing just a few suggestions from the book, such as eating hormone supporting foods or modifying your exercise routine, will leave you feeling more powerful and aligned.

2. More Than A Body, by Lindsay & Lexi Kite

Synopsis:

It is true that our culture places a high value on beauty. We begin receiving messages from as young as six years old that our health, happiness, and worthiness largely depend on howwe look, but More Than A Body offers a more accurate– and hopeful–vision. Drawing upon body image research, authors Lindsay and Lexie redefine beauty, and lay out an action plan that goes beyond “body positivity.” This work aims to free readers from the constraints of self-objectification (seeing oneself as an object to be admired, desired, and consumed), and help readers learn to appreciate and honor oneself beyond one’s physical appearance.

Who would benefit from reading it:

• Women and girls
• Parents
• Teachers and educators
• People who frequently body check, diet, and criticize their looks
• People who often feel self-conscious
• Individuals struggling with disordered eating
• People who feel stressed about their weight, body size, and appearance
• Wellness practitioners, health coaches, individuals in the weight loss industry

How it will help align your life:

This book will help you deprogram your beliefs about self-worth and beauty so that you can reunite with your whole, embodied self. Heal your body image and become more compassionate and loving towards yourself and others, while gaining unshakable confidence and freedom from fear of body-based judgement. Overcome critical thinking patterns that reduce your worth to your appearance and make you feel stressed, small, and unlovable. Develop media literacy skills and stop allowing distorted, unrealistic, and unhealthy images to inform your sense of self.

3. Sober Curious, by Ruby Warrington

Synopsis:

Sober Curious is a blend of personal narrative, expert interviews, and research that come together to explore questions like, “do I have a problem with alcohol?”; and “would my life be better without it?” Ruby Warrington’s story invites us to set shame and fear aside and get curious about life without drinking! Warrington initiates a long overdue conversation about “normal drinking,” social drinking, addiction, connection, and powerlessness. Like Holly Whitaker, author of Quit Like A Woman, Warrington rejects the idea that we have to admit powerlessness to alcohol in order to want (or need) to stop drinking it. And that we can connect with the power we have always had within when we stop covering it up with booze. Myths surrounding sober living (i.e. that life is boring and plain) are dispelled as Ruby shares stories of the pleasure, fun, and power she experienced as a result of imbibing less and less.

Who would benefit from reading it:

• Individuals who are interested in not drinking
• People who wonder if they have a problem with alcohol
• People who feel like alcohol is a problem, but do not consider themselves to be alcoholics

How it will help align your life:

Sober Curious serves as a great starting point for those who feel like alcohol is not serving them, but they are not quite sure what that means or what they want to do about it. Warrington offers you questions for self-reflection, ideas for exploring sobriety, and compelling research on the health benefits of an alcohol-less life.

4. Quit Like a Woman, by Holly Whitaker

Synopsis:

It’s normal to drink alcohol. But should it be? Quit Like A Woman is a groundbreaking work that examines the impact alcohol is having on women’s health, healing, and professional development. Holly Whitaker both revolutionizes the way we think about drinking–and not drinking–as well as provides a clear roadmap to cutting alcohol out of our lives. Most brilliantly, Holly’s story shines a light on the limitations of well-known recovery pathways like Alcoholics Anonymous, noting that the Twelve Steps was designed by Christian men to support Christian men, and fails to address the root of women’s alcohol-related problems. Holly puts forth a new approach to sober living that honors the feminine experience and acknowledges the role that sexism and racism have played in shaping women’s experience with substance use and abuse.

Who would benefit from reading it:

• Women who are a little more than sober curious
• Women who feel like alcohol is a problem, but do not identify as an alcoholic
• Women who want to stop drinking, but do not know how
• Health-oriented individuals
• Wellness practitioners
• Recovery/Sobriety coaches
• Therapists

How it will help align your life:

Holly’s journey to sobriety is soberingly relatable. Validating, inspiring, and educational, this book will relieve you of any shame or uncertainty you may feel about your alcohol consumption. Quit Like A Woman is a great book for women who know alcohol is not serving them and are (almost) ready to quit drinking. Holly offers women tools to create a more healthy, fulfilling, powerful life without the crutch of alcohol. You will find inspiration for building a community while sober; staying committed to the decision to not drink; having fun as an adult with other adults; and healing patterns of self-destruction that have prevented you from living up to your fullest potential.

5. Anatomy of Spirit, by Caroline Myss

Synopsis:

Anatomy of Spirit is written by an internationally acclaimed intuitive and is the culmination of fifteen years of research and experience in energy medicine. Dr. Myss beautifully relates the model of the body’s seven centers of spiritual and physical power to the ancient wisdom of three spiritual traditions–the Hindu chakras, the Christian sacraments, and the Kabbalah’s Tree of Life, all of which relate to the seven stages of spiritual growth individuals must go through to reach higher states of consciousness. Readers are offered the opportunity to better understand their own energy system, and are empowered to take responsibility for the creation of one’s own health and healing.

Who would benefit from reading it:

• Spiritually-minded people
• People suffering from chronic illnesses or health issues
• Individuals who want to take their healing into their own hands
• Individuals experiencing hopelessness or powerlessness
• Medical practitioners

How it will help align your life:

This book will enable you to stop looking to others to direct your health and healing and start trusting in yourself. Anatomy of Spirit teaches you how to facilitate spiritual growth and physical healing by tapping into your chakras and aligning your beliefs, thoughts, and actions with the seven sacred truths associated with each energy center. The healing framework outlined by Myss gives readers a simple yet powerful reference point for focusing the mind, body, and spirit back to the divine, evaluating losses of power, and overcoming physical and emotional obstacles.

6. Mary Magdalene Revealed, by Meggan Watterson

Synopsis:

Mary Magdalene Revealed offers a vastly different set of teachings from those we traditionally associated with Christianity. This is the gospel women have been waiting for. Watterson walks readers through Mary’s radical teachings, which embrace the human experience, reject the idea of sin in favor of a more compassionate answer to our missteps, and offer a guide to connecting with the limitlessness of our soul by turning inward. Mary’s gospel heals readers from the ideas that we must submit to an authority outside of ourselves to connect with the love of the divine, and enables us to speak directly to God through meditation and prayer. Watterson literally exhumes Mary’s gospel from the tombs where they were hidden, granting readers access to the transformative knowledge that we are more like Jesus than we are different, and that the true path to spiritual enlightenment is by remembering our divine nature again and again.

Who would benefit from reading it:

• People looking to find femininity in God
• People who identify as queer
• Individuals with Catholic/Christian wounds
• People who no longer identify with the Christian/Catholic church, but desire a connection to a higher power
• People struggling with guilt, shame, and fear
• Spiritually-minded people

How it will help align your life:

This book has the potential to heal religious wounds that run deep, as well as provide women and queer folk with a sense of belonging when it comes to faith and divinity. Mary’s gospel, and Watterson’s interpretation of it, releases readers from the need to rely on priests for forgiveness, the bible for rules, and church to connect with the Divine and welcomes them home to the divine power and love within. Mary Magdalene Revealed empowers all human beings to look to themselves for answers and guidance, and encourages a more compassionate view of our experience as limitless souls trying to figure out the human experience.

7. The F*ck It Diet, by Caroline Dooner

Synopsis:

The F*ck It Diet is a hilarious and scientifically sound narrative that unpacks the inherent flaws in dieting and diet culture. Dooner offers a path to healing one’s physical, emotional, and mental relationship with food that is so simple it feels counterintuitive. This book will enable you to get out of survival mode, reclaim your power over food, and get in tune with what your body actually likes, wants, and needs. Realize that the real power lies in eating whatever the f*ck you want, not in eating as little as possible.

Who would benefit from reading it:

• People who chronically or frequently diet
• People who have a stressful relationship with food
• People who feel powerless to junk food
• People who struggle with binging, purging, and/or restricting

How it will help align your life:

Break free of the vicious cycle of weight loss and weight gain by calling into question your beliefs about the benefit of maintaining a certain weight and body size. Learn to release food-guilt and start trusting yourself to make food choices that support your highest good (with the understanding that your highest good might include the foods your diets said were “bad”). Honor your appetite without fear of losing control, ruining your health, or being viewed as lazy, undisciplined, or weak. The F*ck It Diet will ultimately help you create a relationship with food that is pleasurable, shameless, and easy, giving you more energy and time to spend simply living your life.