Check It Out:

In today’s fast-paced society, stress is surprisingly common. Unfortunately, stress is often viewed as a “badge of honor” as though the more we juggle in our lives, the more it exemplifies our ability to cope with life. That may be the case, but left unchecked, stress can lead to anger, hostility and a decreased enjoyment of life. It can have many causes, such as strained work environments and relationships. Here are some books that address ways in which we can we reduce our stress levels.

“The Superstress Solution: Reclaim Your Ability to Relax, Repair Your Body, and Love Your Life” by Dr. Roberta A. Lee: Lee shows you how you can improve stress resistance and resilience by nourishing your body, detoxing your system, sleeping well, exercising and retraining your mind to access a sense of peace. The book explains how types of stress affect your body and offers stress busters such as meditation, breathing, affirmations, massage and calming activities. She also offers advice on how nutrition plays a large role in well-being.

“Exploring Intimacy: Cultivating Healthy Relationships Through Insight and Intuition” by Suzann Panek Robins: This book is designed to aid readers in creating closer and more rewarding relationships in all areas of their lives through self-awareness and intuitive means without producing the negative triggers of past experiences. Robins explores various models for psychological growth and discusses our culture’s diverse alternative thinking.

“Beauty and the Soul: The Extraordinary Power of Everyday Beauty to Heal Your Life” by Piero Ferrucci: Drawing from Ferrucci’s experience as a psychotherapist in academic and scientific studies, he focuses on how beauty and living an aesthetic life can instill confidence, improve illness and provide insight into the futility of materialism and war. People often race around harried, distracted and worried. In the process, we miss the beauty surrounding us. Ferrucci shows the reader how different kinds of beauty complement and complete our lives in different ways and thus increase the capacity for empathy and connection to the world.

“In Good Times & Bad: Strengthening Your Relationship When the Going Gets Tough and the Money Gets Tight” by M. Gary Neuman & Melisa Neuman: This husband-and-wife team offers a prescriptive program that shows you how to talk to your partner about money problems without letting fear and anger get in your way. The reader will learn what money means to you and your partner, how to discuss money, and learn how to meet the family’s needs while preparing for the future.

“Live a Little! Breaking the Rules That Won’t Break Your Health” By Susan M. Love, M.D. & Alice D. Domar, Ph.D.: It is easy to berate ourselves for not getting enough exercise, adequate sleep and healthy nutrition. But in this resource, the authors encourage us to relax a little and recognize that the prescribed health “rules” are often sources of unhealthy stress and guilt.

Susan Love and Alice Domar encourage us to lower our expectations and learn to be healthy without creating such high expectations of how to obtain “perfect” health.

If you’re feeling stressed out, take a deep breath and look at ways to reduce your anxiety (which may include a book on this topic from the Newport Beach Public Library) and keep this quotation in mind: “Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.” — Natalie Goldberg, author of “Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life.”

CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public Library. All titles may be reserved from home or office computers by accessing the catalog at www.newportbeachlibrary.org. For more information on the Central Library or any of the branches, please contact the Newport Beach Public Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2.