Whether you’re looking to better understand your brain chemicals, exercise without injury or stop fretting about what others think or do, there’s a new book for that.
Here are three must-read self-improvement tomes to check out in the new year.
The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About
Mel Robbins (Hay House, out now)
The latest from the phenomenally popular — 7.1 million Instagram followers, 3.2 million YouTube subscribers — podcast host and guru is already a #1 New York Times bestseller. It espouses a simple philosophy: Stop trying to change and control other people or make them happy and focus on yourself and what you can control. “This shift will change everything,” writes Robbins. “Stop wasting your energy . . . The more you let other people live their lives, the better your life gets. And, the more you let people be who they are, or feel what they feel, or think what they think, the better your relationships will be.”
The DOSE Effect: Optimize Your Brain and Body By Boosting Your Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins
TJ Power (Dey Street Books; Jan. 21)
Better understanding what the four key brain chemicals do and what leads them to rise and fall, Power asserts, can help us make significant positive changes in our lives and daily habits “You need to start listening,” writes the neuroscientist. “Listening to how your daily behaviors are making your brain and body feel.” The book is packed with actionable tips for boosting the various chemicals. Increase dopamine by putting down your phone and opening up an actual book. Focus on increasing your oxytocin levels — and feelings of connection — with physical touch, time in nature and, yet again, time off your phone. Get more sleep, protein and sunlight to boost serotonin levels. Learn to activate your endorphins with exercise, a sauna or music.
Born to Walk: The Broken Promises of the Running Boom
Mark Sisson with Brad Kearns (Primal Blueprint Publishing; Jan. 21)
In recent decades, everyone from Oprah Winfrey and Pamela Anderson to that guy you know from work has run a marathon. The 2011 bestseller “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” helped fuel the obsession, looking at how the human body is supposedly suited to distance running. But Sisson, a former marathoner and the founder of the popular Primal Kitchen health foods, contends that the vast majority of humans aren’t really built for pounding out 40 miles a week — and would be “fitter, leaner, healthier, and happier” if they walked more and ran less. He writes that moderate exercise like walking is actually more effective than strenuous activity for burning fat and offers up ideas for getting in more steps.
