Books That Supported Me Through Depression and Change
Books That Carried Me Through Darkness
These books guided me through life’s darkest moments, offering presence and quiet support.
This post shares the books that supported me during a period of profound unravelling — the unexpected end of my relationship, the sudden emergence of neurological symptoms, and a descent into depression, which I’ve written about here and in other posts.
During that time, these books on presence, awareness, and inner freedom became quiet companions when it felt impossible to find any light at the end of the tunnel.
I’ve come to see these books not as teachers standing above me, but as fellow travellers — voices walking alongside me while I found my footing again.
These weren’t books I read casually or just once. Some I returned to repeatedly. Others appeared at precisely the moment I needed them, offering solace when my inner world felt fragile.
I write this blog post to those of you who may need a helping hand, the way I did. Perhaps a sentence, a paragraph, or even a single idea might arrive at just the right moment and settle into your psyche in a way that supports you.
Pieces of the Whole
What I’ve learned is that there isn’t one book, one teaching, one breathwork technique, one yoga technique…. that will transform you.
Growth comes from putting the pieces together — one sentence from one author, one insight from another. Sometimes a thought resonates and sticks; other times it lies dormant until another piece clicks into place.
For me, this constant reshaping, learning, and unravelling is how spiritual development really happens — rarely in a single, dramatic “aha” moment.
It’s true that you ‘have to do the work’, and sometimes that work is really hard.
But I have to be honest: I reached a point so low that I fear ever going back there. For me, working on myself in this way isn’t a one-time effort to climb out of a hole — it’s an ongoing practice, a life-long path that hopefully equips me with tools to navigate the challenges life inevitably brings.
As Liz Gilbert says – we’re all on Earth School, just trying to figure things out the best we can and tools from wise souls in books and wherever else we may find them, helps us on our way help guide us along the way.
Also just as a note: by “spiritual,” I don’t mean a belief in some unknown entity or adherence to a religion. For me, it’s a practice of awareness — learning to notice my thoughts, feelings, and patterns, and cultivating presence and inner freedom.
Mind-Body Books that changed how I viewed living with a chronic illness
I’ve also written a separate post about the mind-body books that changed how I view living with a chronic health condition, particularly when doctors couldn’t give me answers.
➡️You can read 6 Mind–Body Books That Changed How I Live With Chronic Illness and FND here.
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Books That Carried Me Through Darkness
This isn’t a definitive list of spiritual reading. It’s a personal one — shaped by experience, illness, depression, and long periods of not knowing who I was becoming.
I’ve listed these books in the order they came into my life.
A New Earth: Awakening to your Life’s Purpose – by Eckhart Tolle
I first read A New Earth several years ago, before my health and inner life entered their most difficult chapters. Looking back, it became the foundation of much of my spiritual understanding — particularly around ego, presence, and the freedom that comes from stepping out of compulsive thought.
It helped me see how my ego loved to pull me into repetitive negative thinking, and how my “pain body” could latch onto old wounds and emotional pain, keeping me stuck in cycles of suffering that felt impossible to escape.
A New Earth is a book I returned to multiple times, each reading meeting me differently depending on where I was in life. Each time, I gained a deeper awareness of how my mind and emotions operate, and of how presence can quietly dissolve the grip of old patterns.
It also led me into Eckhart Tolle’s meditations and eventually into a Teacher of Presence course, where intellectual insight began to settle more deeply into lived experience.
I also read The Power of Now, which reinforced many of the ideas presented in A New Earth (even though it was written earlier). It’s less a book to “finish” and more one to dip into — a gentle reminder, again and again, that life is only ever happening in this moment, not in the stories the mind endlessly replays.
Personally, I find myself preferring A New Earth, though I’m not entirely sure why — perhaps its depth and way of exploring the ego simply resonates more with me.
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself –by Michael A. Singer
The Untethered Soul is one of those rare books that manages to be both profound and extremely accessible. Michael Singer’s writing is clear, practical, and gently disarming (as are his podcasts).
Like Eckhart Tolle, he invites us to witness our thoughts and emotions rather than identify with them. However, Michael Singer’s writing is much easier to grasp, making The Untethered Soul a great starting point for anyone new to this way of being.
In many ways, Singer helped me really absorb and live Eckhart’s teachings, making them feel more practical and accessible in everyday life.
Many of his practical exercises genuinely work because they shift the relationship you have with inner experience.
During some of my darkest periods of depression, when even basic functioning felt overwhelming, listening to Michael Singer’s talks or dipping into his book felt like medicine. I didn’t need to fix myself or understand everything. I just needed a voice reminding me that I was not the storm passing through – that I was still in there.
One practice from Michael Singer’s work that really worked for me was using a simple mantra when thoughts became intrusive. When my mind kept circling around my ex partner, repeating conversations and imagining outcomes, this technique became a form of protection.
The idea was simple: introduce a simple mantra (mine was sa ta na ma) and repeat it until the mental noise softened. It created space, bringing awareness to what my mind was doing and interrupting rumination. Even in the most relentless moments, this small practice helped me step out of the story and back into the present — simple, but effective.
This is just one example of how simple, but effective Michael Singer’s advice is.
📖The Untethered Soul on BookShop
📖 The Untethered Soul on Amazon
Micheal Singer Podcast on Sounds True
Micheal Singer’s Podcast, on Sounds Trues is also a great resource. Michael Singer’s podcast on Sounds True is also a wonderful resource. At times it can feel repetitive — the same core message repeated — but often that’s exactly what you need to hear.
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times – by Pema Chödrön
Pema Chödrön’s When Things Fall Apart arrived as a steady, compassionate voice.
This book speaks directly to moments of groundlessness — when familiar structures collapse and there is no clear way forward. Her teachings on staying present with discomfort, fear, and uncertainty helped soften my instinct to fix or escape difficult emotions.
What I appreciated most was the gentleness of her voice. There is no pressure to be resilient or spiritually “advanced.” Instead, there is an invitation to stay, to soften, and to meet experience as it is.
In moments when I felt broken or inadequate, this book reminded me that falling apart can be part of becoming more real, not less.
📖When Things Fall Apart on BookShop
📖 When Things Fall Apart on Amazon
Descent & Rising: Women’s Stories & the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth – by Carly Mountain
Carly Mountain’s Descent and Rising deserves a special mention. Using the myth of Inanna, she charts the archetypal journey many women move through — a descent into darkness, loss, or collapse, followed (eventually) by a rising that is quieter, wiser, and more embodied.
This book became a kind of scaffolding for me — a gentle guide to understanding what was happening as I fell.
What still strikes me is that I read it before I descended fully into darkness. Even then, I sensed, somewhere deep and wordless, that this was my path. When the descent later arrived, I recognised it. That recognition didn’t make the experience easier, but it gave me a thread of comfort — a quiet reminder that this journey was shared by many women. Even when I doubted I would ever rise out of my depression, it offered hope.
I later reread Descent and Rising, and this time the pages and practices felt like a hand reaching out to me. I could see myself reflected in the journey — in the falling, the rising, and the soft, steady wisdom that comes after. It was as if Carly’s words were quietly holding me, reminding me I was not alone.
📖Descent and Rising on BookShop
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself (and accompanying meditations) by Joe Dispenza
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself came much more recently and was important for me because it showed how our awareness connects with the body and nervous system in a clear, practical way.
What I found most helpful was the focus on practice, not just understanding ideas. The meditations that come with the book give simple ways to notice old thought patterns, pause automatic emotional reactions, and gently try out new ways of being. Over time, this helped me feel more at home in my own body — less unpredictable and fragile, and more like something I could work with and listen to.
This book also led me naturally to You Are the Placebo, which I mentioned in a previous blog post on books that helped me live with chronic illness. Together, they helped me explore how belief, attention, and expectation affect our nervous system — not magically, but in ways we can feel and notice, step by step.
For me, Dispenza’s work isn’t about “positive thinking.” It’s about seeing how the self can get stuck in habits, and how real change often starts quietly inside, long before anything around us seems to change.
Joe Dispenza’s Meditations – I love his meditations and I totally recommend them. They’re free on Spotify.
📖Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself on BookShop
📖Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself on Amazon
Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect With the Present, and Expand the Future – by Yung Pueblo
Lighter explores much of the same inner territory as Tolle and Singer — awareness, healing, responsibility, and letting go — but in a way that feels modern, distilled, and emotionally accessible.
Written in short reflections, this was a book I could return to when concentration was low and emotional fatigue was high. I could open it anywhere, read a page or two, and feel something gently settle.
Rather than asking for transformation, Lighter offers release — a reminder that healing can be quiet, incremental, and kind.
All the Way to the River – by Elizabeth Gilbert
More recently, I read Liz Gilbert’s All the Way to the River, and it struck me in a completely different way to the other books mentioned.
Early in 2025, I had already begun to realise that I needed to be consciously single. I’d been in and out of relationships all of my adult life and I figured it was really time for a break!
In All the Way to the River Liz’s honest reflections on her own depression, love addiction and decision to embrace singlehood hit me straight in the heart.
As I read, I found myself nodding again and again at how I had spent so much of my adult life seeking validation from men, often at the expense of myself. Liz’s words felt like a mirror — and a release. I kept nodding big yesses!
Choosing to step fully into being single has over the year been a journey in itself – exhilarating, like taking a deep, cleansing breath after holding it for far too long.
📖All the Way to the River on BookShop
📖All the Way to the River on Amazon
Liz Gilberts – Letters From Love
Not a book, but a practice.
If you’re not familiar with Liz’s Substack, Letters from Love, I highly recommend dipping in.
Liz frequently says that this is the kindest most loving community on the internet, and think she might be right.
Letters from Love is a weekly newsletter and practice launched by Elizabeth Gilbert on Substack, built around her long‑standing daily habit of writing “letters from love” to herself.
Each week, Liz shares a letter, via video, she has written from a place of unconditional love — beginning with the prompt “Dear Love, what would you have me know today?”
The idea is that instead of writing from the everyday thinking mind, you write from the perspective of Love itself — whether that’s understood as the universe, God, a higher power, or your own deepest self. This practice encourages self‑kindness, inner guidance, and emotional support in a way that can be both healing and profoundly grounding.
Liz’s letters are beautiful and deeply personal, opening wide to the truth of experience. She doesn’t shy away from what is real, offering insights that are raw, honest, and often exactly what you need to hear.
I look forward to receiving her letter from love every Sunday.
A Closing Reflection
There are so many spiritual books out there, and I know I’ll continue to discover more over time. But these are the ones that stayed with me — the books I reached for when I had very little energy, and the ones that helped me make sense of experiences that couldn’t be fixed, rushed, or explained away.
I don’t see these books as one-time answers. To me, they are ongoing reminders of how to return to presence when the mind is noisy, and gentle anchors when life feels uncertain.
If any of these books have offered you comfort — or if there are others you return to in difficult seasons — I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Your experiences might be the very words someone else needs to read today.
Blogs in the making
Coming soon: wellbeing places for midlife travellers, interviews with solo travellers who have chronic health issues & much more…
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6 Mind–Body Books That Changed How I Live With Chronic Illness and FND
Travelling Solo with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND): From Fear to Freedom
My descent into darkness and healing
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Orchids to Olives
Journeys of self-discovery, wisdom, healing and friendship
