If you’re after a little reprieve from the colossal-sized curveball that’s been the last 12 months (dw, same), allow us to bring 8 books for healing and self-empowerment to your attention.
As curated by the Channel Void team, these reads will force you to dig deep into your subconscious. To ask the uncomfortable (but all-important) truths: What stirs your soul? Where can you vibe higher? Have you been living in line with your most authentic self?
Exploring everything from relationship ruts to waning self-determination, consider this list a roadmap to radical expansion.
CHRIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Not really a self-help book, this is a memoir that shares the author’s revelation that she was living a life of longing and changes her life dramatically to live her ‘true self’, listening to her inner voice. Glennon discovers true love, quite by surprise and follows that love, making dramatic changes in her world. This inspiring book challenges you to think about the way you are living your own life, and to be brave to live to a wild and true life – to live ‘untamed’ – and it does through a great honest story of one woman’s journey – it’s incredibly relatable and a read that stays with you.
QUIN, SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
Reading this book was a massive A HA! moment in my life so far. It was all the philosophies I was beginning to explore and embody, written out in front of me, in the most concise and practical way. Absolute validation and reassurance on my journey of self-betterment. It’s one of the only (maybe even the only) self-help books I’ve read that flipped my perspective 180 degrees and has stayed with me in my experience of life, every single day, since. I would highly recommend reading it with a buddy, too. I read it with my best friend, and 5 years later we are still referring to Susan’s concepts almost every time we debrief on an emotional or physical experience.
CARLEY, MEDIA AND PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein
I was working in the Maldives as a musician in early 2019. It was a last-minute opportunity that was presented to me during a very weird ‘I’m twenty-something and feeling little lost’ phase of life, lacking much faith and direction.
I remember clearly, sitting on this amazing island in the middle of the Indian Ocean thinking, how did I get here, I don’t deserve this, and what am I going to do next? I picked up The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Berstein – and it encapsulated me straight away, it was such impeccable timing.
This book teaches you how to transform ‘fear into faith’ by trusting the universe, and speaking to it – whether you identify it as a god, and sublime energy, or anything in-between. It’s written in a way that appeals to all people with different spiritual backgrounds.
My favourite thing about this book is that Gabrielle offers affirmations in every chapter. It’s a guide to help you unleash the presence of your power, connection to the earth and her energy through manifestation and faith. She teaches you how to forgive yourself and others; a way to look at certain situations or conflicts – “I let go of the shadow of the past, by seeing someone for the first time, with the eyes of love…”. (saying it aloud, eyes close, connection with the energy of the earth).
Feeling confused and undeserving of my path during that time, this book changed my mindset completely. It taught me how to trust and love myself, and understand that the Universe ‘has my back’ by simply having faith in it, with all its extraordinary energy.
“The moment I realign with love, a clear direction is presented to me”.
ODETTE, CV CO-FOUNDER
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
This book felt like a deep uncovering and reckoning for my relationship and some of the uninformed expectations I have inherited from movies, books and generally how I perceived a relationship should look and feel. I gained peace and perspective and a better understanding of the way passion and desire can dissipate as we are magnetised towards one individual.
Two quotes absolutely rocked me:
“Today, we turn to one person to provide what an entire village once did: a sense of grounding, meaning, and continuity. At the same time, we expect our committed relationships to be romantic as well as emotionally and sexually fulfilling. Is it any wonder that so many relationships crumble under the weight of it all?”
The other quote that made me smile with the contradiction of love and desire. “Love enjoys knowing everything about you; desire needs mystery. Love likes to shrink the distance that exists between me and you, while desire is energized by it.”
SOPH, WRITER & CONTENT CREATOR
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
I picked it up at a time when The Power of Now was running rampant in my social circles and I was experiencing immense frustration that I couldn’t connect with the pages as everyone else was. Instead, I stumbled across The Untethered Soul on a trip to the bookstore and found instant comfort in its approachability and inspiration to transmute anxiety into self-determination. I often find myself turning back to it when I need guidance. It’s a truly timeless and omnipotent read, some eternally governing words being: “You will not be able to solve anything outside until you own how the situation affects you inside.”
LUCA, STAFF WRITER
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins
Ok, so this book might be the most bro-y/ Bro Jogan/ testosterone-fueled motivation stories told, but hear me out. My Mum is one of the original surfer hippies that moved to Byron Bay in the late ’70s, I have been spoon-fed alternative ways of manifesting from birth, so basically, some good ol’ Drill Sergeant motivation is actually kinda a breath of fresh air. David Goggins is an ex-Navy seal that uses his traumatic upbringing as fuel to get him through some of the most mentally and physically stressful things you can do on this planet. From running the hardest ultra-marathon on earth, doing the soul-crushing Navy Seal Buds training multiple times, to even just facing challenging relationships in his life, David Goggins is purely just in Bro Jogan terminology, A Machine. This book really pushed me in both my creative workflow and my physical health journey, I recommend it to anyone wanting a “no excuses” guide to pushing your limits.
ASH, HEAD OF STRATEGY
Renegade Beauty by Nadine Artemis
This book is magic.
Renegade Beauty is an all-encompassing resource on how to leverage nature’s elements to revive the body & soul, so our natural, inherent beauty shines through. Nadine, writes with humour & flair, touching on the history & philosophy of ‘beauty’ while shedding light on the industry’s commerciality and ethics. She offers poetic advice around navigating change, with a laundry list of DIY’s to support you in reclaiming pureness and sovereignty across your day-to-day self-care routine.
To wrap up, Renegade Beauty is all nourishing, heroeing holistic health practices (supported by science and ancient traditions) that will no doubt boost your overall vitality and redefine your definition of what ‘beauty’ even is.
LUCY, HEAD OF EDITORIAL
First We Make The Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson
To caveat: this isn’t a ‘healing’ book in the traditional sense of the word. It didn’t provide me with practical tips or science-backed advice on how to ease my crippling anxiety. But it was healing for my soul. By that I mean, it was the first time I realised that someone else really got me. That for years, they’d been stuck in the same stress spin-cycle. Feeling too sensitive, too prickly and completely and utterly at the mercy of the (often irrational) thoughts in their head. That becoming physically ill with nerves in the middle of a date (what if he tries to kiss me? Who will pay the bill?) wasn’t a fatal character flaw. I wasn’t born broken. My anxiety, as it turns out, is something to celebrate. Something I can use to my advantage. A beast I can make beautiful.
Prose that particularly piqued my interest:
“We yearned our way to becoming human. We yearned our way out of our mum’s womb to oxygenated life. It’s painful, we scream as we push forward into it.”
