The best books for triumphing over stress and long term fatigue

I read this easy-to-read book a long time ago, and it still has a positive influence on my life. Dr. Wayne Dyer gently explains the uselessness of negative thoughts such as guilt. He encourages self-empowerment by letting go of seeking the approval of others or pleasing people. 

By stepping away from these exhausting, restrictive, and destructive negative thoughts, the reader learns that they can break free to be the real version of themselves, embracing all the wonders that life has to offer and creating the best version of themselves. 

Dr Dyer is keen to encourage self-actualization, which is a psychological term whereby the reader achieves their full potential. Because of this book, I learned that I could be so much more than I ever believed I could, and I am.  

I found this book absolutely fascinating. As a medical herbalist, I saw many people with chronic fatigue or burnout, and in those days, no one really understood why people were becoming so extremely tired for seemingly no particular reason.

Dr James Wilson was one of the first experts to link stress, adrenal fatigue, and long-term fatigue, and this was such a lightbulb moment for me and the way I helped people recover from chronic fatigue. 

In this book, he lists the symptoms of adrenal fatigue, which may appear to be vague. However, in the context of this book, where he describes adrenal fatigue, he educates us about the link between stress and insidious declining health.

Biologist Bruce Lipton is one of my favorite scientists. This book is built on a moment when he was in his laboratory growing stem cells in petri dishes, when one day, he made a fascinating discovery. It is not the genes that determine the outcome of the cells but the environment. 

Extrapolating that to the whole human being, the book clearly outlines that our thoughts create our health outcomes. The environment in which our cells are bathed, as explained by Dr Lipton, is our blood, the chemistry of which is determined by our emotional state, which, in turn, is controlled by our thoughts. 

His overriding message is that we can use our minds to change the environment of our bodies, our health, and thus our entire life experience. I love Bruce Lipton because of his cheerful and encouraging message that we are empowered to change our lives for the better. 

This is an excellent herbal which I have referred to over and over again. It outlines a wide range of adaptogenic herbs and which body systems they are particularly appropriate for. Adaptogenic herbs is a term used by herbalists to describe a class of herbs that helps us to adapt to stressful times in our lives by improving our stamina, mental and physical resilience, and immune systems.

These herbs can have positive effects on our liver, balance our hormonal levels, restore adrenal glands, calm the nervous system, and strengthen the immune system. All of these actions are absolutely relevant for the recovery from stress and fatigue. 

This was a fascinating read. I love traveling, especially to places where the Western world has had less impact, so this book appealed to me. Having traveled widely, adventurer and expedition leader Dan Buettner set out to discover the areas of the world where people lived longer and more healthily than our average modern human being. 

On a map of the world, he circled five “longevity hotspot” areas in blue, which became known as The Blue Zones. While chronic disease is becoming increasingly common in the developed world, these Blue Zones communities experience low rates of chronic disease and live in good health, easily into their 90’s and even over 100 years. He says that genetics only accounts for about 20–30% of our longevity and ability to live well. The rest is determined by our lifestyle and our diet.

In this wonderful book, he discusses the lifestyles and choices made by the people living in these Blue Zones and encourages us to adopt as many of these practices as we can so that we, too, may live long, strong, and happy lives.