Fans pick 100 books like Enlightened Parenting

By Meryl Davids Landau,

Here are 100 books that Enlightened Parenting fans have personally recommended if you like Enlightened Parenting. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Spirit Babies: How to Communicate with the Child You're Meant to Have

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Author Of The Cosmic Whispered Verses of Awakened Motherhood

From my list on books for spiritual mothers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I wear many hats in my life, but none matter as much as the hat: mama. As a clairaudient medium who works first-hand with mothers on their spiritual journeys, I feel as though I know what spiritually conscious parents hope to find and be moved by in the books they read because I know what my spirit needs during this wild and overwhelming adventure called motherhood. It can be an isolating path to walk, and these books not only felt like a helping hand during the rockiest moments but also like a warm hug when I needed it most. 

Claudia's book list on books for spiritual mothers

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Why did Claudia love this book?

This book catapulted me into a deep dive into all the spiritual aspects of the motherhood journey and brought out the miracle-making goddess within me!

I found myself wholly moved and eager to dive into learning to communicate with my unborn child. I read it while pregnant, but I wish I had found it earlier; it would have helped me navigate this new adventure with so much more confidence and feel even more spiritually connected during pregnancy.

This book will absolutely change your life, whether you want to conceive, are pregnant, or are already a mother. 

By Walter Makichen,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Spirit Babies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Am I Meant to Become a Parent? Why Can’t I Conceive?
What Is My Unborn Child Trying to Tell Me?

In this reassuring, supportive, and accessible book, leading clairvoyant and medium Walter Makichen offers guidance to prospective parents eager to create a warm, nurturing environment for their soon-to-be-conceived-or-born children. Applying the wisdom and insights he has gained through twenty years of communicating with these spirit babies, Makichen helps you resolve issues about starting a family…actively participate in the psychic process of creating a child…and move past your worries and fears about becoming parents. From the seven essential chakras that link…


Book cover of Sacred Pregnancy: A Loving Guide and Journal for Expectant Moms

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Author Of The Cosmic Whispered Verses of Awakened Motherhood

From my list on books for spiritual mothers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I wear many hats in my life, but none matter as much as the hat: mama. As a clairaudient medium who works first-hand with mothers on their spiritual journeys, I feel as though I know what spiritually conscious parents hope to find and be moved by in the books they read because I know what my spirit needs during this wild and overwhelming adventure called motherhood. It can be an isolating path to walk, and these books not only felt like a helping hand during the rockiest moments but also like a warm hug when I needed it most. 

Claudia's book list on books for spiritual mothers

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Why did Claudia love this book?

This was the very first spiritual motherhood book I found shortly after discovering I was pregnant and, let me tell you, I’m glad it was this book!

Sacred Pregnancy is divided into weeks. The experience is like consuming profound aphorisms, ideas, and reflective journaling activities that will nourish both you - fatigued and very pregnant mama - and the child you will be raising very soon.

Not only did I become excited about every new week along my pregnancy journey, I looked forward to every new week diving into this book, with its informative and transformative content. I loved it so much that I bought the corresponding oracle deck to continue my weekly bonding with my unborn child. 

By Anni Daulter, Elena Rego (photographer), Alexandra DeFurio (photographer) , Cristy Nielson (photographer)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sacred Pregnancy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In today's western cultures, the typical pregnancy focuses on the baby to the exclusion of the woman herself, so that the entire experience has become more about preparing for the baby's arrival than looking closely at oneself to prepare emotionally for all of the changes that creating a new life brings. Sacred Pregnancy was written to help the pregnant woman journey within herself to prepare for the birth of her baby.

Sacred Pregnancy is a gorgeous four-color book especially created for mothers-to-be to reflect on the many personal milestones of the full gestation period of a pregnancy. With beautiful professional…


Book cover of Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony Amidst the Chaos for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Author Of The Cosmic Whispered Verses of Awakened Motherhood

From my list on books for spiritual mothers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I wear many hats in my life, but none matter as much as the hat: mama. As a clairaudient medium who works first-hand with mothers on their spiritual journeys, I feel as though I know what spiritually conscious parents hope to find and be moved by in the books they read because I know what my spirit needs during this wild and overwhelming adventure called motherhood. It can be an isolating path to walk, and these books not only felt like a helping hand during the rockiest moments but also like a warm hug when I needed it most. 

Claudia's book list on books for spiritual mothers

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Why did Claudia love this book?

From the first page of this book, it feels like I’m having coffee with a wise mama friend, and we are discussing all the beautiful aspects of the motherhood journey that you don’t seem to hear or read about anywhere else.

Gaddis is not only honest and medically accurate in a lot of what she shares, but as a doula, she comes from a place of empathetic understanding and compassion and weaves this book with humour, joy, and softness you cannot quite explain.

It is the perfect read to settle the spirit of a new mother in your life or your pregnant bestie who seems to be overwhelmed by the process. It certainly calmed many of my own worries!

By Bailey Gaddis,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Feng Shui Mommy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Follow the Feng Shui path to motherhood

Feng Shui Pregnancy: Pregnancy and impending motherhood serve up a confusing cocktail of heroic strength and terrifying vulnerability. Our culture has seized on the “vulnerability” part of the pregnancy experience and tends to reinforce a pregnant woman’s insecurities instead of encouraging her to embrace this most natural time and trust her body, her intuition, and her own mind. Feng Shui Mommy takes a different approach, helping you build your own unique, epic journey to motherhood.

Helpful guidance through all four trimesters of your pregnancy: It’s about supporting her while she shores up her…


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Book cover of Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did

Raising an Entrepreneur By Margot Machol Bisnow,

This book shakes longstanding assumptions of parenting.

Through 99 stories of people who are now changing the world, it shows how to raise creative, confident, resilient children who are filled with joy and purpose. Based on interviews with top entrepreneurs and their parents, it guides you to help your children…

Book cover of Little Stories of Your Life: Find Your Voice, Share Your World and Tell Your Story

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Author Of The Cosmic Whispered Verses of Awakened Motherhood

From my list on books for spiritual mothers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I wear many hats in my life, but none matter as much as the hat: mama. As a clairaudient medium who works first-hand with mothers on their spiritual journeys, I feel as though I know what spiritually conscious parents hope to find and be moved by in the books they read because I know what my spirit needs during this wild and overwhelming adventure called motherhood. It can be an isolating path to walk, and these books not only felt like a helping hand during the rockiest moments but also like a warm hug when I needed it most. 

Claudia's book list on books for spiritual mothers

Claudia Amendola Alzraa Why did Claudia love this book?

This is not even a motherhood-focused book, but it absolutely had to make this list. It completely transformed my motherhood journey. It helped me find my new identity in motherhood. It allowed me to recognize that I have stories to tell - about my experience as a mother and also about myself separate from motherhood.

It allowed me to take life a little slower and be more intentional and mindful in my living and parenting. It’s essentially what moved me to start writing my poetry book in the first place. It helped illuminate my life in a way I never noticed before. I am a better mother because of this book. 

By Laura Pashby,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Little Stories of Your Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Embrace the power of storytelling with Little Stories of Your Life. Start telling your own story, find your creative self and be more mindful.

Combining the wellbeing benefits of mindfulness, creativity and daily photography, this book shows you how to use words and photographs to capture precious little moments and how to share these in order to connect with others.

Each chapter explores the different ways you can tell your own stories, considers why you might choose to tell them and helps you to create a patchwork of tiny tales about your life, however small they might be. Throughout the…


Book cover of Bent: How Yoga Saved My Ass

Meryl Davids Landau Author Of Warrior Won

From my list on conveying yoga’s deep teachings.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an award-winning author of novels and magazine articles. You can find my articles—many on mind-body and spiritual topics—in Oprah magazine, Prevention, National Geographic, and more. I started doing yoga back in my twenties when a woman almost-literally floated by me at the gym. When someone said she was the yoga teacher, I got off the spin bike and followed her into the class. I’m now a certified yoga teacher and longtime meditator. I’ve studied many classic yoga treatises, but it’s so much more fun to read—and to write—books that deliver yoga’s deep philosophies in a lighthearted, easily digestible way. 

Meryl's book list on conveying yoga’s deep teachings

Meryl Davids Landau Why did Meryl love this book?

This little memoir (some 200 postcard-size pages) packs so much yoga punch.

Clendenin goes through a lot of bad stuff—a lifelong drinking problem, the death of a relative, a life-altering medical diagnosis—but she relays it all in such a fun, girlfriendy way you can’t help but cheer her on.

Her saving grace is the yoga teacher training she begins as the book does, which carries her through the awful life events. My favorite is the way she summarizes and modernizes the four parts of the classic—and very obtuse—Yoga Sutras (e.g., one take: “don’t let that nasty ego tell you who you aren’t”).

By Anne Clendening,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bent as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“It was nothing at first. Just a little twitch. My left ring finger was twitching, slowly, almost languidly, the way fishing line does when you’ve hooked something without any strength. Like a baby perch. I hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet.
 
My first thought: Stress?
 
(Nope, think again)”
 
And here begins a journey that Anne Clendening never saw coming, tried to deny, avoid, postpone and otherwise reject. After all, how does a dark L.A. hippy chick who swore off booze at 22 fit an early onset Parkinson's diagnosis into a life of bartending in Hollywood rock clubs and yoga?…


Book cover of Yoga Bitch: One Woman's Quest to Conquer Skepticism, Cynicism, and Cigarettes on the Path to  Enlightenment

Meryl Davids Landau Author Of Warrior Won

From my list on conveying yoga’s deep teachings.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an award-winning author of novels and magazine articles. You can find my articles—many on mind-body and spiritual topics—in Oprah magazine, Prevention, National Geographic, and more. I started doing yoga back in my twenties when a woman almost-literally floated by me at the gym. When someone said she was the yoga teacher, I got off the spin bike and followed her into the class. I’m now a certified yoga teacher and longtime meditator. I’ve studied many classic yoga treatises, but it’s so much more fun to read—and to write—books that deliver yoga’s deep philosophies in a lighthearted, easily digestible way. 

Meryl's book list on conveying yoga’s deep teachings

Meryl Davids Landau Why did Meryl love this book?

This spunky yoga memoir came out more than a decade ago (the same time as my first women’s yoga novel), and it remains my all-time favorite fun yoga read.

When 25-year-old, death-obsessed, cigarette-smoking Morrison follows her beloved yoga teacher on a Bali retreat, she’s too cynical to believe everything she’s learning. Still, she gives it her best shot (even while occasionally feeling called to wine, brownies, and “the prana of the Prada”).

When Morrison finally stops trying to reach her unattainable ideal of enlightenment, she comes to understand that self-acceptance is a key yoga aim. If you haven’t read this laugh-out-loud book, do so now!

By Suzanne Morrison,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Yoga Bitch as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What happens when a coffee-drinking, cigarette-smoking, steak-eating twenty-five-year-old atheist decides it is time to get in touch with her spiritual side? Not what you’d expect . . .
 
When Suzanne Morrison decides to travel to Bali for a two-month yoga retreat, she wants nothing more than to be transformed from a twenty-five-year-old with a crippling fear of death into her enchanting yoga teacher, Indra—a woman who seems to have found it all: love, self, and God.
 
But things don’t go quite as expected. Once in Bali, she finds that her beloved yoga teacher and all of her yogamates wake up…


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Book cover of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

The Curiosity Cycle By Jonathan Mugan,

The Curiosity Cycle is a book for parents and educators who want to teach their children to be active explorers of the world. Learning through curiosity leads to adaptive thinking because your child is continually trying to improve his or her understanding of the world, and new facts and ideas…

Book cover of Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Navaz Habib Author Of Upgrade Your Vagus Nerve: Control Inflammation, Boost Immune Response, and Improve Heart Rate Variability with New Science-Backed Therapies

From my list on upgrading your health and vitality.

Why am I passionate about this?

I personally have struggled with weight, blood sugar, and blood pressure challenges while I was in my teens and twenties. It was through functional medicine and many of the strategies I share in my book that I was able to create a positive shift in my own health and support the health of my clients. In my education and subsequent research, the Vagus nerve always stuck out to me as a unique and underrepresented component of the health journey. My curiosity regarding human anatomy and physiology led me to this important and missing answer: enabling our bodies to enter a healing state and initiate the recovery of our health.

Navaz's book list on upgrading your health and vitality

Navaz Habib Why did Navaz love this book?

A major part of upgrading your health involves upgrading your thinking, and that is what I learned from this book. My eyes were opened to common thought patterns that were holding me back and provided significant boosts to my mindset and ability to remain objective in the face of stress and emotion.

I truly loved this book and the deep insights.

By Sadhguru,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Inner Engineering as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The practice of what is commonly known as hatha yoga is but one of eight branches of the body of knowledge that is yoga. Yoga is a sophisticated system of self-empowerment that is capable of harnessing and activating inner energies in such a way that your body and mind function at their optimal capacity. It is a means to create inner situations exactly the way you want them, turning you into the architect of your own joy. A yogi lives life in this expansive state, and in this transformative book Sadhguru tells the story of his own awakening from a…


Book cover of The Yoga of Discipline

Duff McDonald Author Of Tickled: A Commonsense Guide to the Present Moment

From my list on to help you find your true self.

Why am I passionate about this?

That’s the eternal question, isn’t it? Out here in the manifestation, I am Duff McDonald, author and journalist, father of Marguerite, husband of Joey, and general man about town. I’m a Canadian who moved to the U.S. to go to college and never went back. But who am I, really? I am the same thing as everyone else, a speck of consciousness in the possibility machine, a perfect creation. This whole thing has divine origins, something I only realized not that long ago, and it set me free. I can’t wait to see what happens next. I have, of late, discovered that maximizing one’s awareness is the main quest of a human life.

Duff's book list on to help you find your true self

Duff McDonald Why did Duff love this book?

I don’t think that I am different from the majority when I say that for most of my life, the idea of “discipline” wasn’t that attractive to me. I wanted freedom. But in this book, as well as all her other books, the Siddha meditation master Gurumayi Chidvilasnanada convinced me that the means to a perfect existence must come through discipline. You cannot find yourself if you do not first sort yourself out. The goal isn’t recklessness; it’s improvisation within defined constraints. That’s where the magic happens. Gurumayi is one of the clearest thinkers and writers that I have ever come across. More importantly, everything she writes is infused with love.

By Gurumayi Chidvilasananda,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Yoga of Discipline as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this collection of fourteen talks, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda teaches students how to cultivate yoga discipline of the senses on the Siddha Yoga path.


Book cover of Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist, and Buddhist — One Woman's Spiritual Journey

Cyndi Lee Author Of May I Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Yoga, and Changing My Mind

From my list on Buddhist and yoga biographies and memoirs.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been a practicing yogi and Buddhist for 50 years. For me these lifelong practices started with reading, or as my Zen teacher calls it, being a “Book Buddhist.” Buddhism and Yoga are not typically called “faith-based” practices, but there is an element of faith — it is faith in the process. But you can’t have faith until you have experienced the benefits of practice. The unconventional lives of the yogis told in these books illustrate for all of us how we, too, can develop wisdom, joy, and compassion. I found each of these books really, really fun to read and I’ve gained much insight and inspiration for my own spiritual path.

Cyndi's book list on Buddhist and yoga biographies and memoirs

Cyndi Lee Why did Cyndi love this book?

Jan Willis is one of our most respected American Buddhist teachers and scholars. Like so many Americans who identify as Buddhists, Jan Willis’ story begins with a Christian background. Willis was raised in the Baptist church in Alabama where she endured Jim Crow racism and later marched with MLK, Jr. She writes about the obstacles she faced in her Ivy League education and how she eventually met her Buddhist guru in India. This story is so resonant for me because it reminds me that we can evolve and grow on our spiritual journey without rejecting any part of who we already are. I read this book when it was published in 2001 and it continues to inspire me as a Buddhist, an American, and a writer.

By Jan Willis,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Dreaming Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jan Willis is not Baptist or Buddhist. She is simply both. Dreaming Me is the story of her life, as a child growing up in the Jim Crow South, dealing with racism in an Ivy League college, and becoming involved with the Black Panther Party. But it wasn't until meeting Lama Yeshe, a Tibetan Buddhist monk living in the mountains of Nepal, that she realized who the real Jan Willis was, and how to make the most of the life she was living.


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Book cover of Christmas Actually

Christmas Actually By Lisa Darcy,

Every picture tells a story, but it’s not always the one we expect or remember. Christmas Actually is a festive drama about family and forgiveness and a snapshot of modern family life, addressing Instagram to motherhood and everything in between.

Why Christmas? My publisher wanted my new novel to have…

Book cover of Autobiography of a Yogi

Jonathan Ellerby Author Of The Seven Gateways of Spiritual Experience: Awakening to a Deeper Knowledge of Love, Life Balance, and God

From my list on spiritually-focused books to awaken your heart, mind, and soul.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love books! I wrote my first book as a science project at age 11. As a writer, books are my passion. Specifically, I have been interested in the nature of consciousness and healing since I was 12 years old. I started reading everything I could get my hands on at that time and continued voraciously until I completed my Ph.D. around the age of 30. Many themes in transformation and spirituality I read almost exhaustively – Indigenous studies, cross-cultural healing, the nature of mind, and the nature of the soul. I have always needed to keep books around me just to feel at home.

Jonathan's book list on spiritually-focused books to awaken your heart, mind, and soul

Jonathan Ellerby Why did Jonathan love this book?

This book opened my mind to the possibility of spiritual superpowers and the wealth of wisdom that lives in the ancient spiritual traditions of the world.

A little on the dense side, this amazing book blew my mind as I felt like I was transported in time to study at the feet of great masters. I was amazed by stories of miracles and incredible gifts of consciousness that had otherwise seemed only the stuff of movies and fiction.

The images were so compelling to me that I could not stop reading it. It felt like a course in deep metaphysics. And it was all a way of sharing the life story of a master teacher I truly admire and want to know everything about.

I have to say, on top of all this, it felt familiar, easy, and like a beautiful world to immerse in.

By Paramahansa Yogananda,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Autobiography of a Yogi as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. Profoundly inspiring, it is at the same time vastly entertaining, warmly humorous and filled with extraordinary personages.

Self-Realization Fellowship's editions, and none others, include extensive material added by the author after the first edition was published, including a final chapter on the closing years of his life.

Selected as "One of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century", Autobiography of a Yogi has been translated into more…


Book cover of Spirit Babies: How to Communicate with the Child You're Meant to Have
Book cover of Sacred Pregnancy: A Loving Guide and Journal for Expectant Moms
Book cover of Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony Amidst the Chaos for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood

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