It’s been four months since many of us were advised to quarantine and stay hunkered down due to COVID-19. Yet with the ongoing negative news about the pandemic, it’s no surprise that everyone’s mental health is at risk.

Let’s be honest: we can’t help but embrace the grumpy news that fills the internet and our news feeds about the virus. But rather than absorbing negativity, it’s important to dive into meaningful, positive activities that serve as an outlet from the ongoing negative environment. One solution? Dive into a satisfying list of books that can help start your day differently.

Must-Read Books for Better Mental Health

Rather than exposing yourself to gruesome headlines each day, begin the day by embracing our list of must-read books that help subside the craving for social media, reduce the need to check news on a constant basis and instead, fall in love with the character in life who matters most: you.

1. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown - Cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection to embrace your imperfections and to recognize that you are enough.

2. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl - While we can’t avoid suffering, we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.

3. If You Feel Too Much by Jamie Tworkowski - Celebrate hope, wonder and what it means to be human.

4. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown - Explore how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity.

5. Body Positive Power- by Megan Jayne Crabe - We believe that our bodies are the problem, but this is not true. It’s how we’ve been taught to see our bodies that’s the problem. It's time for us all to stop believing the lies we've been fed up with, and start focusing on what it means to be beautiful, and take our power back.

6. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson - How to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

7. Life Without Ed by Jenni Schaefer - Ed (Eating disorder) controlled Jenni’s life, distorted her self-image, and tried to physically harm her throughout their long affair. Then, in therapy, she learned to treat her eating disorder as a relationship, not a condition. By thinking of her eating disorder as a unique personality separate from her own, Jenni was able to break up with Ed once and for all - and you can also break up with the Ed in your life. 

8. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb - A deeply per­sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly reveal­ing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them. 

9. Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole MS RD and Elyse Resch MS RD - Create a health relationship with food, mind and body.

10. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown- The ultimate playbook for developing brave leaders and courageous cultures. 

11. Wild by Cheryl Strayed - Explore the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. 

12. Rising Strong by Brene Brown - Regardless of magnitude or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same: We reckon with our emotions and get curious about what we’re feeling; we rumble with our stories until we get to a place of truth; and we live this process, every day, until it becomes a practice and creates nothing short of a revolution in our lives. 

13. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - Explore the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

14. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey - A step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity--principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.