Personal Care

While there are rewards to caring for those we love, there is no denying being a caregiver is a stressful job. It’s physically demanding, mentally exhausting, and emotionally draining. It simply wears us thin.

From the author of the bestselling Audible Originals Self Care by the Signs and Self Care by the Moon, Valerie Tejeda’s Cosmic Care is a guide to living well by harmonizing your self-care practice with the movement of the seasons, the stars, and the lunar cycle.

Unfortunately, because of the hectic schedules so many women are shouldering every day, self-care gets pushed to the back burner. But self-care is vital to maintaining your mental health, and there are ways to quickly weave it into your busy schedule.

Though the words "foster care" are not in the Bible, the act of caring for the vulnerable is clearly important to God. Perhaps nowhere is that kind of tender attention and care for the vulnerable more evident than in the act of fostering a child. But as foster parents pour themselves into the children God has called them to care for, they may find themselves feeling emptied, in need of being refreshed and reinvigorated for the day to come.

Although many of us prioritize our physical health through exercise and healthy eating, we often forget to spend time boosting our mind, mood, and mental health. It is so important that we focus on mental self-care and reducing daily stress since mental toughness and resilience will get us through difficult times and help us achieve success in every area of our lives. Using the incredible power of our minds, we can persist and grow in response to life's challenges.

“Your parents are so amazing for adopting you! You should be grateful that you were adopted.” Angela Tucker is a Black woman, adopted from foster care by white parents. She has heard this microaggression her entire life, usually from well-intentioned strangers who view her adoptive parents as noble saviors. She is grateful for many aspects of her life, but being transracially adopted involves layers of rejection, loss, and complexity that cannot be summed up so easily.

Heartbreak can manifest itself as depression, anxiety, self-sabotage, an inability to feel emotions, make connections, or live life on your own terms. Donna's practical nine-step programme will empower you with the tools and support you need to gain clarity, identify what has hurt you and learn how to release the pain, fear and anger keeping you trapped. Donna will teach you how to care for yourself with love, give you the courage to really feel your feelings, step into your authentic self and move towards whole-hearted living.

For author and Slow Stories podcast host Rachel Schwartzmann, slowing down has changed her story in ways she could have never imagined. In this poignant and timely collection, she invites us to step away from the turmoil of daily life and awaken to the pleasures of living and creating with intention.

Individuals approaching the end of life, and their loved ones, face many challenges - but as hospice nurse Karen Whitley Bell reassures us, this difficult time also offers an opportunity to explore and rediscover a richer meaning in life. Drawing on her years of experience, Bell has created a comprehensive, insightful guide to every aspect of hospice care and the final stages of life. For people in hospice care, as well as their friends and families, this is an indispensable reference, a trustworthy source of comfort and spiritual healing.

Women around the world have responded to Cara Alwill Leyba’s Girl Code with a resounding YES. Companies like Kate Spade and Macy’s have brought her in to teach “the Code.” Inc. magazine named Girl Code one of the “Top 9 Inspiring Books Every Female Entrepreneur Should Read” alongside Lean In, #Girlboss, and Thrive.

Ruth was a ghost of a girl when she arrived into foster mother Maggie Hartley's care. Pale, frail, and withdrawn, it was clear to Maggie that Ruth had seen and experienced things that no 11-year-old should have to, that she's been conditioned to "see no evil, speak no evil". Ruth is in desperate need of help, but can Maggie get through to her and unlock the harrowing secret she carries? Through love, reassurance, and patience, Maggie starts to unravel Ruth's painful past - a past defined by cruelty and abuse.

Caring for a parent, spouse, or relative who cannot care for themselves due to age, infirmity, or illness is one of the noblest human activities. It’s also one of the most stressful, posing challenges that can be painful, confusing, frustrating, and deeply rewarding - sometimes all at once. When Caregiving Calls is an invitation to a deep conversation about caregiving and its meaning for you.

When Mark Doty went looking to adopt a small dog, a cuddly creature who might comfort his terminally ill partner, Wally Roberts, he was surprised to find himself returning home from an animal shelter with a full-grown golden retriever, a dog whose "absolute openess of regard", and paw gently offered through the bars of a cage, proved irresistable to him.

Cara Alwill Leyba's riveting voice and kinship with her audience drove the self-published success of Girl Code, a book that encouraged women to support each other in the business community. Now her many fans are ready to take the next step: building sustainable confidence from the ground up. Most women who are insecure look for the equivalent of a sugar rush, such as telling themselves they're better than other people or changing the way they look. But those tricks won't protect them from losing confidence in the future.

We live in a culture that suppresses our ability to truly feel our grief—deeply, safely, and on our own terms. But each person’s experience is as unique as the grief itself. Here, Camille Barton’s take on grief speaks directly to the ways that BIPOC and queer readers disproportionately experience unique constellations of loss.

A MacArthur Genius Grant recipient pioneers a radical change in how we interact with older loved ones, especially those experiencing dementia, as she introduces a proven method that uses the creative arts to bring light and joy to the lives of elders.

Death was conspicuously absent during Rachel's medical training. Instead, her education focused entirely on learning to save lives, and was left wanting when it came to helping patients and their families face death. She came to specialize in palliative medicine because it is the one specialty in which the quality, not quantity of life truly matters. In the same year she started to work in a hospice, Rachel was forced to face tragedy in her own life when her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Drawing from the latest research in neuroscience and positive psychology, mindset and resilience expert Chazz Scott shares practical strategies for what he refers to as radical self-care—an approach to living that helps us transcend negative thinking, gain inner confidence, improve focus, and develop meaningful relationships—so that we may achieve true fulfillment in our personal and professional lives.

Taking good care of yourself in the first three months of your new baby’s life—the fourth trimester—brings crucial benefits for you, for your baby, and for your partner and family. With this important book, you now have the resources to have an ideal fourth trimester experience. Cynthia Gabriel, a doula and the author of the best-selling book Natural Hospital Birth, delivers all the information, guidance, and encouragement you need as a new mother to take care of your body, mind, and spirit during the vital months of the fourth trimester.

Ward of the State: A Memoir of Foster Care tells what happened to a little Black boy from the inner city of Detroit. This is the story of Karlos Dillard, who was severely neglected by his mother, who often left him and his siblings at home alone for weeks to fend for themselves. Enduring severe neglect and abuse, the boy was removed by the State of Michigan and put into foster care. Karlos was removed from his mother's care just to end up in foster homes that treated him worse. Karlos was told he was not loved, he was not wanted, and he was nothing but a ward of the state.