I've been thinking about the books that have genuinely changed how I see the world, and how I work. Not business books. Not productivity books. Something different.
These three have shaped how I think about effort, surrender and what it actually means to create the life you want. And when I look at them together, I realise they're all pointing to the same thing.
There's something more powerful than hard work at play. And most of us are too busy grinding to notice it.
Have you ever caught yourself thinking — I make everything harder than it needs to be?
I do. I always have. I've joked that I don't just work hard – I make it look hard.
Here's the thing about being a hardworking woman. Somewhere along the way you get conditioned to believe that hard work equals results. And if you stopped pushing so hard, everything would fall apart.
But what if there's something else at play? Another force at work in our lives. Hard work will get you results. But this takes you somewhere hard work never could.
That's why I keep recommending this book.
It follows a man, Michael Singer himself, who makes a decision to surrender. To stop forcing, stop controlling, and simply follow what life puts in front of him. One step at a time. No agenda.
And where he ends up? Nothing like what you'd expect. No ashram, no quiet life in the mountains. What unfolds is extraordinary — and if I told you, I'd ruin it.
I'll just say this: it made me question everything I thought I knew about how results are created.
Have you ever noticed that the more desperately you want something, the less likely you are to get it?
I've felt this so many times. The moment I wanted something too much, I knew – that was the telltale sign I was about to push it away.
Tosha Silver writes about this beautifully. Outrageous Openness is about letting the divine lead the way – co-creating with something greater, rather than white-knuckling your way to your goals.
It sounds abstract. It isn't.
This book is full of practical prayers and stories that show you what it looks like to actually let go. And for those of us who hold on tight – to outcomes, to plans, to the way things should look – it's a quiet revolution.
If you've ever read anything about energy, frequency or manifestation and wondered why some things work and some don't – this book will answer that question in a way that actually makes sense.
This one is 36 pages long. That's it.
Yet, it's a mighty powerful book.
You² is about making a quantum leap in your life and your results. Price Pritchett's argument is simple: you cannot get there by trying harder. You get there by doing something fundamentally different.
He uses the image of a fly pressing against a closed window, trying over and over to get through the glass. Exhausting itself. Frustrating itself. When all it needs to do is turn around and fly out through the open door behind it.
That image stopped me when I first read it. Because that's us. That's what we humans do.
We press harder against the thing that isn't working, convinced that if we just push long enough, it will give way.
Quit trying harder, he says. There are unseen forces available to you. Learn to work with them.
Reading these three books together, I noticed something — they're all saying the same thing in different ways.
There's something more powerful than us at work, if we're willing to trust it.
I said three books, but I want to mention one more.
If you're going through a difficult time – loss, grief, illness, trauma – please read Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen.
She is a medical doctor and storyteller, and this book is unlike anything I've ever read.
It's full of stories of healing – real ones – told with such warmth and wisdom that the pages themselves feel like medicine.
I read it as a practitioner. I read it for nourishment. And I come back to it whenever I need to remember what healing really looks like.
It deserves its own blog post, honestly. But I couldn't write about books without mentioning it.
Have you read any of these? I'd love to know which one resonates with you most.
Leave a comment below or send me a message – I genuinely love these conversations.
Vesna x
I’m a Naturopath, Transformational Coach, Mind-body Medicine Specialist & Speaker, and I love supporting modern women who are overworked, busy & burnt out.
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