Skip to content

A GOOD READ: Travel the road to wellness

A GOOD READ BY Susan Clark This is the time of year when many of us find that our New Year's resolutions are slipping away. Although we may want to achieve wellness, the goals we set for ourselves just over a month ago can seem pretty overwhelming.

A GOOD READ BY Susan Clark


This is the time of year when many of us find that our New Year's resolutions are slipping away. Although we may want to achieve wellness, the goals we set for ourselves just over a month ago can seem pretty overwhelming.

The good news is that there are simple ways to reconnect with our goals of achieving health and happiness. Here, I'll share some books that have jump-started my best intentions and helped me along in my wellness journey.

As a way of resolving some of my own goals, I decided take my first step by following The Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind and Spirit by Kathy Freston. It was a relief to learn that wellness is an ever-evolving process. We are able to make small shifts and changes in order to find ourselves living better, healthier lives. We can adopt a strategy of "leaning into" wellness rather than forcing ourselves into a strict regime. The small steps I took over my 21-day cleanse led me to better choices without much effort at all.

The changes I was making gave me a desire to gather more information about my food choices. Have you ever wondered what the "organic" label on your green salad mix really means?

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan provides an eye-opening look at where our food comes from. Understanding the impact of corn consumption and the organic food industry from both the growing and eating ends of the food chain is enlightening - I now understand where that meal on my plate actually came from.

I had taken my first baby steps towards eating in a conscious way. My next task was to examine how happiness plays a part in wellness. Whenever I think of happiness, the Dalai Lama comes to mind. He is a person who has had to deal with adversity and yet he is able to maintain both his serenity and optimism. The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World, written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, gives readers a glimpse into how he faces the problems of today's world and how we can cultivate positive emotions.

We know that the greatest minds have tackled the question of happiness. Is there a way that an ordinary person could find happiness? I decided to read The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. Rubin decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. She focused on tackling a new set of resolutions each month. The result is an upbeat and lively account of her year. Each of us could benefit from creating our own unique happiness project

The remaining element in my wellness scheme was exercise. I decided to incorporate yoga into my daily routine as well as a good deal of outdoor walking. I found the photos and anatomical drawings in Anatomy of Yoga: An Instructor's Inside Guide to Improving Your Poses by Abigail Ellsworth helped me improve my technique. Walking is an inexpensive and healthy way to exercise. Walking: A Complete Guide to Walking for Fitness, Health and Weight loss by John Stanton provided a program where I could increase my pace from strolling to brisk walking.

Each of us will personalize our wellness journey in our own unique way. It doesn't matter if we decide to take up running or prefer to grow lettuce in our backyard. Each small step we take will make a big overall difference to the way we look and feel. Remember to pick up a book, video or magazine at your local library and enjoy creating your wellness, your way.

A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published every Wednesday. Susan Clark is a library services assistant at Port Coquitlam's Terry Fox Library.