Reading and Running: Three Wellness Books Compared
Editor’s Note: This post is written by Minneapolis Running Ambassador, Alisa Dean, and has been edited for length and clarity.
Running and wellness go hand in hand for me. This became incredibly clear after a broken toe sent me spiraling into depression. As I healed and eventually got myself motivated enough to run again I ended up finishing three books.
Related: How to Improve Mental Health with Running
Three Running Wellness Books:
Running With Mindfulness: Dynamic Running Therapy (DRT) To Improve Low-Mood, Anxiety, Stress, And Depression
By – William Pullen
This book is part how-to and part therapy session. It includes question prompts to help you process through your own experiences and their impact. Out of all the books I read, this one helped me the most. It taught me how to use my running to manage my depression in a different way. I highly suggest this for folks who live with a mental health diagnosis, struggle with low-mood or stress.
Running Is My Therapy
By – Scott Douglas
This book covers the who, what, where, when, and whys of running as therapy. There is a lot of research mixed in with personal stories from a variety of authors. I finished this book wondering why there are not more people like Sepideh Saremi, founder of Run Walk Talk therapy, out there. This is a great book for folks who use running as part of their approach to therapy as well as their friends and family members. For people like me, there were a lot of “ah-ha” and “I totally do that” moments. For friends and family, I think it will offer a better understanding of how helpful running can be and why it is so important.
Zen And The Art Of Running: The Path To Making Peace With Your Pace
By – Larry Shapiro, PhD
This book is a little less therapy-based and more focused on the Zen approach to mindfulness. Some of it took awhile for me to wrap my brain around, but in the end, it was helpful. I loved their process of working through attachments (aka breaking through excuses not to get out of bed and run). I’d suggest this book for all runners. I’ve read other books on mindfulness and this has a different flavor to it that makes it worth the read.
In reading these books I found new ways to work my way back to the runner I know and love. I recently participated in my first group run and I did that because of these books. Whether you’re working through depression like me or you’ve never faced challenges with mental health there is a book on this list for everyone.
