The Mental Health Literary Medicine Cabinet

At Grace and Nature Group, we’re a bunch of bibliophiles. Some of us came by it naturally, and others earned it the hard way with years of grueling reading in grad school. Because of our common love for reading, we wanted to start sharing the books that we have found to be helpful to ourselves and clients in our quarterly newsletter.

What Is a Literary Medicine Cabinet?

If you’ve followed the Carrots for Michaelmas blog or the Fountains of Carrots podcast, you may have heard of the idea of a “Literary Medicine Cabinet.” Haley Stewart came up with the idea of a creating a collection of books that are targeted to self care. We were inspired by this and wanted to develop our own Literary Medicine cabinet for mental health.(Want to know more about Haley Stewart's Literary Medicine cabinet? You can find it and many other great resources here! )

The general idea is that there are times in our life when we have a particular struggle in our life, bet it psychological, spiritual or relational and one of the things we can do to care for ourselves is to pick a book that targets that particular ill. It would be the same thing as your own medicine cabinet at home: Struggling with allergies? Take an antihistamine. Heartburn flaring up again? Reach for the antacids. 

But what about when you've been doomscrolling too long and feel despair for the state of the world? Reach for Lord of the Rings, it will remind you the good can triumph, even in the face of great evil. What about if you feel you are struggling with gratitude and seeing beautiful things around you? You’ll want to grab Anne of Green Gables for that one (yes, even if you are an adult or a man).

How to Use a Literary Medicine Cabinet

We need a multilayered approach to the things in our lives that are difficult and heavy to carry. I once heard someone say that it wouldn’t be an orchestra if it only had one instrument. The same is true in our psychological and spiritual lives. We don’t want to be listening to only one instrument, we want a whole orchestra speaking truth, beauty, and goodness into our lives.

Here in our office, we clearly believe in the good that can come from counseling. We also believe that:

1. Counseling shouldn't be forever

2. Because of that there should be a plethora of other resources you have available to you.

One of those resources is reading. We should all treat reading like a restorative and supportive practice in our lives. There are times when self help and psychological book are good (we recommend them often). And there are even more times when a well placed profoundly good piece of literature is exactly what you need. In fact reading of fiction allows you to practice the virtues. Karen Swallow Prior helps us to see this in her book, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books:

“Indeed, there is something in the very form of reading... that tends toward virtue. The attentiveness necessary for deep reading (the kind of reading we practice in reading literary works as opposed to skimming news stories or reading instructions) requires patience. The skills of interpretation and evaluation require prudence. Even the simple decision to set aside time to read in a world rife with so many other choices competing for our attention requires a kind of temperance.”

What's Next?

We would love to help you practice exercising the virtues in your life through reading by providing a list of books we have found helpful. Each newsletter we will include a new book and add it to our medicine cabinet for you to be able to reach whenever you find yourself in need. So if you have an ailment or are looking for a new book to read, check out our list below!

Grace & Nature's Mental Health Literary Medicine Cabinet

Suggest Your Own Book!

If you have suggestions for us we are always open to new books ourselves! Please send any recommendations to info@graceandnaturegroup.com