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23 Gift Ideas for the Psychologically Oriented
Presents for psychologically attuned people.
Posted December 19, 2016
In previous years, I have posted 40 gift ideas for psychologically attuned people. Here are the best of those plus new ones.
The Voting Game. It's a game that uncovers truths about friendships. It begins when the first question card is revealed, for example, “Who would lose an election because of something they did in high school?” Players then vote anonymously for one of the players. Results are tallied and revealed to the group. Then, each player guesses who voted for him or her. If s/he guesses correctly, the truth is revealed. The game has 200 questions and additional questions can be bought separately.
A personally inscribed item. Choose an inscription that’s psychologically beneficial to the recipient. It perhaps only need say “with deep love” or some such but think about what the recipient most needs or would like to hear, for example, “It will get better.” Or “You do make the world better every day.” PersonalizationMall.com sells a wide variety of personalized items, from mugs to jewelry, at moderate prices
A donation on the recipient’s behalf to a charity your recipient believes in and is underfunded. For example, let’s say your recipient has complained that the public schools now give little attention to gifted kids. If so, you might make a donation on his or her behalf to, for example, SENG, which focuses on the emotional needs of gifted kids.
A nicely framed photo of psychological significance, or perhaps a slide-show photo/video frame, loaded with meaningful photos and videos. A highly-rated one is the Nix Advance: ($70.). Don’t have access to the recipient’s private stash of visuals? Perhaps one or more is posted on the internet.
A blank journal to write one’s musings. Etsy sells many hand-crafted ones at reasonable prices.
One of The Great Courses. They offer hundreds of audio and video courses taught by teaching-award-winning university professors, including on psychology-related topics. Here are some top-rated ones: The Intelligent Brain, The Addictive Brain, Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You, and The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal.
A webinar, live workshop, or bootcamp. You might find an appropriate one just by googling, for example, “depression webinar” or “start a business” bootcamp." Here’s one of the latter that’s inexpensive and has excellent student reviews:
A public affairs forum membership, for example, the Commonwealth Club, National Press Club, Cleveland City Club, World Affairs Council. They're good not just for learning but for professional and personal networking.
An hour with a personal organizer. Many people feel overwhelmed with life. A relatively easy place to start chipping away at it is by tidying their home or at least a part.
An image consultation. Some people find that looking better makes them feel better. So perhaps buy such a person a consultation with someone who’ll do a clothes, hair, and/or makeup makeover.
A seed starting kit plus seeds, for example, the quick-to-fruit yet delicious Early Girl tomato or the Bonanza marigold. The miracle of creating fruit and flower from seed is—at least according to horticultural therapists—therapeutic. For the right person, it’s definitely pleasurable.
FitBit or other fitness tracker. This can motivate some people to exercise. And exercise is both an antidepressant and is physically salubrious.
A pet. For some people, caring for another living thing reduces the self-absorption that can make you less happy. Shelters are filled with dogs and cats that may be otherwise killed.You can search a database of such adoptable pets at www.petfinder.com. Of course, owning a dog or cat is a years-long commitment. If you want to give one as a gift, you must discuss it in advance with the recipient.
A plush animal. This is a much lower-demand alternative to a live dog or cat. Nevertheless, sleeping with a plush animal can feel sweet.
Lastly, here are nine books to consider.
ChangePower by Meg Selig. Don’t let its amateurish cover fool you. I’ve read a lot of books on getting unstuck, conquering procrastination, etc. I like this one best because it’s clearly born of a person who’s actually helped a lot of people.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. Introverts are less likely to be productive in a cube farm. They need quiet. Outside of work, introverts tend to be better listeners but often are drowned out by Chatty Cathys and Blowhard Billies. This book offers a wise cheerleader for the introverts in your life.
All Out: An Autobiography by Albert Ellis. A good choice for recipients that are likely to be inspired by biography. Ellis is a father of cognitive-behavioral therapy and he needed to use a lot of it to deal with his own issues.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Although it’s been 75 years (and 15 million copies) since its publication, this old chestnut deserves a spot on this list. An example of its advice: Every person you meet feels superior to you in some way. Figure out what it is and give the person the opportunity to express that superiority.
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon. Not only will the depressed person on your list feel understood, it’s gorgeously written, true literature. It won the National Book Award.
The Best of Marty Nemko These are my favorite 63 of the more than 3,000 of my articles that have been published in major media outlets. Most are self-help-oriented, mainly on career, but some are on relationships and money. Some outline my favorite ideas for improving the world, notably reinventing education and on men's issues.
No, David. This young-readers book tells of a typical active boy whose parent tells him “No!” again and again. Indeed, this is reflective of the real world. Boys are disciplined at school and put on a Ritalin leash far more often than girls are. Beaten down, teenage boys commit suicide at three times the rate of girls. This is a rare book that offers a sympathetic view of active boys’ relentlessly having their spirit crushed. As parents and teachers and in the media, we seem to consider boys inferior, as needing their essence changed. Is that any fairer than asking girls to change their essence?
The Giving Tree is a young-readers book about a tree who loved a boy and gave him all he could. Finally, as an old man, the boy said he was tired and asked the tree for a place to sit. The tree told him to cut off its trunk (murder him) so the boy could sit on the stump and the boy did. Thus the book embeds the question, “How much sacrifice is to be admired, for example, the person who works into an early grave trying to provide more income for the family.
Venus and Iris. by Marty Nemko, illustrations by Calista Ward. Inspired by The Giving Tree, this young-readers book embeds the adult issue of of how much to sacrifice for love. The illustrations are gorgeous. Here’s a video of me reading it.
Marty Nemko is a career and personal coach. His website is www.martynemko.com.
