Category: Journaling

Book review: Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

I first read this book ten years ago for a Spirituality & Resilience class. It’s pretty straightforward in that whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. Now how are you going to handle it? Don’t lose touch with yourself and fall into a robot-like way of seeing and thinking and doing where you break contact with your deepest self because if not careful, those moments can stretch out and last a lifetime. Don’t be preoccupied with the past, with what has already happened, or with a future that hasn’t arrived yet because you may fall quite unawares into assuming is the truth about what is out there in the world and in here in our minds because much of the time, it just isn’t so.

The author goes on to say that we may pay a high price for this mistaken and unexamined assumption by willfully ignoring the richness of our present moments. The fallout accumulates silently, coloring our lives without our knowing it or being able to do something about it. Instead, we lock ourselves into a personal fiction that is enshrouded in thoughts, fantasies, and impulses mostly about the past and the future that veil our direction and the very ground we stand on. This book tells you how to wake up from such dreams and the nightmares they turn into. Go from ignorance—our mindlessness, to being in touch with the not knowing which is mindfulness, by using meditation, and wakefulness which is present moment awareness.

It is important to note that meditation is not some cryptic activity, and does not involve becoming a zombie, cultist, devotee, or mystic. It is simply about being yourself, coming to realize that you are on a path that is your life, see that this path has direction that is always unfolding moment by moment and that what happens in this moment influences what happens next.

Reading this book in its entirety helps get out of the fog-enshrouded, slippery slope that we get into and that we may follow right into our grave or that fog-dispelling clarity at the moment before death where we realize that all the thought we placed on past and future was based on ignorance and fear. Instead shed those life-limiting ideas that aren’t the truth or the way our life has to be at all. When I first read this book, it seemed too straightforward in saying that “it is what it is.” But considering I had to lead a discussion on it the following day, I reread it and really got into it and got the message. It was one of the books that started me on this journey of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, as well as spirituality and resilience seeking. Get it here.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

Book review: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff—And It’s All Small Stuff by Richard Carlson

Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over your Life

This book is similar to the last book on Zen philosophy that I reviewed which was The Art of Simple Living. It consists of 100 suggestions to simplify your life and starts by noting things about our volatile world such as entertainment is more attractive than education, personal gain rates higher than personal growth, and being selfless is less attractive than taking selfies. We’re in an age where we are immobilized by little things that get in the way of what we want. So, when it seems to many of us that society has lost its way, this book is here to bring you back to your simplified higher self and core values of kindness.

Some of the 100 points touched on in this brief, honest, pure and simple little self-help book are:

  • Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff—instead of focusing on little problems and concerns and blow them out of proportion, focus on the magic and beauty of life.
  • Make Peace with Imperfection—in the absence of judgment and seeking perfection, you’ll then discover the perfection in life itself.
  • Beware of the Snowball Effect of Your Thinking—notice how negative and insecure thinking spirals out of control and becomes a thought tornado.
  • Develop Your Compassion—nothing helps us build our perspective more than empathy of what others experience. It develops our sense of gratitude for the miracle of life.
  • Learn to Live in the Present Moment—don’t allow past problems and future concerns to make us anxious or depressed. Now is the only time we have and the only time that we have any control over.
  • Ask Yourself the Question, “Will This Matter a Year from Now?”—play time warp and ask if this “will be one more irrelevant detail in your life?” Don’t allow a mental fork in the road let you get uptight about mini crisis in life.
  • Practice Humility—humility and inner peace go hand-in-hand. The less compelled you are to prove yourself to others, the more peace inside yourself.
  • Practice Being in the Eye of the Storm—stay in the specific spot of the center of life’s metaphorical tornadoes or hurricanes that is calm and isolated from the frenzy of stressed or dramatized activity. Be serene in the midst of chaos.
  • Live This Day as if it Were Your Last. It Might Be—Spend time doing things that you can’t bear to let go unfinished should this moment be your last.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

William James

This book definitely does give the reader the tools to choose not to sweat the small stuff and to live the big stuff with greater happiness, peace, and big joy. To read this wonderful book, get it here.

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

What Emotionally Strong People Don’t Do

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  • They don’t accept that each feeling they have implies something
  • They aren’t undermined by not being correct
  • They don’t utilize rationale to deny their feelings
  • They don’t extend significance onto all that they see
  • They don’t have to demonstrate their force
  • They don’t keep away from torment, regardless of whether they fear it
  • They don’t search out others’ imperfections with an end goal to reduce their qualities
  • They don’t say anything negative
  • They don’t sift through specific parts of and encounter to catastrophize it
  • They don’t keep a rundown of things individuals “ought to” or “shouldn’t do”
  • They don’t see themselves as adjudicator of what’s correct
  • They don’t make general determinations from their own encounters
  • They don’t change their character dependent on who they’re near
  • They can tolerate upping for themselves without being forceful or cautious
  • They don’t accept that his is consistently the manner in which their life will be

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, novel in verse, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

Cognitive Biases that Create the Way You Experience Life

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  1. Projection—our preferences are projected towards what we see and interpret accordingly.
  2. Extrapolation—when we use our present circumstances to analyze our entire life
  3. Anchoring—the first information we hear tends to influence the way we perceive things
  4. Negativity—selective attention makes us pay attention to bad news
  5. Conservatism—when you rely on information you had earlier
  6. Clustering illusion—when your subconscious mind starts seeing patterns in random events
  7. Confirmation—occurs when the information we listen to supports or encourages our ideas
  8. Choice-supportive—the way we make choices towards things we see as beneficial and disregarding the flaws that come with it

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, novel in verse, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

35 Things to Think of Instead of What’s Consuming You

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  1. How do you see your life 5, 10, or 20 years from now?
  2. The level of progress you have made already this year
  3. The little things you do that change the quality of your life
  4. Your situation as pathway to your dreams
  5. Appreciating the little things
  6. What your life looks like to others
  7. What you have effectively achieved in your life
  8. What different choices exist outside of your default perspective?
  9. How you might conceivably invest more energy into said work that merits your time and consideration.
  10. How you can help others
  11. Other individuals’ inspirations and wants
  12. The truth that you don’t think the specific way others’ think, and maybe the issues you have with them are not issues
  13. The examples of individuals you know, and what they inform you regarrding whom they truly are
  14. The truth that we accept individuals as we envision them
  15. What you would say in the event that you could tell your more youthful self only a certain something
  16. What your overall goal is
  17. What you’d put in the one box at the off chance that you needed to move to the opposite side of the country and could only bring just that
  18. How much your pet loves you
  19. What your future self would think and say regarding whatever circumstance you’re in the present moment
  20. The greatest evenings of your life
  21. The reality that it is difficult to do everything
  22. Aesthetics that you love
  23. Your life’s stories
  24. Your dream minutes
  25. What moves you could make to move yourself forward to the existence you need
  26. The sensation of the sun on your skin or the wind in your hair
  27. The smell of newly cut grass or the smell of an approaching rain
  28. What you can do with your minutes rather than your hours or days
  29. Who you are at the point no one is near
  30. Melodies of tunes that make you content
  31. What characteristics you respect most in others
  32. How limitless the universe is
  33. What “yes” feels like to you
  34. How numerous arbitrary, chance events were associated with essentially every significant headway in your life
  35. A mantra which works to help your resolute conviction that the future will be unique, and you’ll sort out someway to work everything out

Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, novel in verse, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

16 Signs of Socially Intelligent People

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  1. They’re always careful not to let their emotions interfere with communicating with other people.
  2. They don’t directly criticize what they believe is unacceptable.
  3. They take their time before acting to criticism.
  4. They don’t take what they feel about someone as fact.
  5. They don’t judge people by one mistake, rather they’re careful with the language they use with them in order to change them to who they want.
  6. They don’t play around with words.
  7. They try as much to see people’s perspective and never take it personal.
  8. They don’t take advantage of people’s ignorance.
  9. They accept people the way they are without trying to change them.
  10. They dissociate with things they dislike.
  11. They don’t involve themselves in an invalid argument.
  12. They prefer hearing the response.
  13. Their interactions online show their genuine self.
  14. They don’t give ultimate judgment; they rather give suggestive judgment.
  15. They do not attack people’s opinion.
  16. They work well on themselves for improvement because they believe this will affect other people.

This is the result of group work done at the CSPH at the University of Minnesota for a class on resilience. Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, novel in verse, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

How Your Daily Routine Creates Personality

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  • Your habits and thought patterns are what determines your mood
  • Don’t allow your fears and impulses to decide how you craft out your day
  • Doing more different things do not justify happiness, rather doing the same thing in a more different way
  • Regulating your daily actions limits you to fear and prevents you from actually enjoying something
  • Routine are fears of the unknown, it makes us believe we’ve done something before and not afraid to try
  • Routine gives the feeling of validation where you consistently reaffirm what you’ve already done
  • Training your body response to a daily routine dissolves your worries and ideas and makes you move naturally with the flow
  • Lack of routine makes us believe that fear indicates not doing the right thing, and procrastination comes in, giving us gaps and spaces

This is the result of group work done at the CSPH at the University of Minnesota for a class on resilience. Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, novel in verse, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor.

8 Most Prevalent Subconscious Beliefs that are Keeping You from Having the Life You Want

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  1. Believing you’ve failed when things do not work out the way they should
  2. Concluding that success is an arrival point based on the present moment
  3. Assuming that fear and pain is bad, and happiness is good because of your emotions
  4. Distraction makes you not be vulnerable to that which you’re afraid
  5. You think that adopting a new line of thinking is to change belief
  6. Problems are pathways to achieving what you want but you see them as roadblocks
  7. Thinking your past is an unchangeable reality which defines you rather than see your past as what helped in your personal evolution and added to your storyline
  8. Trying to change situations, people and things when anger=self-recognition

This is the result of group work done at the CSPH at the University of Minnesota for a class on resilience. Until my next post, why not check out my YA novels about mental illness, memoir writing, novel in verse, or even my Native American mystery series on Amazon, or follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Bookbub , BookSprout, or AllAuthor..