Tag: spirituality
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Book #48- Reflections on “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”
Book #48 The Five People You Meet in Heaven By Mitch Albom A Cynic Tries to Keep an Open Mind I have fallen out of love with spiritual books in the past few years. I find that books like that can be shiny and simplistic, and maybe even unintentionally harmful. They often praise virtue without… Read more
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Book #38- Reflections on “The Power of Now”
Book #38 The Power of Now By Eckhart Tolle Are You Living in the Past, Present, or Future? The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is the type of book that I could read once a year and still gain new insights from. It is about relinquishing your addiction to past or future thinking and instead… Read more
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How Our Parents Shape Our View of God (And How to Rebuild Your Own)
“Problems with (emotionally immature) parents may have affected your impression of God and your trust in religion. Kids often form their image of God based on their parents…” – Lindsay C. Gibson, Disentangling From Emotionally Immature People Our View of Religion is Affected By Our Parents In her book Disentangling From Emotionally Immature People, psychologist Lindsay C.… Read more
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The Authentic Path to Forgiveness
“Forgiveness isn’t something you can will yourself to do. It’s a state of mind that comes to you when it’s good and ready. Pressure to forgive puts an unfair burden on a process that can take a lifetime and may never be completed.” – Lindsay C. Gibson, Disentangling From Emotionally Immature People What Love, Trust, &… Read more
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Learning to Rest: Slowing Down in a Productivity-Obsessed World
Relearning Rest How many hours of the day are you at ease? Not just not working– but at peace. Calm. Present. Happy to stay in that moment, without a sense of frenzy or urgency. I am never like that. Well, when I am, it is so shocking that I notice it right away. Being at ease… Read more
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Book #26- Reflections on “Think Like an Artist”
Book #26 Think Like an Artist By Will Gompertz Lack of Confidence in Creative People It is ironic that a lot of creative people suffer from a lack of confidence and imposter syndrome- since creative fields have some of the lowest standards of entry. You don’t need to pass a test to be a song… Read more
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Book #25- Reflections on “The Fellowship of the Ring”
Book #25 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring By J.R.R. Tolkien Enjoying My Favorite Childhood Book This was one of my favorite books growing up so I thought it would be nice to pull it off the shelf and dust it off, especially now that I am recovering from not feeling… Read more
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A Prescription of Chirping Birds
An Unexpected ER Visit A few nights ago, I had to take a little trip to the emergency room. I was vomiting profusely and in a lot of pain. The good news is that it wasn’t anything life threatening; only gastritis (an irritation of the stomach lining). While I was back home recovering, I fell… Read more
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Book #23- Reflections on “The Highly Sensitive Person’s Guide to Dealing with Toxic People”
Book #23 The Highly Sensitive Person’s Guide to Dealing with Toxic People By Shahida Arabi, MA I can feel my blood pressure go down when I read books like this. It feels like a sane voice in my life. Toxic people thrive in toxic systems so there are often very few people to turn to… Read more
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Leaving Busyness Behind to Find Peace in Nature
I Am Playing a Dangerous But Lovely Game As I write this, I am in the middle of the woods. I am only about a mile or two from the nearest building but that seems perilously far because it has been raining on and off and I am out here with all of my devices… Read more
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Book #21- Reflections on “UnBroken: The Trauma Response Is Never Wrong”
Book #21 Unbroken: The Trauma Response Is Never Wrong By MaryCatherine McDonald, PhD The Importance of Positive Mentors I lost a lot of my mentors over the past decade. Some of this came simply from life’s progression. I moved on from sports so I no longer have coaches. I finished my master’s and left my… Read more
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Book #20- Reflections on “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”
Book #20 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck By Mark Manson Good Recommendation, Ms. Funnily enough, this book was recommended to me by a very spiritual, church-loving senior citizen. That intrigued me. If the language wasn’t enough to scare her off, then maybe there is something to it. Even after getting just a… Read more
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Book #16- Reflections on “The Mountain Is You”
Book #16 The Mountain Is You By Brianna Wiest “When we self-sabotage, it is often because we have a negative association between achieving the goal we aspire to and being the kind of person who has or does that thing.” – Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You Hmmm okay, interesting. Let me think about this.… Read more
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Being Entertained by Other People’s Lives vs. Our Own
My Own Life Became Filled With Other People’s Storylines In my latest blog post, I talked about the ethical consumption of other people’s lives for our own entertainment. But there is another part of the story that I am grappling with. That is, being entertained by other people’s lives vs. being entertained by my own.… Read more
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Book #13- Reflections on “If Only I’d Known!”
Book #13 If Only I’d Known! By Chelsey Brooke Cole LPC-MHSP, CPTT, RPT The Compounding Relationship Between Trauma & Blame Therapist Chelsey Brooke Cole begins this book by talking about how upset she was at herself for being in yet another abusive relationship. The negative feelings she had toward herself had intensified with each mistake,… Read more
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Book #12- Reflections on “Drawing For Illustration”
Book #12 Drawing For Illustration By Martin Salisbury I have been choosing a lot of art books for my 2025 Reading Challenge, which is to read 52 books in 2025. Although I do occasionally create art, it is more of a hobby. I think one of the reasons that I am hesitant to call myself… Read more
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The Difference Between Subject-Matter and Content
What is a Creative Work Really About? In his book How To Be An Artist, Jerry Saltz makes the distinction between art’s subject matter and its content. The subject matter is what a piece is about, the content is what the piece is about. The subject matter of a painting, for example, might be a… Read more
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Art and Its Relationship to Honesty
“Art is a lie that tells the truth”- Picasso In my latest post, I was talking about Roy Lichtenstein and how he uses exaggeration to make a point. His exaggeration points toward truth, not away from it. It reminds me of the famous Picasso line: “art is a lie that tells the truth”. Exaggeration does… Read more
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Getting Lost
Originality is Often Romanticized In my latest blog post about the book How To Be An Artist by Jerry Saltz, I talked about straying from the well-worn path. I alluded to some of the pros and cons of doing so. However, I also admit that this is something I am still struggling with. I think… Read more
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Book #11- Reflections on “How To Be An Artist”
Book #11 How To Be An Artist By Jerry Saltz Do You Want a Formulaic or Creative Life? In this book, Saltz is talking about artist Sol LeWitt when he says, “Rigid adherence to formula can trap you in a cul-de-sac….” This resonates quite literally with me. My bachelor’s degree is in mathematics. It is… Read more
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Questions vs. Answers
Giving Yourself the Space to Ask Questions Lately I have been thinking a lot about the benefits that this blog has been having on my life. I have talked about how I feel lighter and happier for having a place to share my authentic thoughts. I began to wonder why this is. I know honesty… Read more
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Blogging vs. Therapy
Finding Mental Health Improvements Outside of Therapy I am a big fan of therapy. I think it is incredibly helpful when you are in crisis and also when you are doing well. It helps you to understand yourself and others better so that you can make informed personal choices about your life. It is empowering.… Read more
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Early Thoughts on My 2025 Reading Challenge
Impact Over Numbers My goal in 2025 is to read 52 books to see how my life improves. I will be documenting this year-long journey in blog posts. I am now only a few books in but I have some initial thoughts on this experience. For starters, my overall goal is self-improvement. I want to… Read more
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Confidence vs. Self-Assuredness
I Don’t Want False Confidence, I Want Genuine Confidence I have been writing a lot recently about my low confidence and how I am struggling to get it back. While pondering this, I realized that I might be getting stuck in a negative perception of confidence and should instead seek a healthy self-assuredness. For me,… Read more
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Book #5- Reflections on “You Will Not Have My Hate”
Book #5 You Will Not Have My Hate By Antoine Leiris Terror & Tenderness My experience with this book can be summarized in one sentence: there were tears running down my face. It is a short book but incredibly powerful. It is written by a French man whose wife- the mother of his young child,… Read more
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I’m Not Ready To Forgive
Forcing Forgiveness Just Causes More Problems While reading Judgment Detox by Gabrielle Bernstein, I noticed a pit in my stomach anytime she talked about forgiveness. Overall, I have an upbeat disposition but forgiveness feels like a thorn in my side. I am not ready to do that yet. Also, I think so often people feel… Read more
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Book #4- Reflections on “Judgement Detox”
Book #4 Judgment Detox By Gabrielle Bernstein Ugh, Forgiveness This book snuck up on me in surprising ways. It is an unassuming book on spirituality. It is not one of Gabrielle Bernstein’s most well-known books so I guess I went into it without any sort of expectation. I found reading this book to be a… Read more
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Why Wait?
The Cost of Waiting It has been a few days since I finished reading The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware and my overall feeling is: melancholy. My mind keeps wandering back to the stories of dying people who waited too long for something in order to live the life they wanted.… Read more
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Book #3- Reflections on “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”
Book #3 The Top Five Regrets of the Dying By Bronnie Ware Unfortunately Relatable Content When I was reading this book, I was immersed in the stories within it feeling sympathy for the people within its pages, but not empathy. Sympathy comes when you care about another person’s situation. Empathy is when you understand and… Read more
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Why Do I Have Low Creative Self-Esteem?
I drew this picture the other day but will regularly tell people “I am not an artist”. Sure, I do it as a hobby but I’ve never been formally trained. My general attitude toward my art is a sort of hands-in-my-pockets, playing-with-a-pebble-with-my-shoe sort of aww-schucks self-deprecation. Why? This low self-esteem is a terrible thing as… Read more