May was a transition month for me. I only finished two books, but that is not a fair representation of how much reading I did. In the first few days of June, I have finished two more books, but those will go into next month’s book post. Summertime is traditionally the hardest for me, and last year my health completely feel apart during this time, so my #1 focus right now is prioritizing health and the rest and self-care that helps me maintain it. I also began teaching weekly classes in the PBT Institute community this month. More on that Read More
Category: Self Help
Blog posts related to self-improvement, health, weight loss, self-care, and mindfulness.
2021 First Quarter Goals Update and Books I Read in March
I’ve typed a first paragraph a few times and deleted it. What do I want to say about the first three months of 2021? They happened. There has been good stuff and difficult stuff. I never made a post about what my goals are for 2021. That’s okay. I will just jump in here and tell you how I am doing with them. I made progress on some goals, and I read some books. Let’s talk about that. Goals So Far Activity. One goal is to attend another 125 Pure Barre classes by the end of the year. That will Read More
Books I Read in February 2021
February is a short month, but I finished to read another seven books in addition to the seven I read in January. After reviewing what I read in January, I mentioned my intention to read more fiction. I did a direct flip and six out of seven were fiction in January. Some of these will count towards a challenge that my book club is doing. After being in a reading slump for a lot of 2020, it feels really good to be off to a great start. According to Goodreads, I am seven books ahead of schedule for my 2021 Read More
Gettin’ Gritty
Do you have grit? I imagine that most people like to think they do, but maybe I am projecting, because I want to be gritty. I can point to numerous situations in my life that have called for grit, times when I persevered. There have also been times when I quit. Times when I dropped one goal for another, games I lost, balls I dropped. Does that mean I don’t have it? This post is a sort of two-fold review. I listened to Angela Duckworth’s book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. It has been on my list for Read More
Untamed: Building a Coalition of Cheetahs
Back to my original question: What do I want to say about this book? I loved it. I was on the waitlist at the library, but when a friend starting sharing about it, I had to buy a hardcover version also. I have so many notes, highlights, bookmarks. There was only one thing in the book I disagreed with, and that is more an issue of semantics. The love-at-first-site narrative and “my sexuality is Abby” raises a few red flags for me, but I also kind of relate. I have referred to my own sexuality as “hetero-monogamous” because when I’m Read More
Finding My Calling, Parts 2 and 3
A few months ago I wrote a post covering the first four weeks of my journey through The Calling. I said it seems like a short amount of time to uncover my calling if I didn’t know it by now, but I also said I would have to do the work. That first four weeks, I did the work. After that, maybe not so much. Maybe it was putting my post out there and saying it that caused me to stall. Maybe it was the shift to working from home due to COVID-19. But here’s the thing… I might have Read More
First Quarter Review 2020
What the actual…? We are at the end of the first quarter of 2020. It’s time for an update on my dreams, plans, and goals for the year. As I prepped for 2020, I promised myself Freedom. Three months in, where am I? More or less confined to home, along with the rest of the WORLD. That’s right: coronavirus, COVID-19, social distancing, quarantine, work from home… it’s a whole new world. How does one work towards the goal of Freedom without leaving the house? Let’s contemplate that and see if I was able to accomplish anything in the start of Read More
Finding My Calling
I am working through a twelve week course that is a scientific approach to discovering my calling. Everyone is supposed to have a calling but they don’t all have to be about saving the world. Maybe doing your “true work” is your own way of saving the world, no matter what that work is. Your calling might be to help people learn about native plants or to create a safe space for children or to see how high you can jump. The old saying goes: “Choose a job you love and you’ll never had to work a day in your Read More
Learning to Live
It’s back to school time here in beautiful Northwest Arkansas. This always seems like a good time for a fresh start. I think a new school year probably runs second only to New Year’s Day when it comes to people thinking about how they want to change their lives in the upcoming months. This is the first fall that neither of my kids are going to school. Kid #1 has graduated from college and #2 is taking a bit of a gap year. That doesn’t mean I didn’t peruse the Back to School aisles and get myself some new Staedtler Read More
Self Help Fest
In the first half of this year, I read 27 books. Twelve of those were non-fiction books that I think qualify as “self help.” Maybe a better way of describing these books is to say they are for my personal or professional development, but isn’t that just trying to put a spin on the fact that I am, in fact, trying to help my Self. I have always enjoyed this type of book ever since I read I’m Okay, You’re Okay in high school. I have seriously considered joining or starting a Self Help book club. Here are the books Read More