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It’s the end of June (how?!) so here’s the final instalment of my book recommendations series. I thought I would do something a bit different and recommend writing your own book. Not necessarily a best-selling tome or a hefty reference book, but something that is useful to you. Regular readers of my blog will know that I’m a big fan of bullet journals and, when I write in mine, I feel like I am recording that which helps me, whether that is important planning stuff about Clean Well-Being or my top five favourite films. It’s not going to be useful (or interesting!) to anyone else – just me. So, it’s my ‘book’ recommendation to write in a book that is about you and your life. Keeping track of everything that is going on – past, present and future – is vital to me: I have so many streams of work and lots of different interests that keeping them all in one place helps manage it all. I find it really helpful to write things down: it’s a powerful way to clarify everything that’s in my head, swirling around. The act of writing encourages me to organise and make concrete all my ideas. Things that I was worrying about become structured and measured after writing them down. Re-reading everything that I have done reminds me that I am being productive, and it offers insights to my energetic mind! It also helps me realise that some of my ideas are rubbish and shouldn’t see the light of day… Running bullet journal workshops is one of the things that I now do, and my next one is on 7th September 2019, near Reading. Here’s the link to find out more and book your place: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bullet-journal-workshop-tickets-62636015007. 
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You know how, sometimes, you come across something in your life and it has such a profound effect that you don’t quite know how to contain yourself? This week’s book recommendation did just that for me. It’s by Brené Brown and it is called Daring Greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent and lead. Snappy title! Brené Brown is an author and research professor from Texas. She has appeared in a TED talk that has over 41 million views (www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en). The title of her book came from words from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 and was about showing up despite the risks and fear of failure – something that many people feel disinclined to do. Brené expands on this and explains that vulnerability is not a weakness: “Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose.” Reading it feels like a call to arms, as she goes on to stress how we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen, by engaging with vulnerability rather than avoiding. She advocates a messy life, one without perfectionism and being ‘bulletproof’. It’s an immensely powerful book, challenging and comforting in equal measure. I dare you to read it!  This month, all my blogs are about books – ones that I have found useful and wonder if you might too. This week, I’m recommending an author’s collection of books, rather than just one. Todd Parr writes the most fabulous, colourful and affirming books, ostensibly for children, but (as with many things done ‘for children’) they are really good for adults too. I came across them many years ago, when writing a PSHE scheme of work for primary schools (Jigsaw PSHE). We used The Family Book and It’s Okay To Be Different in our lesson plans, though could have chosen anything from the considerable list of Todd’s books, including It’s Okay To Make Mistakes, The Feelings Book and The Don’t Worry Book. The titles are self-explanatory and the books are really short, with punchy messages that don’t hold back. And did I mention colourful?! I love them all!  This month, all my blogs will be about books – ones that I have found useful and wonder if you might too. Some are obvious, others less so. I’m starting with a couple of classics, both of which have slightly confusing titles. The first is ‘Steering by Starlight’ by Martha Beck, who is a coach in America and is on the Oprah-train. It was recommended to me by my very wise friend Julia (@OxfordFamilyHy1), who I have written about before. It’s an intelligent, brain-focused coaching book with lots of stories and examples in it. It’s very pacy and so easy to read. I love how it challenges outdated ways of your own thinking and encourages another way of being. It’s not at all woo-woo and there isn’t actually anything about starlight in the book, which appeals to me. I urge you to try this book and see how you change as a result. Book two is by Louise Hay and is called ‘You Can Heal Your Life’. It has helped me realise that not everything is as it might seem. Again, it really challenges ‘old’ ways of thinking and helped me see things from a different perspective, explaining how there’s often many ways to view a situation, particularly those about health and well-being. I realise when I read books like this how stuck I have got about some aspects of my life, and these books have guided me through to help me view things from another angle… and then another, and so on. If you try these books, let me know how you get on. I’d really love to hear your thoughts!  |
AuthorHi, I'm Joanna from Clean Well-Being. Archives
July 2021
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