Like many of us, each year I come up with a word that best embodies my intention for the year to come. As many of you know, 2019 was an extremely hard year for me that was filled with a lot of loss and health issues. Throughout the year, I felt overwhelmed, overtaxed, and oftentimes just over it all. And I wanted to make sure to go into 2020 with a fresh start, a clean page, and a new beginning. I wanted things to flow much more easily. I wanted to give myself the time needed to heal my body and also my heart. So I decided that my word would be Simplify. In fact, just reading that now brings a huge exhale throughout my entire body. And that’s how I know that this is exactly what I need.
So, in the coming weeks, I’ll be taking a close look at each aspect of my life and my business and will be saying goodbye to anything that isn’t essential or that takes away from my own healing in any way. I’ll be making some tough decisions and will need to let go of many things that have been part of my life for a very long time. And I know that I’ll be ending parts of my business that not everyone is ready to say goodbye to. And, as someone who wants to make everyone happy, that’s hard and something that I’m dreading. But I know that doing this is absolutely what’s needed for my own healing.
I’ll share more specifics about all of this once I have the details worked out, but for now I wanted to share some of the books that I’m reading that are helping me come back to myself – back to my own heart, my own creativity, my own strength, my own voice, and my own dreams. (I realize that there are a lot of books here, which sort of goes against simplifying…but I guess old habits die hard. But, I will say that I’m enjoying all of them, and I can’t imagine not reading any of them.)
It’s my hope that if you’re also in a space where you’re recalibrating your life, these books will help you figure out what feels good and what doesn’t. It’s my hope that they’ll help you get back on track and put yourself front and center for possibly the first time in a very long while. It’s my hope that they’ll lead you back to joy and vitality…back to YOU.
That’s definitely what they’re already doing for me, and I’m so happy to share them with you (in no particular order).
A Book That Takes Its Time: An Unhurried Adventure in Creative Mindfulness
This unique book is exactly what my hurried self needs to slow down, get back in touch with my creative side, and know that it’s okay to simply BE. It’s so much more than just a book. It’s loaded with mini books inside, stickers, postcards, collage boards, and so much more. Using the materials provided, I’ve already made a timeline of my life, created a vision board, written down beautiful moments from the day on cute little cards…and I’m just getting started! I can’t recommend this book enough. I believe that it’s a must have for anyone who’s looking to get back in touch with who they are, slow down, and recenter themselves.
This Year I Will… A 52-Week Guided Journal to Achieve Your Goals
I love guided journals (which is why we’ve written 16 of them!), and this book has already been wonderful in helping me get centered into this new year and recognize what my goals are and how I can stay on track with them to make sure they are realized. Each week contains different writing prompts to help you keep you goals at the forefront of your mind, and I’m truly enjoying it. I love how the questions go deeper than most planners, which is just what I need this year.
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
So many people have recommend this book (as well as all of Joe Dispenza’s work) to me, and I finally pulled it off the shelf and began reading it. I’m a huge believer that our thoughts become our reality, and, due to a variety of factors, my thoughts haven’t been in as high of a vibration as I would like them to be in lately. So, I decided to give Joe and his book a try, and, while it took me a little while to get into it, I’m now really enjoying it and am looking forward to seeing where this knowledge and practice leads.
The Wisdom of Anxiety: How Worry and Intrusive Thoughts are Gifts to Help You Heal
My thoughts have a way of getting away from me if I’m not conscious of them, and I’ve been anxious as long as I can remember. What I love about this book is its approach in seeing anxiety as a loving teacher, rather than something to feel ashamed about or embarrassed by. And it’s exactly what I need right now to help me welcome this fresh wave of anxiety into my life, rather than try with everything I have to push it away. It’s just so much easier not to resist what our body is trying to tell us…and instead simply listen.
Know Yourself: A Book of Questions
This book is a Flow Magazine book (similar to the first one I recommended – I love all of their books, by the way!), and it’s been a lot of fun to ask Dan the questions and have both of us answer them. They’ve led to some really great conversations and wonderful self-knowledge and knowledge about the other as well.
The Self Love Workbook: A Life-Changing Guide to Boost Self-Esteem, Recognize Your Worth, and Find Genuine Happiness
I’ve been feeling lately that I’ve been so busy helping others over the last few years that I’ve forgotten how to help myself. And I love that this book will help me do exactly that: to give myself an extra dose of love while also giving myself permission to be truly happy. I’m looking forward to seeing how I change after completing this workbook. It’s my hope that I feel more grounded and loved and accepting of myself. We shall see!
100 Days of Actions and Intentions to Create the Life You Wish For
While I’ve only read a few pages so far in this book, it seems to have something magical to it. It just says what I need to hear exactly when I need to hear it. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was in the waiting room for a follow-up ultrasound to make sure everything was okay in my body. I was nervous and opened this book up on my Kindle and the passage that came up was about how much our bodies are teaching us and to honor it and thank it for always having our back. I knew in that moment that I would be okay…and I am.
2020 My Shining Year: Life Goals Workbook
I make time each year to go through these workbooks. Dan and I do them together, and they’re a great way to get clear about what we want and also what we don’t throughout the next year. It also contains a great section on closing the circuits to 2019, which I very much needed.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
I hate it when people are mad at me, and I’ll oftentimes do things that hurt myself just to not hurt/disappoint/upset someone else. Well, because this is my year to put myself first, I knew that I would need some help in this department of setting boundaries and being okay with not being liked. This book is helping me do exactly that.
417 More Games, Puzzles, and Trivia Challenges Specially Designed to Keep Your Brain Young
Dan and I love spending our evenings together solving brain puzzles on the couch while our cat, Biddle, sleeps on our laps. We were coming near the end of the one we’d had for a while and were happy to find this sequel to it! (And we bought a third one that’s pocket sized – perfect for road trips!) These books are a fun way for us to unwind together at the end of a busy day and keep our brains sharp at the same time. They’re a lot of fun (at least we think so). 🙂
Two Books for Couples: One Question a Day for You & Me: A Three-Year Journal & A Year of Us: One Question a Day to Spark Fun and Meaningful Conversations
Dan and I have always loved books of questions that help us get to know each other better, so when I saw these two books I knew they would be perfect additions to our nightly routine…and they are! One Question a Day gives each of us two lines to answer a question, and then you’re meant to come back to it for three consecutive years to see how your answers change. A Year of Us offers one prompt for each day, and some of them we’ve really had to think deeply about. They’re definitely not the standard questions that you find in similar journals. We’ve already learned more about ourselves and also one another, which I love.
Esther the Wonder Pig: Changing the World One Heart at a Time & Happily Ever Esther: Two Men, A Wonder Pig, and Their Life-Changing Mission to Give Animals a Home
I am obsessed with Esther the Wonder Pig. I found her on Facebook last year and quickly fell in love…not just with her and her story but with her dads, her extremely protective and loyal turkey friend, Cornelius, and her best dog friend, Phil. These books share her unique story and contain so much love and hope in them. As a vegetarian and a lover of all animals, I love the awareness that her dads have created through their books and social media…not just for Esther and their sanctuary animals but for all animals. In my mind, these are must reads, for sure!
Books that I haven’t started yet but are on my bookshelf:
I hope this list was helpful for you! These books are certainly helping me create my own best life this year. It’s just getting started, and I’m already feeling more centered and optimistic. And I know that these books are part of that switch within me. Have fun reading!
Hugs,
P.S. We’ll be closing the doors for our Your Soulful Book writing program on January 14th, so if one of your dreams is to write a book this year and you would like the support of a loving community and all of the tools and resources you’ll need to make that happen, we hope you’ll join us! We only open the doors once a year for this program, so if you’re feeling called to join us please do so soon! We’re offering a special discount just for you! You can learn more and sign up here: http://www.yoursoulfulbook.com.
