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Comfort is the foundation for creativity and creativity is the flower |
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March 28, 2007
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This week's theme is one I could write about every week--books that have changed my life. There are so many, and so many levels of change that occur. A book like Be Here Now by Ram Dass, stolen from my older sister when I was about 12, introduced me to the central idea and experience that shapes my life: we are all Spirit, Spirit is everything, nothing is separate. Then there is Cujo by Stephen King. The ending scene replays in my mind, apparently for no particular reason, about once a month (please don't read it if you haven't). How did that change me? In a weird way, it's helped me live more mindfully. Last night, I finished rereading War and Peace. I have been saying it's my favorite book for the last 20 years, and one day it occurred to me I didn't remember it! It was the absolute ideal book for me to have read during these last weeks, as Tolstoy so achingly depicts, through Pierre, Prince Andrey and Countess Marya this mystery of being Spirit and how we sense that mystery, are changed by it, and then forget it. Yes, it's still one of my favorite books. Reading changes us, yes -- but only when we allow it to. We have to take time to engage with a text, open our hearts to it even if it scares us, argue with it, discuss it with others or in our journal. We have to be willing to work, sometimes, and to go outside our comfort zone of what we think we like or can understand. We also have to be willing to remember that it isn't out "there," the perfect fix of information, but already inside us, perhaps waiting to be recalled at the exact instance we read a line of Rumi or gaze at a Matisse portrait. Share your nominations for "The Book That Changed My Life" on my blog by commenting on the post titled "Books." Thoughtfully, Nurturing the Muse Join best-selling author and all around spiritual stand-up comic Jennifer Louden and humorist, author and the muse-channeling, creativity coach trainer, Jill Badonsky for an hour that will tickle your creative bones, dissolve a few fears, and blast you right into whatever is calling to be created by you next. Sign up at http://www.comfortqueen.com/teleclass.html |
| Comfort Wishes Enter the library temple: hushed calm ordered mazes of imagination gleaming candy-colored spines. It's all here, patiently waiting to remind you of what you already know. Come in and search awhile, and marvel |
| The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Year is now shipping! You can also purchase the companion CD at ComfortQueen.com.
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Self-Care Minder Depleted. Whether we're waiting for the results of a scary medical test, dealing with a particularly testy three-year-old, or wading our way through the first achingly fresh steps of grief, books can be our companions, our friends, and our crutch. Whenever I face a new challenge in my life, my natural instinct is to head to the bookstore, to wander among the shelves, looking for support and provisions for the journey. Books reach into that space inside us that longs to be touched, and lays hands on our spiny, prickly, anxious parts. The next time you are feeling angry, abandoned, tired, or just plain angst-ridden, reach for a book instead of a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels. Or the book and the pretzels if that what you need! Resource: Bibliotherapy: The Girl's Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives by Nancy Peske and Beverly West. The authors provide recommendations to over 100 books, based on your mood. A must-have for any booklover's library! Tapas/Heat. From thinner thighs in thirty days to a clean house without lifting a finger… There's a book that promises new lives, new bodies, and new relationships – immediately! While books are, indeed, miraculous, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Why else would the diet industry sell billions in books, pamphlets, and magazines? True change – in your thighs or in your marriage – requires dedicated work, not short-run, all-out sprints, and can only be sustained when you rest in the knowledge that, thin thighs or not, you are perfect just as you. Often, I find the best guides to this wacky journey are memoirs and biographies that remind me that yes, I am okay and yes, I am not alone. Resource: The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi: A Visual Journey by Ramana Maharshi. An artistic representation of the teachings of this spiritual leader. Inspiring regardless of your religious or spiritual beliefs. The National Book Foundation's Books That Changed My Life series. The NBF asked a group of illustrious writers to share their thoughts on the books that changed their lives. From Stephen King to Jean Auel, read their answers here. +++++++++++ HEY! Do you have so many "self-help" books that your shelves are threatening to buckle? Could you open your own New Age bookstore with all the volumes on change and renewal you own? If so, maybe it's time to lighten the load... stay tuned for more about "Freedom from Self-Improvement Day," coming your way this May! ++++++++++ Joyful Desire. Most readers love to share their thoughts, opinions, and recommendations with other bibliophiles. Note the proliferation of book clubs, from Oprah to the Today Show to your everyday, garden-variety neighborhood group. If you're unable to join a regular group, here are some ideas for sharing your thoughts and loves with others:
Effortless Service. The pen is mightier than the sword, sure. Even if you can't string two words together to save your life, you can still impact the world around you through books. Donate to a literacy program. Give your old books to a library, hospital, shelter, or senior center. Or pass your favorites on in a more viral format. Bookcrossing.com members leave books in public places for the taking, with the only request being that whoever picks it up logs on to the website to help track the book's journey. Imagine the serendipitous encounter between your copy of Hope for the Flowers and someone whose soul is aching! Ahhh, kismet. |
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The LoudenMouth Podcast feed is available through iTunes. Subscribe. You can also do a search on Jennifer Louden or LoudenMouth using iTunes. Or if you are using an RSS feed to keep up with the Podcast, the click for the feed. If you need further info check out our Podcast 101. |
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These fleece blankets silkscreened with positive affirmations are a great way to warmly live intentionally. Affirmagy Are you struggling to make your business a success? Is fear keeping you from promoting your work? Do you love what you do but go blank when you try to tell others about it? Eric Maisel's groundbreaking new book, Ten Zen Seconds, marrying the best techniques of East and West, provides a brand new tool for instant stress reduction and a healthier outlook on life. Hailed by Library Journal as perfect "for anyone interested in improving his or her ability to center and to become calmer and more powerful," Ten Zen Seconds is your next step in mindfulness practice. Available everywhere; or visit http://tenzenseconds.com. Get Unstuck & Get Going on the Stuff that Matters is the award-winning self-coaching program and tool from Canadian Coach of the Year, Michael Bungay Stanier. Get clear on your challenge, generate up to 125,000 new possibilities (really!), and learn the secret of doubling the likelihood of doing what you want to do. Artella is an online playground for writers, artists, and creative spirits. Artella introduces The Artella Daily Muse, the only daily creativity newspaper in the universe! Try it out by signing up for a no-strings Two-Day Subscription to The Daily Muse at http://www.artellawordsandart.com/members.html. |
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Retreat with Jennifer in 2007 The Luscious, Creative Self-Care Retreat Who do you become without time to reflect, renew, and rediscover yourself? In order to know who we are and to fully inhabit our lives, we need time for retreat--time to stop, feel, listen, rest, and catch up with ourselves. Join the author of The Woman’s Retreat Book, Jennifer Louden, and a community of like-minded women for a weekend of nurturing, listening, play, and rest. Through silence, journal writing, circle time, embodied movement, guided meditation, collage, nurturing food, and alone time in nature, you can reconnect with the divine spark of your feminine wisdom. Contact Kripalu Reservations Department: 866-200-5203 toll-free or reserve@kripalu.org. Writing Naked on the Beach: Romancing your creative genius A 3-day writer’s intensive with bestselling authors Jennifer Louden and Michael Neill in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Through a combination of lecture, practical exercises, guided meditations, and integrated writing time, this intensive 3 day workshop will give you take-away tools and hands-on experience in the art and science of bringing your best self to the process of writing. You will leave knowing exactly what you want to do next with your writing and with the embodied confidence to make it so. Best of all, you will learn Jennifer and Michael’s trademarked ‘Next steps’ process so that you will always know what to do next, whatever phase of a writing project you may be working on. |
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Business Please do not reprint any portion of this newsletter without contacting Jennifer@comfortqueen.com. Feel free, however, to forward it to friends and associates in its entirety. Copyright 2007 !remove |
