There are quite a few phrases that float around my periphery and every once and a while sink in (or bubble up as the case may be).
Yoga man Baron Baptiste says, “In order to heal, you have to feel,” meaning you have to acknowledge your emotions before you can get over personal pain/trauma.
“Anger is fuel” comes from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
Pretty much everything Chuck Palaniuk has written sends me into a trance of heightened perception. I didn’t realize until recently that he’s part of a genre/tradition called transgressional literature, where the goal is to experience life on the edge in order to feel more fully human.
Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn’s Gulag Archipelago books were absolutely mindblowing for me. The idea that such an existence and system of government could be perpetrated and perpetuated on a nation of people for so long and with such textbook absurdity I still can barely fathom.
My therapist’s suggestion that I ask myself, “What’s one thing you can do right now to feel better?” Tremedously helpful.
How to Succeed With Women by Louis and Copeland has irreversibly improved my dating life.
The Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of books as well as The 4-Hour Workweek have enlightened me to the fact that money is a game limited only by your perspective and understanding of the rules. “The Secret” video also helped me understand this, albeit differently. Prior to that, Your Money or Your Life taught me how to save money, even on a very meager income.
In college, I took a class on “Third Cinema,” which is roughly third world cinema or minority cinema in a first world context. Some films espoused an “anti-Hollywood” model with no “star” in the picture but instead a collective of actors, usually representing a peasant class. Some were political films that were banned in their respective countries. A Dutch film used six languages. “Dumb and Dumber” came out while I was taking this class, and the vapidness and seeming waste of resources compared to the earnestness of third cinema sent me into orbit. I’ve never again looked at Hollywood blockbusters in the same light.
Oh. Peace Pilgrim and the book by the same name. An elder woman who shed her identity and possessions and walked the United States for 28 years during the Korean War and Vietnam talking about peace. She only carried a comb and a toothbrush and only accepted food and shelter if it was offered or if she found it. I almost walked home to Albuquerque from North Carolina as a result of reading the book.
Michael Pollan’s recent works, of course.
A funny one. I finished reading Patriot Games which includes a van full of bad guys who pull alongside Jack Ryan, slide open the door, and open fire. At a three way intersection, I was in line to make a left hand turn and noticed a van for sale parked on the “dead end” side of the intersection. My mind wandered to the book, my left turn went way wide, and I crashed into the curb.
Finally, a good friend of mine counseling me on what to do when I was sort of at a crossroads and only barely self sufficient. She said, “you’ll know what to do and make the right decision.” Her words hit me in the gut in the right way, and gave me the confidence to take the next steps.
This was a good exercise, Marina. Great Question!
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