Tag Archives: Self-help

The Science of Well-Being

(Posted on behalf Sierra) Through these turbulent times, it’s difficult to unplug from the news circuit and prioritize mental well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic has left many of us with barren schedules and feelings of anxiety. I myself have been very tempted to close the curtains and withdraw into the comforts of my bed, drowning all worries in Netflix and true crime – a temptation I regularly succumb to (not to brag, but I finished streaming Tiger King in two and a half days). However, soon after this nation-wide shutdown began, I made a decision to take advantage of the rare opportunity that’s come with this devastating crisis: free time.

Big-top Bonanza

Big-top Bonanza

I’ve never had so much of it! Maybe in elementary school when summer vacation promised limitless fun and presented me with Phineas and Ferb’s “annual problem”: “finding a good way to spend it”. Except, this isn’t a vacation, and leaving our homes isn’t a viable option at the moment, so that rules out both fighting a mummy and climbing up the Eiffel Tower. Alas, in search of a solo indoor activity, I turned to Coursera.

Coursera is an online learning platform, founded by Stanford professors. The website has free online modules and certifications from internationally acclaimed universities. It’s a tome of anything you could ever want to learn! If I’m being honest, it was a bit daunting at first: did I want to study Italian? Graphic Design? Water Supply and Sanitation Policy? The world was my digital oyster!

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Feel-better reads (and listens) to keep you going

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Although it looks like Ontario is approaching the hump on this wave of COVID-19, we’ve still got a while to go before social distancing begins to loosen up (and even then, it won’t be by much right away!) In the meantime, I know a lot of us are starting to feel the days drag, and it’s getting harder to feel motivated to do… anything sometimes. I’m not huge on self-help books in general, but I do read a ton of advice columns (which can often scratch a similar itch of providing a calming, positive perspective on life) and  back when I listened to audiobooks compulsively, I did hit upon a few self-help-like books that gave me a better view on life and the world.

Here’s a few that you can access with your VPL library card:

Brene Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection

None of us is perfect (of course!), but most of us are also our own worst critics, magnifying our own flaws so much we forget about everything else. In this book, Brown provides 10 reframing tools for approaching ourselves with more kindness and compassion, and rediscovering our self-worth. Available in ebook form on OverDrive, but since I also find Brene’s narration of her books calming in and of itself, you might also want to check out Daring Greatly and Rising Strong.

 

Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things

I can’t say enough good things about Cheryl Strayed’s approach to the advice column! When she took over Dear Sugar, she blew all conventions out of the water by meeting her advice-seekers with raw vulnerability of her own. This collection of some of her best and most widely relevant, evergreen columns is touching, heart-wrenching, and satisfying to read. Available in ebook or audiobook on OverDrive (and you get more of Cheryl’s great advice on the Dear Sugar podcast, where she partners with fellow former Dear Sugar author Steve Almond to give some more off-the-cuff advice.)

Alison Green’s Ask A Manager

Ok, this may not seem particularly relevant at the moment, but while Green’s advice is career- and work-focused, her no-nonsense additude and clear sense of what’s fair and just always helps me feel grounded, no matter what I’m struggling with in any given moment. Her column lately has been about as depressing as you might imagine under the circumstances, so that’s why its the perfect time to revisit this collection of classic advice, available to VPL users in ebook and audiobook through our partnership with Markham Public Library on OverDrive

I’d love to hear what your favourite advice writers or self-help experts are! Give me your recommendations in the comments 🙂

Break the Silence

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Image result for bell lets talk 2020In the Harry Potter universe, a sense of cold, creeping dread announces the arrival of Dementors, foul creatures of darkness who sweep away happiness and deal in despair. “Get too near a Dementor,” Professor Lupin tells Harry in The Prisoner of Azkaban, “and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you.” Dementors might be real, dangerous monsters for our wizard hero, but for author JK Rowling, Dementors are an avatar for depression. While writing the beloved series, Rowling was suffering from a bout of depression herself, which she described as “that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad.” This, incidentally, is almost exactly how Lupin describes Dementors to Harry. 

Unfortunately for us Muggles living in a boring, non-magical world, things like depression don’t exist in a solid form. We can’t shout “expecto patronum!” at mental illness and chase it away with a helpful Patronus. But there are some steps we can take to combat it, such as the simplest, most obvious, but often most difficult starting point: talking about it. When Harry faints upon his first encounter with a Dementor, he is filled with shame. Nobody else is fainting, so why is he? It isn’t until Professor Lupin opens the door to a conversation that Harry learns why he is so affected by the creatures, and how to fight them off. Today is Bell Let’s Talk Day, a day dedicated to breaking the silence on mental illness through conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and text messaging with the hashtag #BellLetsTalk. 

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