Monday, December 5, 2011

Your Inner Critic is a Drunk

My yoga teacher is kind of a genius.

This morning in class, as we were moving into Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose), she said to us, "Treat your Inner Critic like a drunk friend at a party.  Let them babble whatever nonsense they're going to babble, but put them in the backseat and tell them firmly that you're the one driving the car."

See what I mean about genius?

What I love about this way of approaching our Inner Critic is that it acknowledges the Inner Critic's existence without giving over our power.  I think it is really hard to completely silence your Inner Critic.  In fact, I think it is nearly impossible.  But if we can look at them like the drunk friend we've all helped get home from a party, we can see how powerless they are.  

So today as I sit down to write, I'm going to hand my Inner Critic a bag so he doesn't make a mess of my car, and let him spew nonsense while I work.

What are some of the ways you deal with your Inner Critic?  I'd love to hear about them!

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Don't forget to scroll and comment on my previous post The Season of Reading to be entered in a book giveaway!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Season of Reading


Once upon a time, I was a poor college student.  I didn't have a lot of money to spend on luxuries.  And any book besides a textbook was a luxury for me.

So I used to go to a bookstore, pull a book off the shelf, find a quiet, private corner, and read.  One day I was in Barnes & Noble, running my fingers along the spines of the books, when my hand stopped at a beautiful red-and-gold hardcover.  I pulled it off the shelf.  It was Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence, by Nick Bantock.

For those of you unfamiliar with this book, let me describe it.  Griffin & Sabine is no ordinary book.  It is a collection of letters between two people who live in different worlds.  The pages are printed with handwritten postcards, and there are actual envelopes affixed to some of the pages, with a letter inside that you draw out to read.  It is a masterpiece of art and literature, lushly romantic.  I fell in love with this book the moment I opened it.

I wanted to own this book so badly.  But it was expensive.  More than that, it was part of a trilogy, and the boxed set of all three books was in the range of $50.  That was a fortune to me at the time.  So instead of buying, I returned again and again to the bookstore, pulled the books off the shelf, and read them over and over.

Later that year, I met a boy.  He was sweet and funny and interesting.  After a few dates, I deemed him worthy enough to share Griffin & Sabine with.  So I took him to the bookstore and introduced him.  I watched his face as he read the book for the first time.  "This is amazing," he told me after he'd turned the last page.

Worthy, indeed.

He was a poor college student like me.  But when my birthday rolled around a couple of months later, he handed me a heavy package.  I knew what it was before I ripped the paper off.

It was the complete boxed set of the trilogy.

That boxed set sits on the bookshelf that I have reserved for Very Special Books (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and The Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce).  And the boy?

I married him.

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What is the best book you've ever received as a gift?  Or given?  Comment below, and you'll be entered in a contest to win a trio of hardcover paranormal YA novels: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong, Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston, and Wings by Aprilynne Pike.


Follow this blog, and you'll be entered twice.  Retweet or Share on Facebook and you'll earn another entry.  Follow me on Twitter, and you'll get one more!

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Happy Holidays!