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WILDBUILT Becky Chambers (2021). A Psalm for the Wildbuilt. Chambers has a BA in Theatre Arts and published several science fiction novels. This story takes place on a moon in the land of Panga where robots of an earlier era have gained self-awareness and live in the wilderness apart from humans doing whatever they wish while humans live in sustainable villages..."sibling Dex" (the main character) is disenchanted with his comfortable life and becomes a "tea monk" traveling in a makeshift coach, setting up temporary shop in different villages to listen and serve tea (his listening skills help him determine what tea to serve)...Dex meets a robot named Mosscap on the outskirts of the villages, in the wild, and they strike up a friendship and travel together, the robot wanting to know what do people need and how it can help them. there are philosophical points throughout the story, AND one main practice that we can all do is LISTEN with full attention to another's s...
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SECRET OF IRELAND Susanne O'Leary (2021). The Lost Secret of Ireland. O'Leary has no formal degrees that i could verify...with 30+ novels to her credit, she is a prolific author. This is the 2nd of a series of novels set along the Irish coast in a place called Sandy Cove where the Starlight Cottages (a former coast guard station) are...each book in the series explores the life of another character that lives/visits one of the cottages. In this story Ella, an artist, recovering from an accident, is visited by 85-year-old Lucille (best friend of her mother who recently died) who aids in her recovery with positive, go get em, zest for living attitudes...In time, Ella falls in love with Rory, one of Lucille's sons, and the big secret is revealed: one of the former Starlight Cottage residents was convicted of a minor crime, sent to an Australian penal colony, and after serving their time, started a prosperous business and became involved in politics, and now has returned to Irel...
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INTUITION TOOLS Joel Pearson (2024). The Intuition Toolkit:                                            The New Science of Knowing What                                            Without Knowing Why. Pearson has a PhD in neuroscience and to date has over 100 scientific publications. Intuition is the use of unconscious information to improve decisions/outcomes [this narrow definition of intution makes it amenable to research in the lab]. Evidence for unconscious processes of intution include:  proprioception (knowing where our body parts are),  vestibular perception (balance and motion),  interoception (perception of anything inside the body),  blindsight (navigating objects without being able to see them) and...
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WHAT'S FUNNY Frank MacHovec (2008). Humor What's Funny. MacHovec has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is the author of several books...this is a short book of 90 pages. the 1st part includes definitions and theories of humor the 2nd part, about 2/3 of the book, describes and provides examples of different TYPES of humor, e.g., jokes, puns, satire--some of them may not resonate well for the younger generation as they refer to examples pre-2000 the best part of the book is the last 3 pages where he provides questions for the reader to reflect on the sources of humor in their life including: t.v. shows, comedians, music, books, cartoons, jokes...his overall advice is to play more, be a kid, game, engage in music, have fun! there is a helpful reference to Albert Ellis (creator of rationale therapy) on using humor in therapy to laugh at oneself, obtain new perspectives, and develop paradoxical thinking (unfortunately, there are no details on HOW to do this)  practice: ask what resou...
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INDUCTION Max Highstein (2019). Guided Meditation Handbook. Highstein has a BA in Music, and two MA's in Counseling Psychology and Spiritual Psychology.  This book covers how to create audio-guided meditations and includes 12 scripts for various topics including: relaxation, pain management, sleep, processing grief, decision making, meditation. The process of creating a guided meditation includes: Induction help the listener shift attention from normal waking consciousness to a relaxed and receptive state of consciousness through slow deep breathing combined with words like comfortable, relaxed, slow, deep, rest, secure, settle... Transition a further shift accomplished through a metaphor like: ascending or decending a stairway or hill/mountain, elevator...(depending on if you want to increase or decrease the energy), walking through a doorway, stepping onto a train, boat, plane, or getting on a horse, elephant, unicorn... Main body of the program topics might vary from health, gro...
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BEAUTIFUL MIND Edward De Bono (2004). How to Have a Beautiful Mind. DeBono has a PhD from Oxford and wrote over 67 books at the time of this writing. cultivating a beautiful mind is about exploring and enjoying the art of conversation instead of argumentation and debate... some of the tips for practice in conversations include: asking "what if" questions to stimulate interest noticing adjectives...connections to another's feelings for topics that interest you, ask: "tell me more about..." use the 6 thinking hats to EXPLORE any topic...the hats are symbolically represented as colors: white=gather information red=focus on emotions black=look critically yellow=see the positive green=explore creative options blue=plan/organize to explore, say: "put your...hat on" for a controversial topic, put ALL the ideas down in parallel, look for: common ground and  points of difference as hypotheses to be tested new information means a new decision have fun by learing...
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CONTEMPLATIVE MOVES Richard Rudd (2020). The Art of Contemplation . Rudd has a Master's in literature and metaphysics from the University of Edinburgh. 3 techniques and 3 confirmations, along with practical applications, are presented. 1.MENTAL technique: Pausing , to notice lifes pauses and enjoy them, to also intentionally create pauses, e.g. pause for 3 minutes every 3 hours... confirmation: Insight --open to greater space, relaxation, inner stillness 2.EMOTIONS technique: Pivoting , within the pause, intuit what's happening, e.g. green-yellow-red... confirmation: Breakthrough , to allow, accept, embrace whatever is going on 3.PHYSICAL technique: Merging , after the pivot, merge with whatever the experience is with love, friendship, and gentleness confirmation: Epiphany , transformation   my take: i see the value in pausing and noticing what's going on (1&2), but i'm confused with the "physical" merging being an epiphany, for me, it makes more sense to ...
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