Emotions

Whose Life Is It Anyway? by Nina Brown

When to stop Taking Care of Their Feelings & Start Taking Care of Your Own.

This is a great little book aimed at those of us who tend to take on other people’s emotions a little more readily than we would like. It’s a relatively short and easy read, covering topics relating to emotional boundaries, and how to avoid becoming enmeshed in or manipulated by other people and their emotional states.

The early chapters deal with emotional susceptibility, avoiding taking responsibility for other people’s feelings, and allowing other people to experience their own emotional states without negatively impacting on us. Later chapters deal with psychological and emotional strength, creativity, spirituality and improving relationships.

There are lots of exercises in the book similar to those I was doing with my life coach at the time that I read it, so I skimmed over them… but they sounded pretty good and surely … Continue reading…

By Graham Stoney, ago

Chasing Bohemia by Carmen Michael

In this book, subtitled A year of living recklessly in Rio de Janeiro, Carmen recounts her adventures seeking a bohemian existence during her first year in Brazil. I was first attracted to it for two reasons: my own somewhat less adventurous attempts to embrace a bohemian lifestyle of my own, and the fact that it was about Brazil; which I found interesting given that I play in a samba band in my home town of Sydney.

Carmen’s accounts of her intrepid adventures in the favelas (slums) of Rio make for interesting reading, and her immersion in the samba culture of the lower classes seemed pretty much complete. At one point she when she ran out of money, she resorted to running tours of the favelas for overly-game tourists, who probably had no idea what they were in for. I’m not sure whether the book has made me more or … Continue reading…

By Graham Stoney, ago