When we think of summer, we often imagine lazy Sunday afternoons, sandy beaches, iced tea in hand, flowers swaying in the summer breeze, and the comforting warmth of the sun on our skin. But nestling among these idyllic experiences is a quieter, equally rewarding pastime: reading. Whether you’re chilling on the beach, relaxing in a hammock, or escaping the heat indoors, summer is the perfect time to dive into a good book.

Furthermore, while reading is a year-round pleasure, it offers some unique benefits during the summer months. From mental rejuvenation to cognitive stimulation and emotional wellness, here’s why books should be your must-pack item this summer.

1. Mental Escape Minus a Big Price Tag

Summer awakens our wanderlust, enticing us to explore new lands, but traveling away from home isn’t always possible. That’s where reading fills the gap. How? Reading offers a passport to anywhere in the world—and beyond. Don’t think so? A page-turning novel can transport you to 19th-century England, a dystopian future, or the streets of a bustling Mediterranean city—all without ever leaving your chair.

This escapism isn’t just enjoyable; it’s beneficial. Immersing yourself in a story can reduce stress, improve mood, and provide a healthy distraction from daily worries. According to a 2009 study from the University of Sussex, reading can reduce stress by up to 68%, potentially making it more effective than music, walking, or even tea.

2. A Brain Break That Strengthens Your Brain

While bringing the heat, summer can also come with a drop in mental stimulation, especially for adults juggling busy schedules and students maxed out on school studies. Reading fun novels or science fiction, romance and mystery books can help keep the mind active even while you’re on vacation, without adding an ounce of stress to your life.

Although you don’t recognize it, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes (in your brain) while you’re reading books you enjoy. For starters, reading exercises the brain in ways similar to how a gym workout strengthens your body. Furthermore, reading enhances vocabulary, improves focus and concentration, and can even increase empathy by helping readers understand different perspectives. Regular summer reading helps maintain cognitive sharpness, making the return to school or work (if you stay a summer work break) smoother and less jarring.

3. Building a Lifelong Reading Habit With Ease

Summer’s slower pace creates the perfect environment to develop or strengthen a lifelong reading habit. Without the pressures of deadlines, meetings, and packed schedules, you’re more likely to sit down with a book and stay with it until you reach the final page. And the more often you read, the more likely you can deepen your appreciation for books, regardless of the season.

Therefore, use this summer as a time to explore different authors and different genres. Perhaps you’ll come to love romance novels, historical fiction, sci-fi, memoirs, biographies or poetry. Trying new books that cross two or more different genres in a relaxed setting will do more than expand your literary horizons; it can also make you a stronger thinker and conversationalist.

Smart Tip: Start small. If it’s been years since you’ve read a novel, read a short work of fiction. Then, commit to reading a book a month or even a book once a quarter. As you discover stories that you love reading, you might naturally start to read more. For example, if you start reading a short 100-page novel once every three months and keep at it, within less than a year, you might enjoy reading one to two books a month.

4. Building Strong Connections Through Summer Books

Summer often brings more opportunities for social connection, whether it’s a family vacation, a weekend camping, or late-night get-togethers with friends. Enhancing these experiences with books can create lasting memories and strengthen relationship connections.

This year, consider starting a summer book club with friends or family. It could be as simple as choosing a book to read, scheduling a day and time to review the book as a group, and discussing your thoughts and feelings about the book over iced tea or lunch. Engaging in summer reading as a family can improve communication and strengthen closeness.

Books also offer conversation starters. Discussing themes, characters, or plot twists from your latest read can help connect you with others and spark deeper conversations than small talk allows.

5. Reading Outdoors Welcomes Wonder

Reading books outside during the summer adds a spark to your senses, bringing greater aliveness to seemingly ordinary experiences. Think about it. Music playing in the background, birds singing overhead, the feel of grass beneath your feet — it all contributes to a richer reading experience. Topping that, research suggests that being in nature improves focus and mood, so pairing it with a book is a powerful combination.

Feeling adventurous? Bring a summer book with you as you venture out on a hike or bring a book with you to the beach as you rest on a towel near cooling waves. These outdoor scenes are made better, memorable, when you’re reading a good book.

6. Fueling Creativity and Curiosity

Summer weather makes the season a great time of exploration—both external and internal. Reading during summer can stoke your curiosity, inspire new interests, or even ignite a creative spark, pulling you toward a favorite hobby you’d abandoned years ago. Whether it’s a travel memoir that makes you want to explore new cultures, a business book that motivates a side hustle, or a novel that inspires you to start journaling, books can plant the seeds of possibility.

In fact, creative people credit reading as a key ingredient in their growth and success. Imagining characters and settings in action while you read flexes your creative muscles.

7. Clearing Internal Blocks with Summertime Books

Let’s face it – Today’s tech world finds many of us spending long hours glued to computer screens. Summer book reading breaks this habit, even if only temporarily, giving your mind and emotions the chance to relax, and you a chance to catch a full breath. Swapping your smartphone for a paperback can reduce screen fatigue and improve sleep quality—especially if you’re reading before bed instead of scrolling social media feeds or reading news posts.

Books also offer uninterrupted focus, free from pings, alerts, or messages. This kind of deep focus is rare and valuable in our fast-paced world. Summer book reading gives you the opportunity to reclaim your attention in rewarding ways.

8. Boosting Confidence Through Summer Reading

Finishing a book — especially one that challenges you—can be a confidence builder. Whether it’s a dense classic, a nonfiction deep dive, or a self-improvement book, completing a reading goal offers a sense of achievement.

Even light, entertaining reads can boost confidence in your ability to follow through on a goal. And when you reflect on your summer and see a stack of finished books or a fully checked-off reading list, it’s something to feel proud of.

Final Word: A Season to Savor, A Story to Remember

Summer is fleeting, but the stories you read during the season can linger in your memory for years. Whether you’re escaping into fantasy realms, exploring new ideas, or reconnecting with yourself through reflective memoirs, books offer one of the most enriching ways to spend your time.

So, as you pack your bag for vacation—or simply a sunny afternoon on the porch or at the park—don’t forget to bring a summer book along. It might just turn an ordinary moment into something magical.

MEET BIANCA PENSY ABA (https://www.biancapensyaba.com/) was born on May 27, 1993, in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and lived in her native country until she turned eighteen. She is the author of the books ACROSS BOTH SIDES OF THE MIRROR and 52 WEEKS A PARTY OF ONE. She lives in Allen, Texas, where she enjoys picnicking, reading, hiking, watching terrible dating shows, sipping a glass of wine on her balcony, and doing whatever else she is in the mood for.

BLH:  Who or what inspired your love for writing books?

BPA:     Being an avid reader and having a vivid imagination inspired my love for writing books.

BLH:    Congratulations on earning a scholarship to Lighthouse Christian School in Antioch, TN! It must have taken courage to leave your home country and come somewhere you’d never lived before. Tell us what those early months in a new country were like.

BPA:     The first months were equally amazing and challenging. Challenging because English is not my first language, so I was still learning, and amazing because I had an incredible host family that was incredibly supportive.

BLH:     You’ve met the challenge of significant change at least once with your move to the U.S. Share 1 to 2 tips for people who are scared to make a big change (i.e., job change, relationship change, aging with grace).

BPA:     Fear will always be there, but once the certainty is there, there will also be excitement underneath. My tip would be to take the leap in the right direction, and trust that it will work out in the end––with time and perseverance, it always does.

BLH:     Tell us about your early writing experiences. Did you start writing short stories, plays, novels, etc.? What attracted you to this writing form?

BPA:     I started with novels. This is the storytelling form that I consume the most, so when I started writing, it was the one that felt the most natural.

BLH:     Please give us a brief overview of “52 Weeks a Party of One”.

BPA:     ’52 Weeks a Party of One’ is about a woman, Aisha, who goes on a year-long self-discovery and healing journey after finding out that her best friend and boyfriend are having an affair.

BLH:     How long were Aisha and her boyfriend (James) together, and how deep was their relationship?

BPA:     Aisha and James were together for two years, and they were considering getting married.

BLH:     Would you describe Aisha as a runner or someone who faces her challenges head-on? Why do you say this?

BPA:     Aisha is definitely a runner. She leaves Denver and goes to Dallas because she doesn’t want to face her challenges head-on. Part of her journey is learning how to face her challenges in a healthy manner.

BLH:     Please give us a brief overview of “Across Both Sides of the Mirror”.

BPA:     “Across Both Sides of the Mirror” follows Nova, a woman who feels like she’s not where she wants to be in life. She purchases a magic mirror that allows her to travel to an alternate reality where she gets to experience the life she wants and become the best version of herself. Ultimately, she has to decide between the ideal fantasy and the flawed reality.

BLH:     Where did you get the idea for the story?

BPA:     The idea came from a ‘what if’ moment. What if someone had said this or done this instead? How differently would their life turn out? I wanted to explore a character who gets to experience both paths and decides between escaping to the fantasy world or facing reality.

BLH:     Does Nova know that she’s living in a fantasy? When and how does she come to realize this?

BPA:     Yes, she knows. The person who sells her the mirror lets her know.

BLH:     Who are some of your favorite authors? How has their work impacted you as a writer?

BPA:     Toni Morrison and James Baldwin are two authors who significantly impacted my writing.

BLH:     What writing process do you follow (e.g., outlines, character sketches)?

BPA:     I’m a pantser. Usually, I narrow down the themes and the message I want to emphasize. After I come up with a title, I write from there.

BLH:     Please share three to four steps that you take that you’ve found to be effective at getting the word out about your stories and books.

BPA:     The most effective steps that I take to get the word out about my stories are:

1. Send advanced reader copies to as many people as I can
2. Run Facebook and Amazon ads
3. Go to festivals and other book events

BLH:     Are you working on any other new books or other works? If so, please give us a glimpse into what you’re working on.

BPA:     I’m currently working on a story set in Cameroon and the U.S. It will also follow a woman going on a journey to get something she’s after. It’s still early, so I can’t share much more, but I’m very excited about this one and can’t wait for it to be out in the world.

BLH:     What last words of encouragement or advice would you like to leave with Book Lover’s Haven subscribers?

BPA:     I’d like to encourage them to go after what they want. It might feel scary or too out of reach, but with work, time, and perseverance, I believe we can make any dream come true.

By Freelance Writer and Novel Writer Denise Turney

Writing heals because it helps you exercise the frontal lobe of your brain. Writing also helps you to tap into parts of yourself that might otherwise go unnoticed. Furthermore, it’s these unrecognized parts of you that may push you to think, say or behave in ways that you might like (or not like). Let one or more parts of your inner self remain out of your awareness and you could say, think or do things that you regret, only to feel like you have no choice except to engage in these behaviors, thoughts or conversations.

How Much Do You Know About The Connection Between Writing And Your Brain’s Frontal Lobe?

But how can writing help you to discover (bring out of hiding) and, even heal, hidden parts of yourself? For starters, when you write, you active your brain’s frontal lobe.¹ According to Medicinenet, the frontal lobe helps regulate emotions or mood.² These emotions run the gamut, from peacefulness to happiness or sorrow to anger.

Other functions that the frontal lobe of the brain performs include planning, self-control, concentration and decision-making. The latter can have lasting impact. Think back to a time when you weren’t alert or weren’t concentrating enough and you made a regretful decision.

Maybe you were overcome with frustration that heated its way into anger and you decided to walk out and quit your job. Two days later, your rent or mortgage bill arrived and you regretted your decision.

Reasons To Add Writing To Your Healthy Brain Activities

Treat your frontal lobe with care through writing, a healthy diet and other actions and you could avoid turning a host of issues into hard-to-break habits. The decision to leave a job because you’re feeling angry is just one example of the effects of poor decision-making. Others are:

• Spending money that you know you don’t have
• Breaking up a healthy relationship only to wildly pursue a harmful relationship
• Avoiding decisions or actions that you need to take to keep moving forward
• Eating value-empty food and drinking beverages that have time and again been proven to destroy organs
• Waiting until the last minute to review a project it would take two or more weeks to edit, improve and finalize

Easy Ways To Start Writing To Heal

A good fact about writing is that it’s relatively easy. You don’t need a degree or years of experience to start writing. Despite what you might tell yourself, you also don’t need to plot out a bestseller to gain benefits from writing.

If you’re feeling cautious, consider writing in a journal. Depending on when you grew up, you might remember writing in a diary as a kid. When I was a kid, department and discount stores sold little diaries that came with a key lock.

Back then, I wrote about guys I liked and dreams I wanted to see come true. There was something about locking those early diaries that made me feel as if I was free to express myself however I wanted.

Today, I don’t need a key lock to feel empowered to freely express myself while writing in a journal. In fact, if you’re new to writing, journal writing might be a good entry point.

Journal Writing As A Healing Path

Also, although I’ve been writing novels for decades, it’s still very healing when I write in a blank journal. Those journals house my dreams that occur while I’m tucked in REM mode, daily experiences I feel happy, relieved, anxious or concerned about.

Opportunities are wide when it comes to how you could use journal writing to heal. As examples, you could write in journals to heal in one or more of these ways:

• Write poems about what you’re feeling or experiencing (you could turn these poems into a poetry book and bless others with what you write)
• Liven your writing with sketches, recipes or drawings
• Include pictures of people or events in your journal on pages you write about these people or events, especially if they have left a strong impression on you

Another thing that you could do is to set a day when you’ll write in your journal. This could keep you from going weeks without doing any journal writing. Or you could let the writing flow. Do this and you might notice that there are specific days when you generally pick up your journal and start writing.

Expressing Yourself Through Writing Could Free Up Energy For Healing

Approach journal writing with honesty and you might discover the root of a habit you want to get free of. Hidden parts of you might finally feel heard. Those parts might bring more to your awareness.

Should you branch out from journal writing into novel writing, don’t be surprised if your book’s characters seem to communicate with you in dreams. Some writers have said that they were directed by characters to make certain events happen in a novel.

Who knows? That could be a hidden part of those writers seeking to express itself.

Writing To Heal As A Show Of Self-Value

Expressing yourself through writing could help you to clear inner blocks. This, in turn, could free up energy that you could use to complete actions that open you up to receive more good. At the same time, you’ll be using your brain in healthy ways.

Neuo Tray shares that, “Writing requires the use of all brain structures working in a joint and coordinated manner, structures associated with thought, language and memory.” As you write, you can also sharpen your creativity, encouraging even more self-expression.

And self-expression may indicate that you’re trusting yourself. It could also show that you value what all parts of you are experiencing and want to share.

Resources:

1. What Part Of The Brain Controls Handwriting? – NeuroTray
2. What Emotions Does the Frontal Lobe Control? (medicinenet.com)

By Books Author Denise Turney

Women are more than four billion strong globally, by the numbers. Confident, optimistic, effective communicators, empathetic, visionary, fearless, faithful and nurturing are among the many advantageous attributes that women possess. Leadership skills and community-building experience are other winning attributes. Clearly, it would take over a year to celebrate a fraction of the contributions that women have made and continue to make.¹

Celebrating Creative Women – Rebirth and New Growth

March, a time of rebirth and new growth, is a splendid season to acknowledge and spotlight the immeasurable impact that women make. Hopefully, you and the communities you live, work, and engage in set aside occasions to honor the many successes women have made and are making in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), families, education, ministry, government, healthcare, business, communities, entertainment, travel and hospitality.²

Among these focal areas, there are women leaders like Gladys West, a pioneer who played a crucial role in the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS)³; Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for her work in chemistry and physics; and Sau Lan Wu, whose work helped in the discovery of Charm Quark and Higgs boson.⁴

Here at chistell.com, we’re celebrating the power of creative women around the world. Toni Morrison, Amelia Earhart, Maya Angelou, Barbara Streisand, Sarah Al-Suhaimi, Wangari Maathai, Lucille Ball, Amy Tan and Sima Ved are innovative and creative trailblazers.⁵ Their work spans across literature, aircraft, song, film and creative entrepreneurship.

Discover These Strong Creative Women

Following are brief overviews of strong creative women around the world. See how many other great creative women you can discover this month as well as throughout the year.

Frida Kahlo – Earth-born on July 6,1907 in Mexico City, Mexico, Frida Kahlo is a world-renowned painter. Her paintings captured the wonder of nature, Mexican artifacts and everyday life. Realism, fantasy and rich colors are hallmarks of her creative works. She continued to create despite the fact that she dealt with chronic pain. Over the course of her earth-life she is said to have painted between 100 and 200 paintings. So enriching is her work and her life that a movie, aptly named “Frida”, wherein actress Salma Hayek plays the lead role, has been made to capture a glimpse of her greatness.

Yaa Gyasi – Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom are deeply engaging, powerful novels penned by Ghana-born author Yaa Gyasi. Reading Yaa Gyasi’s work is giving yourself chance to explore painful and rewarding real-life histories through multi-faceted characters in a way that makes you feel part of the story. While yet a child, Yaa Gyasi discovered what it feels like to be native-African and an American immigrant after her parents relocated from Africa to Alabama. Her experiences make subtle and not-so-subtle appearances in her writings. For her work, Yaa Gyasi has already won the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award, the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” honor, and the American Book Award.

Courageous Women Creators

Zaha Hadid – Architecture was a field that Zaha Hadid excelled in. Earth-born in Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq in 1950, Zaha Hadid used painting as part of her design process. Among her architectural works there’s the London Aquatics Centre which she designed for the 2012 Olympics, the Guangzhou Opera House and the MAXXI Museum in Rome. Zaha Hadid went into history books when she won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004, becoming the first woman to win the prize.

Joni Mitchell – Widely considered to be a musical legend, Joni Mitchell was earth-born on November 7, 1943 in Alberta, Canada. She came into her own during the late 1960s and the 1970s. Folk music was very popular when Joni Mitchell came on big in the music scene. Blue, Ladies of the Canyon, Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns are among Joni Mitchell’s earlier esteemed works. A host of singers have sampled her works, creating new hit songs that have a root in Joni Mitchell’s original works. During her career, she has influenced pioneering singers-songwriters-musicians like Alanis Morisette, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins and Jaco Pastorius.  

Jane Austen – Think about romance novels and it’s hard not to consider Jane Austen. In fact, depending on where you grew up, you may have studied Jane Austen and her novels while in secondary school. Although her novels were in the romance genre, Jane Austen wrote about everyday life rather than idealizing relationships in her stories. During her 41 years of earth-life, Jane Austen finished six novels with Pride and Prejudice being the best-selling of the six. Other novels that she authored include Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Mansfield Park. Over 30 million copies of her books have been sold.

Creative Greats to Celebrate During Women’s History Month and Beyond

Toni Morrison – Currently reading Toni Morrison’s novel, A Mercy, I am gifted with this chance to treasure the award-winning author’s work. Earth-born in Lorain, Ohio, this Pulitzer Prize winning author doesn’t pull back when it comes to creating stories about the African American experience. Early in her career, Toni Morrison worked as an editor, working for Random House and a textbook publisher. Her editing work found her sharpening books by or about icons such as Muhammad Ali and Angela Davis. Sula, The Bluest Eye, Beloved and Song of Solomon are among Toni Morrison’s other books. Later in her career, she worked as a professor at Princeton University. In addition to writing adult novels, Toni Morrison wrote children’s books and short stories.

Joy Harjo – Poet laureate, Joy Harjo, is an educator, author, poet and performer. A member of the Muscogee Nation, Joy Harjo is the author of 10 poetry books and children’s books, including The Good Luck Cat, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, Catching the Light and Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light. As a youth, she attended the Institute of Native American Arts in New Mexico, Joy Harpo started expressing herself creatively as a child. In addition to using her talents to create unique art, she strives to develop art that introduces the truth of Native Americans to a broader audience, shedding light on erroneous perceptions of her culture.

Vera Wang – Early in this iconic Chinese fashion designer’s career, she worked for Ralph Lauren and applied her skills with Vogue. When 1990 ushered in a new decade, Vera Wang launched her own business, a bridal gown boutique. Highly skilled and creative, she has designed gowns that have been worn by women such as Mariah Carey, Chelsea Clinton, Michelle Obama and Hayley Williams. Her designs are sharp, unique, chic statement makers. Often designing in black, white or a combination of the two colors, Vera Wang has expanded her fashion catalog to include bridal gowns, everyday fashionwear, fragrance, eyewear, home designs and jewelry.

The more strong creative women you become familiar with, the more easily you can remove the belief that women can be held back. Even while living in fractured or limiting environments, women rise and in ways that benefit the larger human community. This month and every day throughout the year, we celebrate strong creative women around the world, brave innovators, and we celebrate YOU!

Keep up with what women writers are doing by subscribing to The Book Lover’s Haven for free!

Resources:

1. 65 Famous Women in History Who Changed the World | Marie Claire
2. 25 inspiring TED Talks by some of the world’s most creative women | Creative Boom
3. Gladys West | Biography, Accomplishments, & GPS | Britannica
4. Fairygodboss
5. 30 Creative Women Every Girl (& Boy) Should Know – Babble Dabble Do

By Books Author Denise Turney

You’ve probably heard it too. Real “significant” success takes time, a long time. There are quotes lining walls, shared on social media, and framed in beautiful artwork – all vowing that success takes time. But does it?

Which Side of Time and Success Are You On?

Then, there’s an opposite belief, a thought on the other side of the fence, if you will. Within this belief, big success can happen just-like-that, in the spur of a moment . . . in a second. Today, rooted in the motivational-thought world, success, including first life wins, happens soon after you align your vibrations with the success you want.

Repeating positive affirmations, meditating on what you want, reading positive self-help books, and creating success focused vision boards are tools that are said to be effective regardless of which side of success and time you function on. Another element that applies regardless of your notions about how much or little success is tied to time is YOU.

Do you believe that YOU can achieve and/or receive the big success you want? It’s key.

Are you willing to consider it?

Success Keys You Hold

If it is you who must make the decisions and take the actions that take you from where you are right now to where you want to be, how could you decide and act if you don’t believe you could ever (ever possibly) get what you want? Therefore, when it comes to navigating big success, those precious first life wins, the first step rest with you and only you.

After you decide to not only win or succeed but that you CAN win, you will almost certainly require the support of one or more people. For example, if you want to write compelling stories that possess lasting depth, you need to deepen your life experiences, partner with editors, and read great works written by other writers.

Should you want to sell books that you write, and perhaps even sell enough books to afford a full income writing and selling books, you’ll need to gain commercial writing skills. You’ll need to learn how to turn your writing into a marketing tool, this in addition to using words to create those compelling stories – novels, if you will – that you love.

Learning About Success

So, study what you want to achieve success at. If your success requires you to be an innovator, explore the lives and choices of other innovators. Did their success efforts require funding? How and where did they gain funding?

Even if success, for you, rest in an area that has long been explored, maybe explored many times, see if you can approach the endeavor from a new angle. In other words, bring yourself to what you’re striving to achieve.

Navigating Life Success Actions

Here are more ways to start navigating success, including big first life wins. As you read through these actions, remember that you are key. YOU must believe that you can do what you want to do.

• See yourself doing what you want to gain success at. Not once, not twice – every day. This isn’t self-help mumbo jumbo. As you continue to see yourself doing what you want to gain success at, your brain will start to focus in this area. Once this occurs, your brain might offer suggestions, ideas, on ways to step into the success.
• Brainstorm for ideas on ways to find the time to actively pursue focused success. Write ideas down or type them on a spreadsheet, etc.
• Reach out to one of the first three to five people your mind suggests as someone to connect with as it relates to navigating your success. This means you don’t talk yourself out of picking up the telephone and calling an award-winning movie director, a highly respected scientist, a social or community leader, etc. Remember YOU believe in YOU.
• List actions that you are going to take to get from where you are right now to where you want to be. Actually, write each step down with specificity. Get clear about how you are going to make this journey.

Success Demands Smart Action

Take chances. One action after another — take action. However, don’t stop there. Don’t just take actions, measure the results of your efforts. Years later, you may appreciate listing the actions you will take, and the results of those efforts more than you can imagine.

These records can help guide your future successes. Because you’re recording your efforts, you won’t have to start from scratch the next time you set out for success – in a different arena or focus area.

Of all the tips for navigating success, including big first life wins, this one may sound strangest. As excited as you might feel to share what you want to achieve success in, consider keeping what you are trying to do to yourself.

Reach out to contacts who will play a role in your success, but don’t tell anyone the whole of what you are trying to do. Why? Despite what you think, you might not yet believe in your own inherent good enough to not yield to conflict, bullying, teasing or attempts to deny you access to success.

Celebrate Big Life Wins

You might give up if you’re not strong enough to withstand the onslaught of disbelief and negative feedback. Hence, the importance of seeing yourself doing what you want to gain success at every day.

Yet don’t stop there. Celebrate each forward step that you take. Avoid glossing over a forward step. Actually take note of what you are doing, what you are achieving. Acknowledge your success. . . . talk about being your own cheerleader.

In closing, be prepared to stay the course. After all, navigating success, especially big first life wins, may take lots of trial and error. So, be open to pivoting, shifting, and trying different approaches and strategies. Above all, keep going. There is no doubt that YOU can achieve the success that you want.

By Books Author Denise Turney

February is hard to beat when it comes to celebrating love. Red and pink heart and passion colors are popping up, filling the day. It’s an exciting time. Ask a florist, jeweler or restaurateur. Love is more than in the air! In fact, a National Retail Federation survey shares that people expect to spend $27.5 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2025.¹

Celebrate Love’s Sweetness During and After Valentine’s Day

Even now, couples are seeking ways to express their deepest and most profound feelings for their partner or spouse. Admit it. Love is the one truth that you never get enough of. Fortunately, love comes in a delightful range of forms, from passion that makes your heart race to a remarkable inner strength to joyous freedom.

So sweet and delicious is romantic love that it may often be the first idea that pops into your mind when you hear or read the word “love”. But you don’t need to be in a romantic relationship to feel and celebrate love this Valentine’s Day and beyond. Although it may sound surprising, you don’t need to be part of a “couple” to set aside time to treasure love.

Reasons to Celebrate Love This Valentine’s Day

Do you doubt it? Feeling left out, alone, or abandoned because you’re not “coupled”? It’s not as bad as you think. As a matter of fact, it’s not bad at all. Check out these 7 reasons to celebrate love on Valentine’s Day and throughout the year:

1. Regardless of what has happened or is happening, you can love yourself. Miley Cyrus says it beautifully in her hit song “I Can Love Me Better Than You Can”.
2. Making friends stays open. Even if you can’t see it now, you have the chance to introduce yourself to someone, opening the door to a new, healthy friendship.
3. Although this may sound harsh, it’s true. Tomorrow is not promised, making celebrating love every day a real smart decision.
4. Celebrating love helps you to focus on the good in your life. This, in turn, may lift your mood and open you up to more peace and joy.
5. Love connects all living beings. Try it. Commit to loving (only loving) all living beings for a week. See if you feel different. Notice if animals and people react to you differently.
6. As you celebrate love this Valentine’s Day and beyond, you redefine what it means to be in love for yourself. After all, just as you can be in a loving, intimate relationship, you can also be in love with life itself. Other ways to be in love include being in love with the arts, music, dance or work that you do.
7. The Creator always loves you – always.

Love is Gentle so Be Gentle with Yourself

This Valentine’s Day and after the holiday passes, consider freeing yourself from the idea that life must be a “specific” way for you to give and receive love. In other words, your work environment or work situation doesn’t have to be a certain way for you to find at least one thing to appreciate about work. Feeling pressured, stressed, under-valued, acknowledged, promoted or esteemed can’t stop you from appreciating a characteristic related to work. That applies whether you have an employer or work for yourself.

Even more, your family doesn’t have to be perfect for you to love yourself and every person in your family. In this vein, you can love your neighbors and people in areas you travel to regardless of what’s happening in those areas or with those people. Bottom line, love is a choice you must make.

There are so many ways love expresses itself. I Corinthians 13:4-8 captures a few love traits. For starters, I Corinthians chapter 13, verse 4 shares that, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Furthermore, “Love never fails.”

Ways to Celebrate Love on Valentine’s Day and Beyond

Now that you have reasons to celebrate love, here are ways to put that celebration into action. Please don’t skimp on this, as just knowing why it’s good to appreciate love is not enough. Love is a choice that requires action.

• Pamper yourself with a relaxing bubble bath
• Send a friend flowers (this includes yourself)
• Go to a concert with friends
• Take time away from work and visit a place you’ve long wanted to explore
• Enjoy dancing with someone or alone with your favorite music playing in the background
• Create homemade Valentine’s Day cards and send them to family and friends
• Facetime loved ones who currently live in another country
• Light candles and enjoy their sweet scent
• Read a beautiful love story captured within the pages of a romantic novel
• Paint a picture that expresses what love means to you at this stage in your life
• Have fun swimming at an indoor pool

This year, commit to looking for love in all the right places. Count your blessings every day and appreciate the goodness within and around you. Let trustworthy people in your life gift you with hugs, delicious meals, flowers and more this Valentine’s Day. Open to giving and receiving love more and more. As you do, watch your life open to greater goodness. You deserve it!

References:

1. NRF | NRF Survey: Valentine’s Day Spending Reaches Record $27.5 Billion

By Books Writer Denise Turney

Rubik’s Cube, BET and MTV videos, double ditching, the best movies and outdoor face-to-face fun are just a few things that make the 1980s such a good decade. Reality TV was just getting started back then, thanks to MTV’s first reality show “The Real World”. Looking back, life seemed so much simpler during the 1980s.

Powering Good Memories

But that’s the way life often feels while looking back. Simply put, challenges are mere memories when it comes to reviewing the past. There’s nothing for fear to attach to. You’ve overcome more than you expected. Life should feel great!

Yet, there really are 1980s events, inventions and happenings that set the decade apart, that help to make it so gorgeous. If you’re a sports fan, you may have loved watching Dayton, Ohio’s Edwin Moses win one 400-meter hurdle race after another. Talk about an athletic phenomenon. Edwin Moses would go on to win gold medals in the hurdles in the 1976 and the 1984 Olympics, winning more than 100 consecutive finals over a 10-year span.

Florence Griffith Joyner (Flo Jo), Magic Johnson, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Wayne Gretzky, Lindsay Vonn, Lawrence Taylor, Ingrid Kristiansen and Carl Lewis, to mention only a few athletic greats, were among the best sports icons from the 1980s. Chance to watch top-notch athletes compete was easy, especially considering that many home televisions still only had three channels.

Ready for Fun!

ABC Wide World of Sports caught so much of the action, which brings up another point. During the 1980s, fun was often and outdoors experience. There was no Internet to keep you indoors. Cell phones weren’t around then either.

Fortunately, if you wanted to connect with friends, you had to get outside, even if you only ventured outdoors to go to a friend’s house. Ice cream trucks still rang down neighborhood streets. Kids sang cool songs as they double ditched on the sidewalk. At the back of houses or down the street at the Boys Club or Girls Club, kids played basketball.

1980s Had The Best Movies

Soccer and throwing frisbees at the park were other fun activities. Then, there were blockbuster movies. Do you remember standing in line at the theater to pay for a ticket to see the latest hit film? See if any of these hit movies¹ ring a bell, pulling up fond memories:

• Raging Bull starring Robert DeNiro
• E.T., a Steven Spielberg hit
• Indiana Jones
• The Color Purple
• The Killing Fields
• Moonstruck starring Cher
• Do The Right Thing, a Spike Lee production
• The Elephant Man
• Tootsie starring Dustin Hoffman
• The Terminator
• Die Hard starring Bruce Willis
• Scarface starring Al Pacino
• Terms of Endearment starring Shirley McClain and Debra Winger

That list could go on and on. It really is amazing how many incredible movies were produced and released during the 1980s.

Check Out These 1980s Inventions

As it is with the movies, greatness calls for creativity. Courage and smart risk taking are other must-haves when it comes to greatness. In that vein, among memorable 1980s inventions², there’s:

• Doppler radar – Welcome to the world of better weather forecasting
• Apple MacIntosh – And it begins; talk about a dynasty
• Disposable camera – A start toward the digital camera
• DNA Fingerprinting
• CD-ROM
• Human growth hormone
• Video games – The video game industry has never looked back!
• Artificial heart
• Chicken McNuggets – Who knew?
• Space shuttle
• Walkman
• Hepatitis-B vaccine
• Personal computer – They were big and clunky; gotta start somewhere

Were People Nicer – What Do You Think?

People seemed nicer in the 1980s too. Could be that you mirrored the respectful behavior you saw others emulating. There was no computer screen to hide mean thoughts and sayings behind. You said what you did right in someone’s face, which might have encouraged more civility.

Friends made time to hang out, even if they had to drive across town to meet up. Another thing, when the telephone rang at home, you answered. Before answering machines and cell phones became the norm, you could miss an important message if you just let the phone ring.

Here’s To The Great 1980s

Wonder if that encouraged stronger communication skills. However you look at it, the 1980s definitely was an amazing time, filled with ups and downs, fortunes and regrets. It was also a time you can’t forget. From the inventions to the sports to the entertainment to the friendships to the lessons learned to the fun – the 1980s was among the best decades.

Love Pour Over Me captures the glory of the 1980s. It’s also a page-turning romantic suspense. Raymond Clarke will remind you of some of the world’s top athletes, even as he struggles through hardships brought on from his childhood. Believe in soul mates? You may absolutely love witnessing Raymond’s and Brenda’s love relationship; it’s deeply moving. Treat yourself to a copy! Here’s to the great 1980s!

Resources:

1. IMDB – https://www.imdb.com/list/ls005747458/
2. Techspirited – https://techspirited.com/inventions-of-1980s#:~:text=%20Some%20famous%2080s%20inventions%3A%20%201%20MS-DOS,12%20The%20Columbia%20space%20shuttle%20%281981%29%20More%20

Buy Love Pour Over Me – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Z2GXM2D

By Freelance Writer Denise Turney

Books inject everyday life with unmistakable energy, infusing daily experiences with hope. Fiction or nonfiction, books inspire, motivate, teach, entertain, and empower. It’s because manuscripts are more than paper and ink. They are stories, not just words on paper. And stories are the root of books – no story, it’s as if something too big is missing. Our stories are captured within pages, which is why books take you home.

Books Universal Human Conditions

Think about it. The Street, Native Son, The Round House, The Joy Luck Club, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, The Fire Keeper’s Daughter, To Kill A Mockingbird, My Soul To Keep, Macbeth, and War and Peace are just a few books that tell stories of the human condition. So brilliantly have authors captured common and uncommon human experiences that there are books, written decades ago, that continue to be celebrated.

Furthermore, it’s been shared that novelists tell the world what many people are thinking but are afraid to reveal. Admittedly, it does take courage to not only put your innermost thoughts and ideas on paper. Even more, it takes courage to share what you penned with the public, be that public a community of one other person.

It may be why Margaret Atwood said, “A word after a word after a word is power.” Could it be that the power and courage required to write honestly, to tell a story authentically, is transferred, even if only in small bits, from the author to the reader?

Creating Books as a Courageous Act

Paulo Coelho had this to say about creating story (books), “Tears are words that need to be written.” If you’re a journal writer, you may well understand this. Emotion, particularly hard-charged emotion, may likely be what drives you to sit down, pick up your journal, and write, sharing not only personal experiences but also your perspective on the experiences, with yourself and whoever may read your journal now or in the future.

In this case, your journal will become your book, your story. You know the power of your journal, because your essence is within the pages that you wrote upon.

Depending on what an author has experienced, how the author sees the world, books lean in different directions. Perhaps an author who feels that much of their inner world is hidden, even to them, might lean toward creating mysteries and suspense. Who knows?

Books Revealing Focus Links

Are authors of romance novels more occupied with romantic love? Could science fiction writers look more toward the future and what-could-be? And when readers pull toward a specific genre does that mean that the stories told from that perspective best echo what those readers are experiencing, perceiving or believe?

Carl Sagan quite well said, “A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called ‘leaves’) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time–proof that humans can work magic.”¹

Look over your shoulder at the experiences you’ve had and at the books you’re drawn to. Do you find a link?

Or perhaps it’s the way the human condition is explored, questioned or explained within the pages of a book that appeals most to you. Oddly, I’ve seen my own and other people’s book preferences shift with major life changes, including big shifts in how the person perceives the world.

Book Authors and the World

Makes me think that there must be a connection between reader, writer, and books. Causes me to believe that books take you home.

Then, there are books that reveal universal human hope, desire, excitement, or belief. J.R.R. Tolkien, author The Two Towers, captures some of this when he writes, “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.” 

Regarding love, a thread that runs through all of life, Toni Morrison writes in her novel, Beloved, “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”²

Who hasn’t wanted love to be real, what they always thought love to be? Surely, no one has wanted a “thin” or fraudulent love.

These are just a few universal topics that speak to the human condition, each captured or explored within the pages of books. This could be why reading books has been said to increase empathy in the reader.

Books Take Us Home

Which books mean more to you? Should you have favorite novel writers, what genres do these authors typically create stories in? And how do the books that they write take you home?

Even if you don’t notice it, the gains found in books might help you to understand life in this world better, might also protect you from feeling as if you’re moving through the world alone. It may be impossible to know just how much gain there is within the pages of a well-written and engaging book.

Fortunately, it’s not necessary to know how much you get from books you love reading to continue reaping benefits from these and other books. Beyond time and attention, little else is required to settle into a powerfully written story, to let books take you home.

1. 50 Inspiring Quotes About Writing From the World’s Greatest Authors
2. Best Book Quotes: 110 of the Most Famous

By Books Author Denise Turney

What if your life was meant to be a success story? How would you change the script? Would you do a re-edit and start over? Fortunately, and despite what you may think about yourself, there are keys in your hands that can open you up to more success. These keys make you an architect, a builder of your life.

Facing Dissociation to Move Forward Into Success

Whether you realize it now or not, you have a lot of influence in your life. You’re not a character in a play – speaking, believing, and doing what someone else has scripted you to speak, believe or do. Admittedly, it can feel like you’re not calling the shots if you feel like you’re failing or if you engage in dissociation, a defense mechanism.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Dissociative disorders are mental health conditions that involve experiencing a loss of connection between thoughts, memories, feelings, surroundings, behavior and identity. These conditions include escape from reality in ways that are not wanted and not healthy. This causes problems in managing everyday life.”¹

More About Dissociation

Dissociation could cause you to feel like your life is not your own. You might feel separated from yourself, uncertain of your identity or feel like you’re unable to deal with work or everyday life situations.

Causes of dissociation vary. Very Well Mind shares that, “Ongoing trauma, especially childhood physical, sexual, or emotional abuse and/or neglect is a very significant risk factor for the development of dissociative disorders and is thought to be the root cause in at least 90% of people with these conditions.”²

If you’re struggling with mental health issues, including dissociation, please get help. There are licensed psychotherapist who can spot the symptoms and work with you to help you regain mental balance. Local mental health facilities, online support services, and your primary physician are places you can turn to get mental health support. Depending on where you live, you could also contact organizations like Mental Health America, Mental Illness in Veterans, SAMHSA or NAMI.

You Can Live a Beautiful Life

However, dissociation isn’t the only reason why you may feel like you don’t have the keys to change your life, to create a life that causes you to experience love, joy, and peace. If there’s something you have wanted to do or achieve and, despite how you’ve tried to fulfill the goal you haven’t been able to get what you want, you might feel as if you don’t have enough power to live the life you want.

Should this be the case, you probably manage daily responsibilities, including work, family, paying bills, and enjoying hobbies, well. The struggle may be related to how you perceive or see yourself.

For instance, you might feel happy if you get a good performance review at work, surpass your sales quota, lose weight, break a sports record, get a date with someone you admire, etc. On the other hand, if you gain weight when you are trying to reduce weight, throw an interception seconds before the end of a close game, get turned down for a date, don’t get a job, or lose a client, you might suddenly feel flat or defeated.

Let this continue and you could start to perceive yourself as a failure, as someone who’s unable to build the life you want. This is a time for faith. Regardless of what’s happening, you can exercise faith. You can believe that you were created to live a victorious life.

Believe in Yourself – Success Awaits

Start small. Instead of trying to lose 15 pounds, aim to lose two pounds in a month. Or instead of continuing to push for a current promotion, look to expand your current role in ways that get you increased exposure to leadership, a choice that could put you in line for a promotion within 16 to 18 months. As with other life experiences, small steps add up.

Accept that this is your life. Don’t try to get rid of it or push it away. After all, you can change, pivoting into real success, the type of success that leads to greater inner peace.

Instead of running from yourself, pray and talk with the Creator, seeking guidance. Read scriptures and other writings that illustrate how someone came out of disbelief and achieved a goal that had seemingly remained out of their grasp for years. Whatever you do, don’t stop believing. Don’t stop believing that good can and will come to you.

Build Success Strategies

Develop a strategy to engage in activities that you love. For example, if you want to write a movie script, create a calendar and outline when you will enroll in scriptwriting classes (if that’s the path you want to take). Then, note when you will start the script’s opening scene. Stick to the calendar you create. Seek out a team to hold you accountable if you start missing deadlines.

All the while, allow yourself to receive love, joy, and peace. You deserve it. You’re worth it. Definitely celebrate your successes, including what you perceive to be small successes.

Celebrate Success

Celebrating your achievements is a great motivator. It’s proof that you’re making progress, a sweet fuel that keeps you moving forward.

As you achieve small goals, your confidence may strengthen, allowing you to take on larger goals. Also, rather than running away from larger undertakings, you might seek them out. If you’re fortunate, other people will see your strength, gifts, talents, and passions and create spaces that allow you to work on projects that give your work greater exposure.

Keep going. Acknowledge what you’re doing, expressing appreciation to the Creator and accepting that you are using your life keys well. Journaling is another good step.

Life Keys Serve Life Success

It’s through journaling that you capture your life’s highlights, dreams, challenges, and triumphs. After you’ve been journaling for several years, you can re-read sections of your journals, clearly seeing how you moved through situations that you thought you’d never recover from.

If you set aside time to review your life mid-way through the year and again at the end of the year, you can see how you’ve used your life keys. Should you spot areas that you want to change, pivot, examine yourself, study ways to let go of what you need to release so you can step forward. At the end of it all, you may look back and see how your life really is a success story.

Resources

1. Dissociative disorders – Symptoms and causes – Mayo Clinic
2. PTSD Dissociation: The Links Between Trauma and Dissociation

By Book Author Denise Turney (online at chistell.com)

One person goes wherever you are – YOU. Regardless of your age, background, worldly experiences, financial situation, or educational background, there is and always will be only one person you can be certain will always be with you. To repeat the refrain, that person is YOU. This fact should birth a profound sense of responsibility and power within. Another effect it should have is the surfacing of an acute commitment to make your life a priority.

Self-Care and Childhood Troubles

Oddly, inspiration for this blog post came from a movie. The movie was based on the life of a successful financial trader, a man whose childhood was far too hard, his father seemingly incapable of giving love, his mother too afraid to confront her abusive husband, leaving the child alone to fend for himself.

For her part, the mother dealt with the crisis by pretending that nothing was amiss, as if the abuse was merely part of a fairytale. For this reason, my anger towards the mother ran as deep and as ragged as it did for the father.

Curiosity swelled up within me too. This happened because, on the surface, the leaders at the financial firm, including the financial trader who’d been abused as a child, looked clear, smooth, and clean, a type of perfect many strive for but never achieve.

Care Enough to See What’s Happening

Twenty years in, the financial trader’s troubled past caught up to him, started to reveal itself to others. If only he had learned to love himself. If only we all would love ourselves, not through someone else’s gaze, compliment, gifts, or approval – but from the love that’s always within.

Abide long enough in this world and you’ll see that, despite how hard we may try to prevent it, we’re deeply impacted by what we see, hear, feel, and experience when we’re children and teens. In this way, our parents are like gods.

Then, we grow up and may not be aware that we have every right to re-parent ourselves, that we are not required to suffer or to repeat messages our elders laid upon us that are so clearly wrong and unloving, messages our elders believed and shared even though they had evidence that those messages also had hurt them. Set yourself free of carrying old messaging around, inside your head or depositing the messages inside someone else.

Care Enough to Look After Yourself

This is where you hold court; this is when you have true power. Start right now to care enough to look after yourself.

Change your personal history. In doing so, you can change the lives of those you interact with. Signs you might need to provide yourself with more love and care include:

• Consistent belief that you need to do more to feel worthy
• Comparing yourself to others
• Avoiding discussing childhood or general painful events (i.e., abuse, bankruptcy, depression)
• Focusing on perceived failures
• Engaging in addictive thoughts or behaviors, including gambling, gossiping, overspending or turning to food, beverages, sleeping pills, prescription pills, and/or narcotics to feel “okay”
• Feeling disconnected from your true Self and other people
• Investing in obsessive behavior (as if doing something “enough” times or in a “perfect” way will make everything better or cause you to feel safe)

Of course, there are other signs that you need to care for yourself, that you need to look after yourself. But how do you care for yourself when no one has ever taught you how to do that?

Ways to Care for Yourself

Start small if you must. You might even get a pet, something as easy to care for as a fish or a turtle. Pay attention to how you care for the pet. Afford yourself this same love and affection. If you’re giving love and affection and care to the pet, you know you can give it to yourself. Choose to do so.

Here are more ways to care for yourself. Try to incorporate three or more of these actions into your day. If it’s easier, choose caring actions that only take a few minutes.

• Take 10 deep breaths in the morning
• Shower or enjoy a relaxing bath daily
• Visit a friend
• Invest in a healthy diet
• Exercise for 40 minutes five to six days a week
• Practice yoga (great relaxer)
• Meditate two to 15 minutes a day
• Slow down and relax an hour prior to going to bed
• Fuel yourself with 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep
• Get outdoors in safe areas, enjoying a walk, bike ride, swim, etc.
• Join a support group if you need additional help
• Partner with an ethical, experienced, licensed psychologist if needed
• Write a letter to your younger self, acknowledging how much you have come thru and done
• Forgive yourself
• Forgive others
• Take 10 deep breaths in the evening
• Engage in a hobby
• Create artwork
• Write in a journal
• Listen to soothing music that you love
• Be honest with yourself
• Manage stress by first acknowledging that you feel stress (when you feel stressed)

Your Caring Brilliance Shines

Also, accept that you did not create yourself. Nothing you or anyone else can do or say will change your brilliance. Nothing will change your inherent goodness. Restoration is possible because you did not create yourself.

If you’ve considered a host of possibilities about yourself, consider that love and light created you to mirror and to extend itself. As you care enough to look after yourself, you might discover the courage to journey inward.

During this inner journey, don’t be surprised if you encounter jealousy, frustration, rage, exhaustion, conflict, and confusion – fear offshoots. Don’t stop there. Keep going.

At your core there is only love.

Go find your true Self.

It may take a lifetime, but it’s worth it. You have the courage to take this journey. Seek support, including professional support, if necessary. Above all, start now to care enough to look after yourself.

Trust that what created you loves you, a truth that may not feel like it’s being reinforced, validated, or witnessed to in this world, but is nonetheless true. Even more, early truths that you are loved may likely start with you loving YOU.