Read-a-thon for Mindfulness!

The Cause: I am holding a two-day read-a-thon to raise $2700 to attend "Japanese Approaches to Mindfulness," a 10-day study abroad in March staying at Shunkoin, a Zen temple in Kyoto, to study Zen, mindfulness, and Japanese concepts of psychology and mental illness. The abbott is active in the local LGBTQ community, and we will be meeting with LGBTQ activists as well as with practicing psychologists. I think this will benefit me professionally, and will also be helpful to my future clients. (I am studying to become a psychotherapist with a focus on survivors of trauma.) I will blog and take photos, for your enjoyment.

How to Participate: Please comment with an offer of an amount of money per book read and blogged. You may put a cap on the amount. ("I offer $15/book, with a cap of $150.") In two days, I can read 6-10 books. If you sponsor me, you may propose a book for me to read. I will do re-reads, but not of books already blogged. (Check tags by author.) You may also make a general proposal, like, "Something by Robert Heinlein/an Old West memoir/one of your childhood favorites."

If a book is too hard to obtain, I will ask for an alternate. Please don't propose anything extremely long or dense.

FYI: I happen to have obtained a copy of the sequel to Sexteen, which I have been saving for a special occasion.

Please consider linking this post, to pull in more participants. If I have more sponsors than books I can read, I will give special consideration to larger donors and/or and/or prior participants whose books didn't get read and/or especially interesting nominations and/or hold a poll.

ETA: Day One of the read-a-thon will be held on SUNDAY, January 8. Day Two is TBA until I find out more of my schedule, but will be on Wed, Thur, Fri, or Sat of that week.

ETA The bookshelf photos are only for possible inspiration! Absolutely no need to limit yourselves to those!

( If you need inspiration, here's some photos of my to-read shelves. )

Read-a-thon for Mindfulness!

The Cause: I am holding a two-day read-a-thon to raise $2700 to attend "Japanese Approaches to Mindfulness," a 10-day study abroad in March staying at Shunkoin, a Zen temple in Kyoto, to study Zen, mindfulness, and Japanese concepts of psychology and mental illness. The abbott is active in the local LGBTQ community, and we will be meeting with LGBTQ activists as well as with practicing psychologists. I think this will benefit me professionally, and will also be helpful to my future clients. (I am studying to become a psychotherapist with a focus on survivors of trauma.) I will blog and take photos, for your enjoyment.

How to Participate: Please comment with an offer of an amount of money per book read and blogged. You may put a cap on the amount. ("I offer $15/book, with a cap of $150.") In two days, I can read 6-10 books. If you sponsor me, you may propose a book for me to read. I will do re-reads, but not of books already blogged. (Check tags by author.) You may also make a general proposal, like, "Something by Robert Heinlein/an Old West memoir/one of your childhood favorites."

If a book is too hard to obtain, I will ask for an alternate. Please don't propose anything extremely long or dense.

FYI: I happen to have obtained a copy of the sequel to Sexteen, which I have been saving for a special occasion.

Please consider linking this post, to pull in more participants. If I have more sponsors than books I can read, I will give special consideration to larger donors and/or and/or prior participants whose books didn't get read and/or especially interesting nominations and/or hold a poll.

ETA: Day One of the read-a-thon will be held on SUNDAY, January 8. Day Two is TBA until I find out more of my schedule, but will be on Wed, Thur, Fri, or Sat of that week.

ETA The bookshelf photos are only for possible inspiration! Absolutely no need to limit yourselves to those!

( If you need inspiration, here's some photos of my to-read shelves. )

Read-a-thon for Mindfulness

The Cause: I am holding a two-day read-a-thon to raise $2700 to attend "Japanese Approaches to Mindfulness," a 10-day study abroad in March staying at Shunkoin, a Zen temple in Kyoto, to study Zen, mindfulness, and Japanese concepts of psychology and mental illness. The abbott is active in the local LGBTQ community, and we will be meeting with LGBTQ activists as well as with practicing psychologists. I think this will benefit me professionally, and will also be helpful to my future clients. (I am studying to become a psychotherapist with a focus on survivors of trauma.) I will blog and take photos, for your enjoyment.

How to Participate: Please comment with an offer of an amount of money per book read and reviewed. You may put a cap on the amount. ("I offer $15/book, with a cap of $150.") In two days, I can read 6-10 books. If you sponsor me, you may propose a book for me to read and review. I will do re-reads, but not of books already blogged. (Check tags by author.) You may also make a general proposal, like, "Something by Robert Heinlein/an Old West memoir/one of your childhood favorites."

If a book is too hard to obtain, I will ask for an alternate. Please don't propose anything extremely long or dense.

FYI: I happen to have obtained a copy of the sequel to Sexteen, which I have been saving for a special occasion.

Please consider linking this post, to pull in more participants. If I have more sponsors than books I can read, I will give special consideration to larger donors and/or and/or prior participants whose books didn't get read and/or especially interesting nominations and/or hold a poll.

For possible inspiration, here are photos of my to-read shelves.

ETA: Day One of the read-a-thon will be held on SUNDAY, January 8. Day Two is TBA until I find out more of my schedule, but will be on Wed, Thur, Fri, or Sat of that week.

The Drama of the Gifted Child, by Alice Miller

Summary: Lots of parents were the victims of child abuse and parents who crushed and denied their feelings; they then abuse, or deny and crush the feelings of their own children. It takes lots of therapy to overcome this. Many patients come in claiming that their childhoods were just fine, but after a bunch of sessions, they realize that actually, their childhood feelings were denied and crushed.

Moms! The first few weeks of infancy are crucial, and if you aren’t perfectly sensitive and loving (while you’re sleep-deprived, exhausted, and overwhelmed) you will cause enormous trauma to your child, which will persist throughout their entire life unless they do intensive therapy.

My feelings: Meh. I agree with what she says when it comes to actual abuse, of course. But a lot of what she talks about sounds a lot more like “failure to be perfectly sensitive and caring 24-7.” I bet Miller hates the idea of “good enough parenting,” but it came to my mind a lot while reading. It takes a lot to make me to think, “You’re being awfully hard on parents,” but I did. Not to mention, “Parents could often stand to be more sensitive, but kids are probably not going to be OMG traumatized for life because their parents let them have bites of ice cream but wouldn’t buy them their own cones,” and “Stop insisting that people are in denial just because they aren’t saying what you think is the truth.”

The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self