Books- The weapon of choice

Today’s blog is dedicated to books. Hardcover,paperback and audio. Whenever I hit a transition or rut in my life, the first thing I do is pick up a book.
In my teen years, I struggled to understand the impact that I had on those around me. To put it lightly, I was an extremely emotional and vocal teenager. A door slamming, parent challenging, wrecking ball of teen angst. My mom gave me a book to read. It was call The Celestine Prophecy (written by James Redfield). In this book, it talks about energy fields, types of control and how winning control takes away from someone else. Boom. My mom had hit the nail on the head with this one. It made me realize that challenging for power/control over a situation was actually hurting the other person. That when you fight, the outcome is always negative. It emphasizes that there are better ways to handle things with a more positive outcome. My tiny teenage mind was absolutely blown!
Flash forward to when I was 22. I was with my first boyfriend from 15-22 but in my heart I knew I had outgrown our relationship and we were both heading down very different paths in life. This was playing on my mind for months before the actual break up. The morning of the break up, I went to the bookstore in the mall and got three books on break ups. Yes break up books do exist! I sat at the park and read the first couple of chapters. That was all it took for me to have the courage to do what needed to be done. I had to relearn who I was. For so long I only knew myself in relation to him. I hadn’t spent anytime defining myself as a person. That’s where the book came in. I read it everyday. Anytime I was sad, out came that book to change my mind.
After I had my girls, I didnt have as much time to read as I did before. Getting quiet uninterrupted time is pretty much unheard of in my house. Then this summer I needed to make another huge change to my life. My career! I downloaded audible. Every morning while my girls were having breakfast and watching some cartoons, I would sneak out to my patio and listen to the audio book while having my morning coffee. This was truly life changing. For about 1.5 hours every morning, it was just me and the author. Oh and the caterpillars, butterflies, hummingbirds, chipmunks and song birds. Since the second week of August, I have listened and learned from 14 self help audio books. I have two more on the go right now. These books were on everything from life coaching to marketing. Listening to a wide variety of authors and topics is really expanding my mind to new ways of thinking.
The most important task right now is prepping myself to help others. I am three days away from starting my Life Coach certification at York University. I am bringing 10 years of nursing, 7 years of parenting and countless knowledge from some of the most creative coaches out there.
If you are not a reader, I greatly encourage you to begin! It doesn’t make a difference whether you listen or read. What matters is that you get the information you need for personal growth! Feel free to comment or send me a message to inquire about which book could help you most.