The Zen of Writing with Imperfection and Confidence

The Zen of Writing with Imperfection and Confidence

Author: Alan O'Hashi

Publisher: Boulder Community Media

Published: 2021-11-25

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13:

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"The Zen of Writing" Author Alan O’Hashi is walking proof that perfection and organization are highly overrated. His parents and grandparents were all artists and applied a zen approach to nurturing their work, which influenced him as a creative entrepreneur. Rather than rigid plans and goals, they all were very contemplative and relied more on intuition and accepted life how it happened with no judgment. The story is partly a DIY personal growth book about how the author overcame self-doubt and perfection as a “Model Minority." He’s now more confident, no longer obsessed with perfection, and has become a prolific writer. The other part is a memoir about how the importance of owning life experiences and not being afraid to write about those. His writing is now much more emotional and no longer superficial. “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” is what Ernest Hemingway says about the essence of good storytelling. This book is for anyone who is a writer of organized words, whether they are fiction, nonfiction, poetry, work memos, grant applications, academic papers, or love letters. Read this book if you’re a professional writer, a novelist just starting out, or a screenwriter with a half-done script lost deep in the bowels of a computer hard drive. Are you a writer who wonders how to get over self-doubt, kick your obsession with perfection, and for whatever reason, can’t quite finish your writing project? This book provides insight and a few tips through the author’s experiences about becoming more confident in your ability to balance perfection and accuracy that results in a higher likelihood of finishing your work. Author Alan O’Hashi relates how his lessons from life were significant influences that resulted in his first book pitch based on a typed-up piece of paper in June. He signed a contract and finished an 80,000-word manuscript five months later. Alan is a native of Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he began writing as a 12-year-old reporter for his junior high school newspaper, “The Tumbleweed.” He relates his growth as a writer surviving a 1,000-year flood, an emergency landing of an airplane with a fire on board, two job layoffs after 9/11, and getting up from his death bed.


On the Trail: Electric Vehicle Anxiety and Advice

On the Trail: Electric Vehicle Anxiety and Advice

Author: Alan O'Hashi

Publisher: Boulder CommunityMedia

Published: 2022-08-01

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13:

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On the Trail is a memoir recounting author Alan O'Hashi's experiences trekking thousands of miles around Wyoming in an electric vehicle (EV). If you’re curious about EVs, he explains some about the different kinds of EVs in the marketplace, but more about EV charging station subtleties like suggested locations for the three types of chargers, general details about battery efficiency, and the pitfalls drivers may encounter on short trips around town and longer drives over, say, 60 miles. One of his favorite books is On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac. It’s a story about a personal journey and literal travel associated with freedom and unknown possibilities. The narrator and protagonist, Sal Paradise—Kerouac’s alter ego—was free to roam anywhere without being tied down to one place. The world moved slower back then. On the Trail is a reflection on O'Hashi's experience with the automobile over the years and how his life evolved along with his vehicle choices. He's not the first driver to embark on a long-haul road trip in an EV, but his story recounts his pioneering spirit having to figure out how to keep moving forward. His sojourn certainly wasn’t as arduous and rustic as it would have been in a covered wagon or a handcart. It wasn’t a mountain range he had to get through or a raging river to ford. It was more like the time in 1903 when a medical doctor named H. Nelson Jackson, an auto mechanic, Sewall Crocker, and their dog, Bud, made a cross country from California to New York in a Winton touring car. Their 63-day journey was difficult, slow, and expensive, but proved that long-haul road travel was possible. When the trio had car trouble, they sometimes had to stay at a location for several days waiting for parts to be delivered by train. Like the Jackson and Crocker trek, making the leap into an EV meant a significant lifestyle change for him, mostly around slowing down the pace of life. This account of three road trips equalling 2,600 miles around sparse Wyoming meant visiting new places and meeting others, including EV drivers and EV skeptics. One of Alan's favorite TV shows was The Adventures of Superman. It was the 1950s—1960s show starring George Reeves as the Man of Steel who could leap tall buildings in a single bound and fought for truth, justice, and the American Way. Superman’s American Way is the cultural tenet that refers to making it through life as rugged individuals, winning is better than losing, and acquiring more is better than having less. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with Superman’s American Way, but what if I reimagined it with more thoughtfulness and sensibility? If anything, EVs slow the world down. Maybe there’d be less road rage if traffic moved slower and drivers put less pressure on themselves to get from place to place. The automobile exemplifies the rugged individualistic attitude. One primary symbol of American success was and still is car ownership with prestigious sounding names that speed down the road faster than the previous model and pickup trucks that conquer mountains no matter the terrain. After some basic research about EVs he ended up impulse buying a 2021 Nissan Leaf SV Plus and took three trips around the sparsest state in the country totaling approximately 2,600 miles 62kWh at a time.


Love for Imperfect Things

Love for Imperfect Things

Author: Haemin Sunim

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2018-12-24

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0143132288

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Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet: "The world could surely use a little more love, a little more compassion, and a little more wisdom. In Love for Imperfect Things, Haemin Sunim shows us how to cultivate all three, and to find beauty in the most imperfect of things--including your very own self." A #1 internationally bestselling book of spiritual wisdom about learning to love ourselves, with all our imperfections, by the Buddhist author of The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down Hearing the words "be good to yourself first, then to others" was like being struck by lightning. Many of us respond to the pressures of life by turning inward and ignoring problems, sometimes resulting in anxiety or depression. Others react by working harder at the office, at school, or at home, hoping that this will make ourselves and the people we love happier. But what if being yourself is enough? Just as we are advised on airplanes to take our own oxygen first before helping others, we must first be at peace with ourselves before we can be at peace with the world around us. In this beautiful follow-up to his international bestseller The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down, Zen Buddhist monk Haemin Sunim turns his trademark wisdom to the art of self-care, arguing that only by accepting yourself--and the flaws that make you who you are--can you have compassionate and fulfilling relationships with your partner, your family, and your friends. With more than thirty-five full-color illustrations, Love for Imperfect Things will appeal to both your eyes and your heart, and help you learn to love yourself, your life, and everyone in it. When you care for yourself first, the world begins to find you worthy of care.


Fearless Writing

Fearless Writing

Author: William Kenower

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2017-05-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1440349835

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Find the courage to create your best writing life. Whether you're a fledgling writer or a veteran with years of experience, fearlessness--that elusive blend of self-acceptance, confidence, and curiosity--is the defining quality of those who find fulfillment and success. Truly fearless authors banish writer's blocks with ease, receive critiques gracefully, and infuse their passion for the craft into every word they write. Filled with insightful wisdom and practical advice, Fearless Writing teaches you how to thrive as a writer, no matter your genre or career path. You'll learn how to: • Find and enter a Flow state in which writing is a natural, deeply satisfying process. • Quiet both internal and external critics and embrace the inherent value in your work. • Use love, emotional engagement, and curiosity as the guiding principles for what you write and how you share it with others. • Overcome rejection, procrastination, and other obstacles that stifle your creativity. From the blank page to the first draft, and from querying to marketing, the writing life is filled with challenges, roadblocks, and new experiences. With Fearless Writing, you'll find the inner strength to embark on a bold journey--and build a lifelong career in the process.


Zen in the Art of Writing

Zen in the Art of Writing

Author: Ray Bradbury

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13:

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"Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The land mine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!" Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the qualities every writer must have, as well as a spirit of adventure. In this exuberant book, the incomparable Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and excitement of a lifetime of writing. Here are practical tips on the art of writing from a master of the craft-everything from finding original ideas to developing your own voice and style-as well as the inside story of Bradbury's own remarkable career as a prolific author of novels, stories, poems, films, and plays.Zen In The Art Of Writingis more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one subject: your own life.


Perfectly Imperfect

Perfectly Imperfect

Author: Baron Baptiste

Publisher: Hay House

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1401947530

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NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER "This book will shine new light on your journey, ignite your practice with new power, inspire new possibilities for growth, and infuse your life with the grace and confidence you seek." --Baron Baptiste A little over a decade ago, Baron Baptiste published his seminal book, Journey into Power. The first of its kind, it introduced the world to Baptiste Yoga, his signature method that marries a lifetime of studying with some of the world's most renowned yoga masters with his uniquely powerful approach to inner and outer transformation. Since then, yoga has steadily moved into the mainstream in our culture, and Baron's unique contribution has played a key role. As millions of participants incorporate yoga into their daily lives, Baron's teachings have evolved to bring them even deeper into their own transformative possibilities. Perfectly Imperfect: The Art and Soul of Yoga Practice takes readers beyond the foundations of the practice by speaking to everything that happens in their bodies and minds after they get into a yoga pose. That is where the true transformation occurs, and where much rich spiritual and emotional growth is available. Readers will learn how to move through their lives with grace and flow, begin again when a situation becomes difficult, "be a yes" for their innermost desires, give up what they must, follow their intuition, and find their truth north. With his signature blend of boldness, insightfulness, humor, and warmth, Baron offers what is destined to be an instant classic in the yoga and meditation world. With Perfectly Imperfect, he proves once again to be a true yoga master for the modern world.


Strange Situation

Strange Situation

Author: Bethany Saltman

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0399181458

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A full-scale investigation of the controversial and often misunderstood science of attachment theory, inspired by the author’s own experience as a parent and daughter. “A profound and beautiful work . . . searingly honest, brazenly fresh, and startlingly rich.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon When professional researcher and writer Bethany Saltman gave birth to her daughter, Azalea, she loved her deeply but felt as if something was missing. Looking back at her lonely childhood, dangerous teenage years, and love-addicted early adulthood, Saltman thought maybe she was broken. Then she discovered the science of attachment, the field of psychology that explores the question of why—from an evolutionary point of view—love exists between parents and children. Saltman went on a ten-year journey visiting labs, archives, and training sessions, while learning the meaning of “delight” from Mary Ainsworth, one of psychology’s most important but unsung researchers, who died in 1999. Saltman went deep into the history and findings from Ainsworth’s famous laboratory procedure, the Strange Situation, which, like an X-ray, is still used today by scientists around the world to catch a glimpse of the internal workings of attachment. In this simple twenty-minute procedure, a baby and a caregiver enter an ordinary room with two chairs and some toys. During a series of comings and goings, a trained observer studies the minutiae of the pair’s back-and-forth with each other. Through the science of attachment, what Saltman discovered was a radical departure from everything she thought she knew—about love and about her own family, her story, and herself. She was far from broken—she saw that love is too powerful to ever break. Strange Situation is a scientific, lyrical, life-affirming exploration of love. Not only will readers be taken on an emotional ride through one mother’s reckoning with her own past and her family’s future, but they will also be given the tools with which to better understand their own life histories and their relationships today. Praise for Strange Situation “A fascinating deep dive into attachment theory . . . Carefully researched and with copious endnotes, this is an excellent resource for anyone interested in child development.”—Publishers Weekly “Honest and complex . . . A thoughtful engagement with a topic that affects all parents.”—Kirkus Reviews


Embracing Your Inner Critic

Embracing Your Inner Critic

Author: Hal Stone

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-07-26

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0062111949

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Hal and Sidra Stone are the creators of "Voice Dialogue" process, a therapy that transforms the inner critic from crippling adversary to productive ally. The inner critic. It whispers, whines, and needles us into place. It checks our thoughts, controls our behavior, and inhibits action. It thinks it is protecting us from being disliked, hurt, or abandoned. Instead, the critical inner voice causes shame, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, and low-self-esteem. It acts as a powerful saboteur of our intimate relationships and is a major contributor to drug and alcohol abuse. Through examples and exercises, the Stones show us how to recognize the critic, how to avoid or minimize "critic attacks," and, most important, how the inner critic can become asn intelligent, perceptive, and supportive partner in life.