Discover the unique concept of 'sanity quilting' as a way to craft a life you love amidst chaos. Explore practical tips for maintaining mental wellness, from the importance of disconnecting from technology to recognizing the fine line between enthusiasm and mania. Dive into strategies for curating joyful experiences while emphasizing creativity and community support. Learn how stillness and meditation can foster tranquility as you create your own vibrant, personalized quilt of life.
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Sanity Quilting
Build a life you love, even within societal boundaries, by focusing on what truly matters to you.
Start with something you're passionate about and gradually build your life around it, like creating a "sanity quilt".
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Finding Peace in Chaos
When everything around you feels chaotic, create a "sanity quilt" by focusing on activities, relationships, or rituals that bring you peace.
Find your center and prioritize inner peace to combat external chaos.
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Creating Calm Amidst Chaos
Prioritize calm and peace, especially for mothers with young children, by finding moments for yourself.
Even amidst chaos, find small pockets of time to reconnect with yourself and find peace.
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Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose
Martha Beck
In *Beyond Anxiety*, Dr. Martha Beck addresses the rising epidemic of anxiety and explains how our brains get stuck in an 'anxiety spiral.' She provides simple, powerful exercises to reduce anxiety immediately and introduces the concept of a 'creativity spiral' to engage different parts of the nervous system. This approach not only shuts down anxiety but also leads to innovative problem solving, a sense of meaning and purpose, and joyful connections with others and the world.
Huckleberry Finn
Joanne Suter
This adaptation of 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Joanne Suter retains the core elements of Mark Twain's original story while making it more approachable for students. The book follows Huck Finn and the runaway slave Jim as they embark on a journey down the Mississippi River, confronting various challenges and social issues of pre-Civil War America. The adaptation includes eight pages of end-of-book activities to enhance the reading experience and facilitate learning.
The Gift of Fear
Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
Gavin de Becker
In this book, Gavin de Becker argues that every individual should learn to trust their gut instinct when it comes to situations of danger or potential violence. He highlights the predictability of violence by identifying pre-incident indicators (PINS) such as forced teaming, charm and niceness, too many details, typecasting, loan sharking, and the unsolicited promise. De Becker also discusses his MOSAIC Threat Assessment Systems and provides practical advice on how to spot danger signals, handle threatening situations, and manage fear effectively. The book is particularly valuable for women and others who may be at higher risk of violence, offering strategies to enhance situational awareness and personal safety.
Remembrance of things past
Henry Studdy Theobald
The novel, published in seven volumes between 1913 and 1927, follows the narrator's life from his childhood in Combray to his experiences in Paris and other locations. It is known for its complex and lyrical prose, and its exploration of the human experience through the narrator's relationships, memories, and observations. The work is often interpreted as loosely autobiographical and is celebrated for its profound reflections on art, time, memory, self, and loss.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore
Robin Sloan
The novel follows Clay Jannon, who takes a night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore after losing his job as a web designer. As Clay delves deeper into the mysteries of the bookstore, he discovers that it is more than just a place to buy books; it is a front for an ancient cult society seeking the secret to immortality. The story involves complex analyses of customer behavior, cryptography, and the blending of old and new technologies. It is a tale of friendship, love, and the power of books and technology to shape our understanding of the world[1][4][5].
When I was writing Beyond Anxiety, I wanted to find a good metaphor for building a life that you love within the cultural bounds of wherever you are and still stay sane. And I thought about crazy quilting!
If you are a quilter, you know that crazy quilting is not the same as ordinary quilting. Ordinary quilting starts with a pattern that is carefully drawn out, and then the quilter sews together panels that follow that pattern. With crazy quilting, you start with a scrap of fabric you love, and you sew another piece to it and then another and another, around and around in a spiral, until there’s a large enough piece of cloth that you can call a quilt.
And I was thinking: That’s sort of how you can make a life, too.
In this episode of The Gathering Room, I’m talking about what I call “sanity quilting” and offering up some practical advice for maintaining your mental well-being during turbulent times.
Like crazy quilting, sanity quilting involves building a life out of the things you love in order to stay peaceful, calm, inspired, and sane.
In the quilt that is your time—your whole life—most of us are taught to follow the patterns set by our culture: Get a job, get a relationship, have a family, buy a house, etc.
However, for me, it’s always been much more interesting to say, “What do I love most?” and put that at the center of my quilt. Then I put things that connect with it around the edges until I gradually fill up my time with things that I love. That’s the way I’ve lived my life.
The culture might view this as “crazy,” but I don’t think it’s not crazy to do what you love. What’s crazy is pushing what you love to the margins of your life—or even worse, never experiencing them at all.
Whenever the pattern of society that we thought we knew is being disrupted, it feels very confronting to a lot of people. At the times when everything around you feels like it’s going crazy, that’s when you must make a sanity quilt. And you do that in very quiet ways.
Join me for the full episode to learn more about stitching the things you love into your life, so you can cultivate peace, sanity, and calm during even the most challenging times.
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