Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

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B.J. gallagher

Women know what they should be doing, but still often don’t do it. Gallagher explores the reasons why, and helps women to help themselves.Women know what they ought to do—eat right, exercise more, get plenty of rest, save money, and make smart decisions in their own best interest. But instead, it seems that women often take care of everyone else, yet neglect themselves. It’s time they realize they’re not hopeless or helpless. Here, sociologist and self-care expert BJ Gallagher shares fifty-two ways they can put themselves first on their priority list—rather than last.The book begins by exploring the most common reasons women don’t take good care of themselves, and how those barriers can be overcome once they are recognized. Readers will discover step by step how small changes can have a big impact; how to replace poor habits with good ones; and finally, how to avoid the “quick fix” traps. BJ Gallagher’s tips, tools, and suggestions will guide every woman to a life she deserves—taking better care of themselves and their loved ones.

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Jamie Tworkowski

In 2006, Jamie Tworkowski wrote a story called "To Write Love on Her Arms" about helping a friend through her struggle with drug addiction, depression, and self-injury. The piece quickly went viral, giving birth to a non-profit organization of the same name. Nine years later, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is an internationally-recognized leader in suicide prevention and a source of hope, encouragement, and resources for people worldwide. From personal stories of struggling on days most people celebrate to offering words of strength and encouragement in moments of loss, the essays in this book invite readers to believe that it's okay to admit to pain and it's okay to ask for help.

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Mark A. Runco

"Creativity is typically defined such that the underlying processes reflect some divergent or lateral thinking, but in actuality it must also involve certain critical processes. These are critical in two ways: First, they reflect some kind of criticism or convergent thinking, and second, they are vital for creative thinking. This volume reviews research and theorizing about these critical processes. A wide range of processes is covered, including those which are entirely personal, and those which are interpersonal. In addition to addressing the notion that creativity requires both divergent and critical processes, this volume describes the roles played by traditional intelligence, language, and attributions in creative work."--BOOK JACKET.

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Peggy Fitzhugh Johnstone

George Eliot has been widely praised both for the richness of her prose and the universality of her themes. In this compelling study, Peggy Fitzhugh Johnstone goes beyond these traditional foci to examine the role of aggression in Eliot's fiction and to find its source in the author's unconscious sense of loss stemming from traumatic family separations and deaths during her childhood and adolescence. Johnstone demonstrates that Eliot's creative work was a constructive response to her sense of loss and that the repeating patterns in her novels reflect the process of release from her state of mourning for lost loved ones. How then does Eliot's internalized aggression, rooted in her early life, find its way into her characters? How and why is it, in turn, denied by the author? And finally, how does the process of writing fiction help resolve it? Eliot's inner rage, Johnstone argues, was transformed into works of art and gradually dissipated as she developed her creative gifts and finally achieved her sense of identity as an artist. The Transformation of Rage explores the connections between self-disorder and aggression, anxiety and creativity, and narcissism and mourning in the full range of Eliot's novels - Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Felix Holt, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda. It will appeal to a broad audience, including those interested in the nineteenth-century British novel, the life and work of George Eliot, and the interdisciplinary study of literature and psychoanalysis.