3 New Ways to Practice Bibliotherapy, a Stephanie Action Figure & Button Notebooks
Weekly Literate Love: April 18, 2025
Happy Friday!
I have made a big decision this week: I’m leaving a few social media platforms behind.
I am currently rereading Rachel Hollis’s new book bit-by-bit: What If YOU Are the Answer?: And 26 Other Questions That Just Might Change Your Life.
One question keeps hitting hard: What MUST you let go of top grow into the best version of yourself?
Not should let go of. Not want to let go of. What MUST you let go of?
I love sharing my love of reading and writing every week, but I’ll be honest: Keeping up with all the platforms (and by keeping up, I mean barely posting) is a lot of work. Beyond the typing, the mental bandwidth it takes to remember to post, create the posts, reply to the post and then lament about how nobody saw the post (I hate algorithms!) was getting me down.
So, I’m trying a little experiment. For the next month, I’m posting only on the Notes feature here in Substack and my Instagram feed to see what happens. I’ll also keep my private Facebook group for now, but I’d love to jump ship on everything and find a cozy home here on Substack and Substack alone.
I recently read that life is a series of tiny experiments and this is one I want to try. If I let go of those social media tasks, I can make more room for reading and writing. =)
What do you think of this experiment and what’s a tiny experiment you could try in your life?
Keep reading for your weekly dose of literate love and click the button below to share with a bookish friend!
Happy reading & writing!
Stephanie
P.S: I’m leading a special workshop with Jennifer Kreatsoulas that blends reading, writing and yoga for caregivers supporting loved ones through eating disorders. You can learn more about it here!
What I'm Reading:
The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin
The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin has made it to my Best Books of All Time list…and it is at the top. Oh, this book. This book showcases the power of books, the desperate need we have for them, the ways they can empower us to literally change our lives and the beautiful communities that form around sharing them. In this book, we go back in time to Victorian London where women were often forbidden to read by the men in their lives for fear of the emotions, ideas and independent thoughts they might elicit. But when a group of women come together in a secret book society to read, the grow and to change, anything can happen. My goodness, this book showcases why I do what I do. Reading can change everything.
Mind Your Body: A Revolutionary Program to Release Chronic Pain and Anxiety by Nicole J. Sachs
I have been battling chronic pain for a long while now and have tried absolutely everything: doctors, medications, yoga, supplements, diet and everything else I can think of. Each thing I’ve tried has brought me closer and closer to the pain-free life I hope for, but Mind Your Body by Nicole Sachs is closing the gap. Nicole provides the undeniable science behind the Mindbody field that reminds readers that our pain may live in our bodies, but the solution lies in our minds: emotional exercise is directly connected to physical transformation. Step-by-step, she walks readers through the JournalSpeak process and is the most steadfast cheerleader that I have ever had (even though we have never met!). I’ve been journaling for a while and I know that it is a life-changer, but Nicole is teaching me that it is a life-SAVER, too. If you struggle with chronic anything, please read this book.
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
This week, I started The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon and it is living up to the hype surrounding it. It’s SO good. It's a "gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history" and it instantly whisks readers into her world. I’m about halfway in and know that Martha is going to be one of my new fictional mentors that I look up to for a while.
What I'm Writing:
Well, I have made a BIG switch in my Morning Page journal…
I’m not writing in it.
Gasp! =)
I’ve been leaning into Nicole Sach’s JournalSpeak method that I shared in an earlier post and she recommends throwing your deep, honest, raw writing away after as a symbol of release AND to ensure that no one reads your words written in hard moments.
You couldn’t pay me enough money to tear out the pages of my Moleskin, so I’ve been writing on lined, yellow legal pages with a mechanical pencil. Once I’m done, I rip the pages off, run them under cool water so the pencil blurs, squish them into a hard ball and then toss them in the trash.
I admit, that process feels really good.
Back in a previous episode of the Get Lit(erate). podcast, I explored all sorts of things you could do with your old notebooks and creating a releasing ritual was one of them that I had not yet tried. But after easing myself into it, I just might!
Stay tuned for a podcast episode on this intense form of journaling!
What I'm Learning:
I don’t normally jump on the social-media bandwagon, but I have to admit, I have LOVED seeing my favorite online content creators recreate themselves as packaged action figures! Thankfully, Karin from Yoga Journaling shared exactly how she did it using ChatGPT and of course, I’ve been trying and tweaking to create one that I love that represents the work I do.
Here’s where I am so far….
If you’re in my Get Lit(erate). paid community here on Substack, get ready for Sunday’s post on exactly how to do this yourself as a fun, creative way to explore renewal in our lives this month. We’ll have some fun!
What I'm Loving:
Oh, my goodness, these mini button notebooks are the most adorable, whimsical things I’ve ever seen. Now, do I have the patience to try making one?!
Wondering what my decorated cookies look like? You’ll find my daughter and I featured on Buttercup Cookies Instagram page!
This could be my new hobby: collecting letters. I probably would never even use them, but would be enamored with collecting them to share with someone that would!
Book people are the best people. See how a Michigan town moved 9,100 books one by one to their new home! This is yet another bookish reason why I must visit Michigan.
Keep scrolling for my latest podcast posts and updates!
Podcast Highlights From the Last Week:
Three New Ways to Practice Bibliotherapy
On this episode of the Get Lit(erate). podcast, we’re exploring three new ways to practice bibliotherapy that have never been talked about on the podcast….or anywhere else that I can find.
Typically, bibliotherapy focuses on the book, specifically the text in the book, and how it can help you grow through what you’re going through. But what about the other text-adjacent forms of bibliotherapy? They matter, too!
Come listen as I talk about three new ways you can practice bibliotherapy in a new way.
You won’t want to miss this one!
From My Private Substack Community…
Every Sunday, I post additional content for my private Substack community to bring even more literate love to our lives. Here’s what I shared this week:
April 2025 Member Spotlight: Meet Dawn Nacker!
Be sure to subscribe and add them to your TBR stack. Click the button below to subscribe. It’s just $5 per month!
Let’s Work Together!
I love to connect with others around our shared love of reading and writing.
Here are some ways we can work together to create a life you love where restorative reading and writing is at the center of it all:
🩷 Join my private Substack community for themed book calendars, bonus posts, book clubs and events each month!
📚 Connect 1:1 for personalized coaching to unlock the transformative power of your reading and writing life.
Literate love is multiplied when it’s shared! 🩷
Here are some free ways to support this newsletter and spread my message of the magic of restorative reading and writing far and wide:
🩷 Like and comment on this post so we can connect!
🔄 Restack your favorite nugget of literate love.
📷 Take a screenshot of your favorite part and text it to a friend.
💌 Forward this email to a fellow bookish and notebookish friend so they can join the literate love too!
⌨️ Refer a friend and earn prizes….including courses and coaching sessions with me!
I LOVE your “action figure”! I can’t wait to make one of myself! I can’t even imagine the relief you must feel giving yourself permission to scale back on your social media platforms. IG and Substack are my faves! Loved the episode on the Get Literate podcast this week. One more thing that crossed my mind was what I call “Quote Cards.” You find them on Amazon sometimes on the book page and they are Canva-like cards with popular quotes from the book. I like to read those and often times wish I would create some after completing a book.
I love the idea of collecting letters! It seems like it would relax me, too. Thank you for sharing that link!