Conversations on the Courageous Path to Healing, Summer Reading & Equanimity
Weekly Literate Love: May 30, 2025
Happy Friday!
We have had A LOT of cold, rainy weather here in upstate NY. Since I’ve been sick, I haven’t minded much, but as we head into the opening days of June, I’m definitely looking forward to the new summer season and the new summer READING season.
Summer is the perfect time to rest, read and recharge. I bet all of us here hope to have a beautiful, relaxing summer full of leisurely reading.
But that takes planning. =)
Thankfully, there are ten things you can do TODAY to have the best summer reading season ever starting TOMORROW. These small, actionable steps will yield big results and will only take a few moments of your time. Here they are:
Chart your rhythm & schedule time: Plan out a consistent time of the day that will allow you to sink into a good book. It might not always work out, but having a consistent time can work wonders for showing up for yourself.
Build your book stack: Choose three books to read over the summer and stack them up in a visible location. Seeing them daily will remind you to read them.
Choose your notebook: If you’d like, choose a small notebook dedicated to your summer reading. Note the books you are reading, the books others have recommended and even capture your favorite quotes and memorable lines.
Create a portable space: Having a bag, bin or basket with your favorite reading treats will deepen the experience and ensure you keep coming back.
Clear the apps: Delete any apps from your phone that might distract you from your reading…or at least move them off the home screen.
Get your tools ready: Gather sticky notes, bookmarks, highlighters and whatever else you might like to support your reading with.
Find a friend: A bookish bestie can be just the thing you need to hold yourself accountable for your summer reading. Set a weekly date to talk books and support each other.
Choose a signal & tracker: Our bodies can sink into the reading experience more easily if we send a signal to our nervous system that it’s time to relax: a cup of tea, soft music, lighting a candle, etc. A tracker can help our bodies create new habits and celebrate the time we are gifting ourselves to read.
Choose a reward: Yup, a reward. Whether you choose a new book, a special book light or an artisan coffee to indulge in while you read, these treats matter and help us to keep showing up to the page.
Start with a bang: Kick off your summer reading in a big way: host a one-person DIY retreat, spend an hour or two reading at the local park or start with a trip to the bookstore to buy books that are perfect for you. If you need help choosing titles, reach out. I LOVE making suggestions.
If you’d like even more guidance on each of these, click below to listen to a backlist episode of the Get Lit(erate). podcast and get ready for the best summer reading season yet:
Keep reading for your weekly dose of literate love and click the button below to share with a bookish friend!
Happy reading & writing!
Stephanie
What I'm Reading:
Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose by Martha N. Beck
I always find myself getting lost inside of Marth Beck’s words, often finding pieces of myself along the way. Reading BEYOND ANXIETY was no exception.
In this book, Martha invites readers to explore what anxiety actually is and consider an unexpected way of first befriending it and then turning it off: creativity. Organized in parts, Martha explores The Creature, The Creative and The Creation, arming readers with research-backed science, personal anecdotes and my favorite, new skills to step out of an anxiety spiral and into a creative one instead.
The analogy of creating a life’s quilt was just the metaphor I needed and the unexpected chapters on building a life (and career) you love was exactly what I needed, too.
This book could change everything for you.
The Night Garden: A Novel by Lisa Van Allen
This was one of the book club selections inside my Get Lit(erate). Substack community for our florilegia theme of the month. Here's the publisher's overview:
Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its center lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colorful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors.
Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harboring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. But when her childhood best friend, Sam Van Winkle, returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe, isolated world and wonders if she at last has the courage to let someone in. As she and Sam reconnect, Olivia faces a difficult question: Is the garden maze that she has nurtured all of her life a safe haven or a prison?
That last question is what got me. 😊 Plus, I live in upstate NY, so I am hoping for some local connections.
Yoga Life: Habits, Poses, and Breathwork to Channel Joy Amidst the Chaos by Brett Larkin
I’m wrapping up my Yin Yoga certification and am putting a bow on the experience with this book. Here’s the overview:
Award-winning instructor and Uplifted Yoga founder Brett Larkin is here to help you design an adaptable, personalized practice, and cut to the chase with quick yoga habits that soothe your soul. With the support of quizzes and thirty book-exclusive companion videos you’ll learn:
A five-step method to design a personal practice that works for your schedule.
How to adapt your practice to meet your physical, mental, and emotional needs.
More than a dozen yoga habits that will help you calm your mind and body, even if you never manage to make it to the mat.
Grounded in the wisdom of yoga’s original texts, Brett reminds us that yoga was always meant to fit easily into our everyday lives. Whether you’re a beginner or a life-long practitioner, Yoga Life is your new go-to for a personal, transformative, joyful at-home practice to strengthen your mind, body, and spirit.
What I'm Writing:
Here is the mix of notebooks I’ve written in this week: my disappearing JournalSpeak notebook, my Morning Pages notebook, my 5 Year Journal, my quote notebook (now called my bookish florilegium), my podcast calendar and my writing notebook for the new book I’m working on. It’s an eclectic mix of writing that has served me well this week, but made me realize something:
I did a lot of varied writing this week, but I didn’t really feel productive in my writing life. I feel more productive when I write consistently in ONE notebook over time rather than bits and pieces across many of them.
How about you? Just something to think about.
What I'm Learning:
This week, I finally learned a new word and I’m a bit embarrassed about that. Why? Because I’ve heard this word many times and even though I wasn’t completely sure of what the word meant, I assumed I had the jist of it. I didn’t. =)
Here’s the word: equanimity.
Here’s what it means: evenness of mind especially under stress, the right disposition, balance.
I find it fitting that I did not know the meaning of the word as this concept it something I struggle mightily to embrace.
So now, I have a new word to learn, to explore and to bring into my life.
Do you need this word, too?
What I'm Loving:
I’ve already gotten bitten by my first mosquito of the season, so I was thrilled when I saw this natural mosquito repellant using candles, citrus fruits, basil, water and essential oils. So pretty, too!
Trying to get rid of clutter? Me too. Try this red-dot method.
Notebook Therapy posted their new June printables. Grab yours today!
Deanna G. shared this article with me: If you still write shopping lists on paper instead of using your phone, psychology says you have these 7 distinct qualities.
Keep scrolling for my latest podcast posts and updates!
Podcast Highlights From the Last Week:
Conversations on the Courageous Path to Healing with Jennifer Kreatsoulas
On today’s episode of the Get Lit(erate). podcast, I’m talking with Jennifer Kreatsoulas about how her love of reading, writing and yoga supported a courageous path to healing through an eating disorder.
Come listen as we talk about the three words central to both of our lives, how reading and writing can act as embodied, healing practices and how they both can shift and change over time based on what we need and the season of life we find ourselves in.
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:
May 2025 Member Spotlight: Meet Michelle Olson!
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.
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I read Yoga Life last month and absolutely loved it! I spent this month revisiting it and doing a deep dive into all that was shared in it. Last month I also read Year of Yoga: Rituals for Every Day and Every Season by Kassandra Reinhardt. It is a beautiful book and so far I have been keeping it out on my desk so I can revisit it at the start of each month.
I loved how you talked about people needing a healthcare advocate that can support someone with all their needs holistically -- emotional, physical, medicines, nutrition. I agree! I was thinking this very thing in my recent caregiving for my Mom -- someone to counsel a patient through their fears, look at their overall medications, movement, nutrition. There's a huge need for this type of person out there!