Have you ever felt the urge to escape the fast pace of the modern world and find solace in the simple pleasures of life? That's exactly the journey I invite you on as I recount the tranquil tales of 'Slow Living' by Helena Woods and other cherished reads from the past year. Today, I'm eager to share how these narratives have inspired me to cherish every page and every moment.
Join me by the fireside as we traverse cultures and histories through the power of storytelling. We'll explore the resilience of a young girl in Nadia Hashimi's 'Sparks Like Stars' and the boundless depths of sisterhood in Jojo Moyes' 'The Giver of Stars'. These books, along with Anne Patchett's 'Tom Lake', offer an exquisite blend of historical backdrops and the intricate web of human emotions, illustrating how fiction can profoundly shape and reflect our own experiences.
As we wrap up our literary session, let's take a moment to reflect on the principle of Ichigo Ichie and the wisdom of living in the present, a philosophy beautifully depicted in the books discussed. I'm also sharing insights from Michael Singer's 'The Surrender Experiment' and its testament to the beauty of life's unexpected turns. As we part ways, I extend an invitation to you to share your own transformative reads, for our shared journey of the soul is ever-evolving, and your contributions are what make it truly enriching.
Have you ever felt the urge to escape the fast pace of the modern world and find solace in the simple pleasures of life? That's exactly the journey I invite you on as I recount the tranquil tales of 'Slow Living' by Helena Woods and other cherished reads from the past year. Today, I'm eager to share how these narratives have inspired me to cherish every page and every moment.
Join me by the fireside as we traverse cultures and histories through the power of storytelling. We'll explore the resilience of a young girl in Nadia Hashimi's 'Sparks Like Stars' and the boundless depths of sisterhood in Jojo Moyes' 'The Giver of Stars'. These books, along with Anne Patchett's 'Tom Lake', offer an exquisite blend of historical backdrops and the intricate web of human emotions, illustrating how fiction can profoundly shape and reflect our own experiences.
As we wrap up our literary session, let's take a moment to reflect on the principle of Ichigo Ichie and the wisdom of living in the present, a philosophy beautifully depicted in the books discussed. I'm also sharing insights from Michael Singer's 'The Surrender Experiment' and its testament to the beauty of life's unexpected turns. As we part ways, I extend an invitation to you to share your own transformative reads, for our shared journey of the soul is ever-evolving, and your contributions are what make it truly enriching.
Hi loves, welcome to the Journey to the Soul podcast. I am your host, jacinda Villa, a spiritual life coach and holistic health coach. Every week, we will be diving deep into all things purpose, wellness, spirituality and creating the life that you dream of. This space is meant to be safe and transformative for you to dive into the deepest parts of yourself. We will share what I have learned from my journey along this path years of research and mentors along the way. Having spent many years living life out of alignment and afraid to go after my dreams, I know first hand what it means to take the first step down, living a life authentic to you. We are on this road of self discovery together. It is time for you to live the life you imagined. Hi loves, welcome to another episode of the podcast.
Speaker 1:
I am cozied up in my living room today. It is the middle of January and we got our first winter storm today, I believe. It's like 9 degrees outside or something, so I am cozied next to my fireplace, which is probably what you hear in the background. So today I wanted to share with you, now that we've started a new year, some of my favorite reads from the past year, and reading is one of my favorite things to do. I have always loved it and there was a moment in time where I kind of let it go a little bit, but over the last few years I've definitely been diving into it again, more and more, and I always love listening to what people are loving and reading. I know there's so many books out there, especially, I mean, in every category, in fiction or nonfiction but I always enjoy listening to what other people are reading and get some inspiration for myself and what kind of books I want to read this year, and I thought I would share some of my favorite books that I read last year. That way, if you want to get some inspiration for this year, maybe some of the books I share will be something that pique your interest or sound like they're about a topic that you like.
Speaker 1:
This year, I am challenging myself to read more than the year before and to devote myself to reading even more fully. It brings me so much joy to get lost in a book for hours and to get lost in another world. I have always loved how books can completely transport you to other worlds and other time periods and you can live so many lives by just picking up a book and reading and exploring another realm. So I am really challenging myself to read even more than I did last year, read more fiction, have more fun with it and really just let myself go wherever feels good with it. It's supposed to be something enjoyable, of course, and I do read a lot more nonfiction. Over the last few years, I have read more and more nonfiction, but I enjoy it nonetheless, because I love learning about different things and you can learn just about anything by picking up a book and reading about it. So I have so many interests and reading a book about one in particular can definitely help me learn and expand myself in that topic and gain more knowledge about whatever it is that I do want to learn. So these are a little mix of fiction and nonfiction, but hopefully some of them will peak your interest in some way.
Speaker 1:
I use Goodreads to track my reading. It's an app that you can download on your phone and you can set a goal for the year if you really want to be a little bit more diligent with your reading, if that feels good to you. If not, you can just track your reading more organically. It makes me more intentional about my time and where I put it. So I do enjoy setting a goal that feels good to me. For the year of 2024, I'm challenging myself to read 45 books this year, and I think that's very doable. I really want to be more intentional about where I am focusing my energy, and reading a book is something that I always try to focus my energy on, versus picking up the phone and going on social media or doing other things to kind of pass a time. That don't really fill me up in any way, and I always love the way that reading makes me feel.
Speaker 1:
Depending on my mood and what I need and I'm craving in that moment in time, I may go for something that's fiction to fuel my heart and my soul. Or if I'm wanting to just learn and expand something that I'm already learning, then I'll go for the nonfiction. So it just really depends on what I really want to get out of the reading. So I typically have two, sometimes three, books going at the same time so that, depending on my mood and whatever I feel like reading, I can go ahead and go for that. So, yeah, but Goodreads is such a great app to use and you can get so much inspiration as well from just going on the app and exploring some of the top books that were read last year. They have lists curated for different categories of reading fiction, historical fiction, fantasy you know, it has just about everything. So if there is a certain genre of literature that you enjoy, I'm sure that they have a list curated for that. So I really enjoy using Goodreads to track my reading, but also to give me inspiration of books that I might enjoy based off of what I've already read. It will even give you some reviews for books or show you similar books as well, so it really has so much to offer. If you want something to track or give you inspiration, to track your reading or simply just give you inspiration, it's a great app to utilize.
Speaker 1:
The first book that I wanted to mention is Slow Living by Helena Woods, and I actually came across Helena a few years ago on YouTube. She has some great content on Slow Living, which is one of my favorite things to read about and learn about, and I love so much of what she shares her life after moving to France with her husband, leaving the go, go go lifestyle of the US, and she shares so much of that on her YouTube channel and how she chose to live life more intentionally and she really goes above and beyond in sharing that through her videos, but also through this book, which is the first book that she wrote on Slow Living, and these teachings are simple, but they are so profound. If you are wanting to learn how to live life a little bit slower and a little bit more intentionally and at a pace that feels good to you, I would really suggest this book. Thank you. She shares very tangible ways that one can live life a little bit slower and simply live life more peacefully, which I am all about. I definitely want to cultivate that in my life more so. This is a wonderful read if you're wanting to learn more about what slow living is and how you can bring that into your life in the most simple ways, in ways that are still very usable and practical in our modern day and age. But it's such a great way to open your mind to other ways of living, because there is another option to live other than the way that we feel like there is by living here in the US, which is that very fast paced lifestyle, a lifestyle that doesn't leave much room for joy or pleasure or peace. So many of us experience so much anxiety and pressure to perform all the time, and that doesn't have to be the way that we always live life. This is why I have really incorporated a slower lifestyle and really applied the principles of slow living into my life, so I think that this is something that could really expand your horizons on what living a slow life can look like and how you can incorporate these things into your life.
Speaker 1:
The next book on my list is Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi, and this is historical fiction, which is one of my favorite things to read, and it takes place in the 1970s, in Afghanistan, and I love books that take place in Japan or different parts of the Middle East or England or Paris. There are some of my favorite books to read and it's basically following the life of a girl who was part of a prominent Afghanistan family during the 1970s, and I don't want to spoil the book but how her life changes drastically after a coup that is done by the Communist, so the current government gets overthrown and this completely changes her life and her trajectory and it's no longer safe for her to be and live in Afghanistan like she has her entire life. So it goes deeply into how she is able to cultivate a new life for herself in America and what she experienced during this time of the overthrow does for herself her emotional well-being, and how it affects her throughout her entire life. Essentially and it is such an incredible read it absolutely transports you to her life as a little girl and how these things, how these circumstances and situations left such an imprint on her being, and I think it's an incredible read. If you like reading about things with government themes or in the Middle East, it's a beautiful, beautiful read. It really does follow that hero's journey and that evolution of her essentially not letting the things that happen to her inhibit her from living an incredible life, and she definitely does that and she really steps into her power in all of those things. So I absolutely loved reading this. It was so beautiful. The way that it's written is also incredible.
Speaker 1:
The author, nadia, has a very poetic way with words and I always love that as well, so it was definitely one of my favorite things to read this year, I think I. I think I read this one in like two days, in a weekend, so it was a favorite of mine for sure. And the next book I have is Tom Lake by Anne Patchett, and I actually pick this up at a local bookstore here in Franklin, where I live in Nashville, right outside of Nashville, and they put out a lot of books by local authors, and I did not know that Anne Patchett actually lives in Tennessee or somewhere outside of Nashville. So I love romance novels Anything that makes me feel good. I love a good romance book. They're one of my favorite things to read too. So I pick this up.
Speaker 1:
Based off of the description that I read in the book, I thought, okay, this could totally be what I'm looking for right now. And it was such an incredible book, a lot more depth than a lot of the romance novels that I read. There was a lot more going on with it, which I really enjoyed. It wasn't your, you know, kind of easy-going, easy-read romance novel. That wasn't what that was. It definitely has other layers to it.
Speaker 1:
This is a story about love, though, and that's very prevalent in the book, but it's also a story about the demons that some of us have like in our lives, and the story is essentially about Peter Duke, who is a famous actor, and the retelling is actually the mother of these three young girls, and this takes place during COVID. But the mother dated Peter Duke when they were younger and it's her retelling of Peter Duke and it goes into how they met and this incredible, electrifying connection that they had and also how he evolved so much when he got into acting and like the messiness of that and what it brought into his life. So Laura, who is telling the story to her daughters, kind of shares how wonderful Peter Duke was Because he is a famous actor, was a famous actor to his daughters who know him, but also what no one saw, kind of off-screen, and the things that he dealt with kind of like at a psychological and emotional level. So it goes into his demons a lot more and how that affected him and his acting career. But it's still such a beautiful love story too. It's not like your traditional happy ending but it goes into how deep love really runs and how big of an imprint it can have in our lives. So I definitely enjoyed where this book took me. It made me want to actually read more of Anne Patchett's books, which look and sound amazing, so I will probably pick another one up this year from her.
Speaker 1:
The next book is the Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. I've read a good bit of Jojo Moyes books. I do come back to them quite a lot. There is something that I typically know that I'm going to love the romance, like we were talking about before, and a lot of these times these have some kind of romance in them, so I really enjoy reading them.
Speaker 1:
This one, the Giver of Stars, was also such an incredible read, also historical fiction. It takes place in Depression-era America, in Kentucky, and it follows the lives of basically five women who bring this library, this mobile library, to people who are living in this part of Kentucky and how this library changes the lives of so many people, but also just how it brings this group of women together. And it follows Alice Wright is one of the main characters and how she leaves her life in England to marry a well-off American. But it goes deeply into kind of how a lot of people who had power during this time, how they used it. It touches on the coal industry and kind of how much harm it caused a lot of people in that area as well. She makes Alice makes incredible friends with Marjorie, who is one of the women leading this mobile library, and how Marjorie opens Alice up to being a more independent woman and being fearless. During this time, where women did not have so many of the same rights that we do now and that's something that's also highlighted in this book Women are still a thing as well, so there's just so many incredible things that come out from this, and it really is just how finding women who can be there for you and hold you down, essentially in a time where it's not easy for women to have their own voice and be able to stand on their own two feet because of the time that it's set in and the place that it's taking place in. So it really is such a beautiful read. I absolutely loved how these women's friendship evolved and grew into something so profound and strong, and how it brought them to have someone when none of these women had anyone to rely on or be there for them in a time that is so dominantly ruled by men. They really find resilience and strength in the other, and it really just goes through that.
Speaker 1:
My next book on the list is the book of Ichigo Ichii-e, the art of making the most of every moment the Japanese way, and this book is written by Hector Garcia and Frances Mirales, and I have read their other book, ichigai, which I also loved, and I love these small little books that pack a punch in a few pages, and when I'm really interested in something in particular or I am exploring a new subject for the first time, these are always fun to read. They give me all the points that I need to know and a very in-depth and also to the point understanding of what I'm trying to learn. So I love reading about different cultures around the world and how they live differently than us, principles that they live by, how they find fulfillment in life, how they live life more meaningfully and intuitively. These are things that I love implementing in my life. I feel like there's so much to learn from other cultures around the world, so the principles of this book are something that I already love applying into my life, which is essentially presence and not taking the present moment for granted, and what Ichigo Ichii essentially stands for.
Speaker 1:
In Japanese it has two translations, but the biggest translation that they use in the book is that this moment may never come again, and it goes into how they use this version of Ichigo Ichii in the Japanese culture. Sometimes they use it as essentially to depart from someone, to say farewell and during other moments of life. But it's essentially the concept that whatever you are experiencing right now whether it's having a cup of tea, having a conversation with someone, meeting someone for the first time, cooking dinner whatever you are experiencing in this moment may never come again. So essentially, that it is a gift. This moment, this present moment, is a gift, and that's what they dive into more deeply into this book is how we can dive into the gift of the present moment even more, and I love the little practical tips that they give and the suggestions and the practices that we can bring into our life if we want to deepen this moment of Ichigo Ichii into our life. The Japanese culture is one of the cultures that I love learning about in particular. I feel like there is so much to be gathered from them and witnessed in the way that they live life, and it really is such a beautiful culture. So I always love diving into deeper parts of their teachings and their ways of living and finding tangible ways of bringing that into my life. So this book is incredible if you want to find more practical ways of living more in the present. Maybe you find that this is a theme with the other book that I suggested to you by Helena Slow Living. But these are things that I definitely open myself up to very deeply in my life, of being in the present and not rushing, and knowing that every moment is truly a gift and that no moment is a guarantee. You know, the next moment is not guaranteed to us. So how can we truly live in the now and make this moment everything that it can be?
Speaker 1:
My last book I mentioned in another episode of some of my favorite books of all time. It's the Surrender Experiment, my Journey into Life's Perfection, by Michael Singer, and I'll touch on it very briefly. But this is an incredible book if you're trying to open yourself up to trusting life and life's process more, and it's essentially following Michael's journey through his life of this experiment that he had with himself of simply surrendering to whatever life was asking of him in that moment, not questioning it, not second guessing it, but just doing whatever was showing up in that moment and surrendering to what life was bringing him. So this became an experiment that he led through many years of his life and essentially just became a way of being for him of not questioning or second guessing his path, but trusting that if it was showing up right now. It's because that's what he was meant to experience right now, but it chronicles essentially a chunk of his life and how it took him to some of the most incredible places that he would have never thought otherwise, and it just expanded him and his concept of what was possible. It pushed him to open new businesses and to create an incredible amount of fulfillment and joy and peace with his life, but also an incredible amount of abundance, simply by him leaning into surrendering to whatever life was showing up for him, and it's such a comforting thing to read if you struggle with this concept as well of surrendering to whatever life is bringing you. I love that.
Speaker 1:
It wasn't always easy for him to really surrender into the moment and what was being asked for him, but regardless of how crazy or how out of bounds it seemed, he did that and it never led him astray, and it ultimately shows us that we really don't hold the ultimate power in our lives, as that we're always being led, we're always being shown our path, every step that we're walking our path, but also how so much peace and serenity can be found in the unknown that we don't have to have it all figured out, which I think is a beautiful message for so many of us, and this is what that book really does is. It just opens you up to living more in the now and knowing that everything that's showing up in your life right now is divine for you, essentially, and that it's meant to be there for a reason. So not pushing it aside or anything like that, but just trusting trusting that the universe has your best intentions in mind and leaning into that power, that divine power, because it has so much to teach us. And those are my top reads from 2023. I hope that you found some of these books intriguing or maybe inspiring enough to add to your reading list of this coming year.
Speaker 1:
If you read any books this past year that made a great impact on you or that you thoroughly enjoyed, I would love to know. Maybe I will add them to my reading list for next year or this year, so you can share them with me. By connecting with me on Instagram. You can send me a message. I would absolutely love to hear some of your favorite books that you've read or what you're reading this year.
Speaker 1:
Alright, loves, I will talk to you all later. I hope you are enjoying the winter and this beautiful season that invites us to be a little bit more quiet and introspective, and you're dipping your toes into the new year in whatever way feels comfortable for you, but I send you so much love and light. I'll talk to you all in my next episode. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode and share this message with any friends and family. I'd love to hear your takeaways, so share them with me by leaving a comment below or heading over to my Instagram at just send a, marie. I am sending you all so much love.
