On the site Nacie lays out a strategy (survive-revive-thrive) to deal with the current employment situation. Nacie has spoken to hundreds of people in their 20′s and 30′s and the result is an upcoming book that lays out the strategy in detail (you can register to be notified of when the book is published on the site). There is also an about page that gives more on why the site was created and who Nacie is.

You can subscribe to the site through RSS (click on a button and posts are delivered into a reader like Google Reader) and have a newsletter delivered by email to your inbox.

If you a young professional who is unemployed or underemployed (or know someone who is) then check-out this valuable new site.

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It is to a site about how to make stuff for yourself. This applies to things directly related to health – like food. It is also related to saving the planet – minimising energy expended in production and distribution of what we consume. It is full of practical and usually inexpensive things that you can make yourself (usually fairly easily).

The site is savvyhomemade.com. I think it is a really valuable resource.

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It it full of information about the side effects what drugs are used to treat what conditions and (most importantly) what the side-effects of these drugs are.

I think drugwatch.com is a hugely valuable resource.

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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It is sorting through the criticisms of the self-help/self-development/personal-growth field. There has been a few books published lately doing this kind of thing.

I am very glad that Chris is doing this – I think that our thinking can get neglected in self-help while emotion and intuition are championed.

The blog is called DevInContext (Development In Context). I hope you will subscribe and contribute to a very important project. The first post is about the ethic of responsibility and whether it encourages self-blame.

Chris’s other blog Purpose Power Coaching is also of consistently high quality.

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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First up a couple of posts from one of my new favourite bloggers, kaushik at beyond karma. First up is a post whose depth is belied by its rather cheeky title A Handbook of Awakening – 36 key tips. While each tip is treated briefly using this post as something to keep working on could really help turn your life around. My favourites are: develop a gentle honesty with yourself, enjoy easy movement and do less enjoy more. My one disagreement – get up early. The second is kaushik’s examination of How do we know what is good for us? This sounds simple but when examined leads into some deep waters and interesting places. This is about unity with essence, similar to what I would call living authentically. It is very worth reading.

To be awake and in unity with essence means (at least) a life of creativity. Luciano at Litemind, uses the four roles from Roger Oech’s A Whack on the Side of the Head, to make creativity more accessible and less mysterious. The four roles (or to my mind stages in the process) are: explorer (being curious, getting lots of input from diverse places); artist (imagining, playing, brainstorming); the judge (sorting the good from the bad, becoming aware of our tendencies and biases); and the warrior (making it real in the real world – innovation takes consistent work). If you feel stuck in some part of your life or with a particular problem then using this process to address it is well worth trying. The post is called Deconstructing Creativity: The 4 Roles You Need to Play to be Fully Creative.

Alex at Unleash Reality challenges the belief in Just Getting By. Alex is a young man and writes a decidedly hip language. This I find delightful and refreshing, for instance he states that, “Limiting beliefs are sneaky little bastards.” Beautifully put. Even better is the next paragraph-long sentence,

They [limiting beliefs] lick their oily fur flat and tuck in their tails so that they can squeeze into shiny neon pixie costumes, sparkly glitter makeup and fairydust perfume hiding their noxious nature, and they fly and flitter their sneakily disguised asses around your shoulder like the fairies in Peter Pan, appearing very tame and well-intentioned and fairy-godmother-like, whispering sugarfrosted lies in your hoodwinked ear about how you can’t be brilliant and how the world is out to get you and there’s nothing you can do about it but settle for what you can get and play it safe and try to get by.

Alex’s writing is always fresh and frequently amusing – and he always has something to say. I recommend Unleash Reality highly.

With a more tone is: You Deplete Me: ten steps to end a toxic relationship. The basic idea is that the need to be completed by someone is the basic problem. The steps are clear and not simplistic. They include deeper stuff (not just staying with surface behaviour), such us #3 Identifying the perks (ie. the ‘benefits’ that the relationship offered you). If you feel you are in a relationship you shouldn’t be then this is an excellent guide to ending it.

Why go to a psychotherapist? For Alex Blackwell it is about Tracing Life Every Other Wednesday – that is, it is about far more than therapy (fixing problems). Alex also lists ten things that he has learned while seeing his therapist. Things like: I don’t have to be perfect to be loved and many choices are still available. It is a good reflection on the value of therapy.

Which brings me to the topic of change: specifically, whether we can get other people to change. This is the topic of You Can’t Force Other People to Change – but you can help them. In this post Ali Hale gives ways to help others change: let them know you value them, ask them what they want, and ask how you can help. Simple? Oh yes. Easy to do? Yes and no. Would it have a major impact on our relationships if we did this? I certainly think so.

For a strong finish to this round-up of excellent posts there is John at storied mind talking about dealing with recovering from depression. While the depression is gone there are still all the ways of living that were developed while depressed to deal with. In this post, Stressing Life by the Rules, John deals with the stress of developing rules to live by – for every situation, in detail! John puts it this way,

Out went the assumption that I was worthless, bad, inadequate, doomed to fail (and on and on), but it’s taken awhile to dismantle the structure of rules that I had created to bind up that bad person.

This post is vividly and personally written.  If you are someone who is recovering from depression or know someone who is, it is well worth reading.

That’s the round up from my part of the blogosphere.  I think you’ll find it a rich hoard.  Let me know what you think in the comments, Evan.

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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I’ve realised that I won’t get the time any time soon to do a post on each so this is the collection.

First up is a collection to lead off this collection. It is a blog carnival against child abuse. (A blog carnival is a collection of posts on a particular subject – in this case child abuse). This carnival isn’t just stories about survivors and their experience, it also includes posts for advocacy and awareness as well as dealing with the aftermath of abuse. In all there are nearly 30 posts, each with a sentence or paragraph describing the post and what it is about.

Perhaps my favourite blogger is Albert the Urban Monk. The quality of his posts is remarkable I think. (If you are a regular reader of this blog and are tired of hearing how good Albert is; all I have to say is – go read his stuff I think it’s every bit as good as I say it is.) I would like to highlight two recent posts by Albert both about resolving the past from slightly different perspectives. The first is about the Unresolved Past – that is when we are surprised by how much something hurts us – we understand that we are hurt but why so much? Albert gives a step by step process for finding what is underneath and how to resolve. Simple and practical, if you are having this kind of reaction it is well worth reading this post. The second post is similar – about forgiveness and When the Memories Return. This deals with healing the pain by expressing it fully, that love can’t be rushed and that it can take a long time because we are changing ourselves (perhaps in a quite deep way). I think this is an excellent post on a topic that is often treated in a superficial and glib way (“you just have to forgive them”).

On to more ‘physical’ stuff. For those over 70 being a little overweight (not a lot) is better for your health. This finding was from a large study and reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. It seems to be quite a solid finding.

In my view the single best thing to do to improve any relationship is listening. This post is all about listening. This means paying attention, listening from the heart and so on. This post provides lots of perspectives about listening. It is well written and a good read, even if a little lacking with the how-to’s it will provide motivation and insight I think.

Another of my favourite blogs is Storied Mind where John writes about his journey to overcome depression. This post is about the ending of the dreams that is involved with the end of depression. Here is a sample of the post: “And that’s the reawakening, the moment when regaining life becomes possible. There’s regret, there’s grief and, yes, a lot of crying for the loss of so much that might have been. But recovery means you take at last a real you and start over.” John writes very well indeed. His writing is personal and very practical. If you battle with depression or are involved with someone who does I recommend his blog in general and this post in particular.

On to social context. A survey in the British Medical Journal of studies on Income Inequality and Health found that for those in societies with social inequality the health outcomes were bad for people – no matter what their income. The authors of the post remark that, “no one supports the redistribution of income just to improve health outcomes”. Well actually there is at least one who does (guess who?) and this one suspects there might be others too! From the societal level to the intimacy of the couple. A study reports that. “when close partners affirm and support each other’s ideal selves, they and the relationship benefit greatly”. If you needed a reason to support your partner in growing in the way they want to, now you’ve got it.

I’ve recently found a couple of new blogs that I just love. One of them is Beyond Karma by kaushik (no idea how it’s pronounced, sorry). Simple, personal, practical and with deep stuff to say about personal change and transendence. This post is about Allowing the Disturbing States and what kaushik learned from doing so. This post isn’t really skimmable, so set aside 5-10 minutes to read it properly, I think you’ll find it time well spent.

Another blog I love that I have discovered recently is The Naked Soul by Mark (a.k.a tobeme). The first post I would like to highlight is a Christmas reflection called No Room at the Inn. Another is this post on the virtues of being ‘out of control’ – that is, being in tune with spirit rather than trying to control our lives through our ego.

Which is maybe a good place to end this round-up. I hope you don’t find this all too overwhelming and so don’t read it (I do have a tendency to overwhelm with content I’m afraid), just choose whatever catches your eye – you can come back to other stuff later. Happy reading, Evan.

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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As you can tell from the title John doesn’t think he necessarily completely understands his recovery. The post is written with John’s usual clarity and emphasises the importance of putting yourself at the centre of your own recovery. Very worth reading.

The answer is living authentically. Buy the book or sign up for the course now from my Living Authentically website.

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