Cozy thrillers and foot-shaped sneakers.

As we slide into the whipped-up business called “the holiday season,” I just wanted to remind you that the purpose of life is to enjoy it. ❤️

6 things to enjoy in November:

✨ Cozy thrillers by Shari Lapena: Now that the days are getting shorter and my melatonin kicks in at 6pm (thanks a lot, daylight savings) I can’t wait to crawl under the covers and read soothing character-driven murder procedurals! I enjoyed Ontario author Shari Lapena’s She Didn’t See It Coming, so I downloaded An Unwanted Guest last night: a whodunit with a bunch of strangers trapped at an inn on a snowy night in upstate New York. Delish.

✨ Foot-shaped sneakers: I got a pair of Altra Escalantes for walking, and now all my other shoes are suboptimal at best. I just replaced my gym shoes with their Solstice cross-trainers and now I’m like, wow, so this how lunges are supposed to feel! Turns out, lifting weights is way better when your feet are grounded and stable. What’s the deal with wedge-heeled and pointy-toed running shoes? Shouldn’t ALL shoes be shaped like our feet?

✨ Lauren Sapala’s videos: She’s a prolific YouTuber with multiple books and short courses just made for intuitive, highly sensitive folks. (On the Myers-Briggs personality test, we’re the ones with NF in our 4-letter code.) One of her recent newsletters was titled, “INFs: Why is it so hard for us to let ourselves have fun and play?” An INFJ herself, she explains that our kind of fun is “going deep within to visit our magical inner realm—with no productive goal in mind.” Ah… I feel seen. She’s coming to Centered on Dec 9th. Stay tuned for details!

✨ Contact Nutrition by Carmen Spagnola: Carmen’s down to earth, radically honest writing about attachment style shrinks the time-space continuum; you feel like she’s sitting beside you on the couch as you read her words. Easy to understand, funny, compassionate and inclusive, this is a book written for people who don’t want to go to therapy. Read it as a gift to yourself.

✨ Making rituals out of to-do lists: There’s so much that needs to be done this month – putting the garden to bed, planting bulbs, hanging lights in the tree outside, making beds for houseguests, shopping and gift wrapping, teaching, writing, and preparing for the end of the year. I feel stressed when I think of it all at once. But the truth is, everything on my list is there on purpose. This is my one life: I get to make it meaningful. So I’m trying to remember to bring love into each task. For instance: I made wishes on the daffodil bulbs as I planted them in the ground.

✨ This song: VIBE by Equanimous + I AM SOPHIA. It’s my current reset track. I play it loud when I need to change the mood, restore my sense of humour, and come back to myself.

PS. If you’d like to buy a signed copy of Story Is a State of Mind as a gift, you can order through my publisher, Assembly Press, and they’ll ship it to you. 🎁

Photo credit (top): Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash.