MSI Press Blog

  Recently,  Learning to Feel  (Girrell), reached #321 on the Amazon bestseller list of psychologist biographies. Book Description:  Learning to Feel, Second Edition,  teaches readers how to gain choice and authority over their emotional states. Feelings and emotions are reactions to the deeply held beliefs and experiences of our lives. In order to become fully emotionally intelligent - that is, to be able to know what is yours, what comes from the others, and how best to respond to those others - we must connect first to those core experiences and often re-interpret the meaning they have held for us.  Learning to Feel  is such a journey, intended to be a set of trail blazes for anyone who wishes to up their game in the realm of emotional intelligence. (Edition 1 was selected for the Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award and a Literary Titan gold award.) First Edition Book Awards Literary Titan Gold Award Independent Press Award Distinguished ...

  Some years arrive quietly. Others show up like a houseguest who knocks once and then lets themselves in. 2026 feels like the latter. Everywhere I look, people are talking about “taking control” of their lives this year — their schedules, their finances, their health. But the real frontier, the one that actually changes how we move through the world, is something quieter and far more personal: choice over our emotional responses . Not the events themselves. Not the chaos, the curveballs, or the people who seem to have a PhD in pushing our buttons. Just the response. The myth we were sold Most of us were raised to believe that emotions “just happen.” Someone says something hurtful → we feel hurt. A plan falls apart → we feel frustrated. A loved one scares us → we feel fear. It’s a tidy little equation, but it’s wrong. What actually happens is this: Event → Interpretation → Emotion → Response That middle step — interpretation — is where our power lives. It’s also the ...

  In a world that promises instant clarity, curated peace, and five-step spiritual breakthroughs, the idea of a Dark Night of the Soul feels… inconvenient. It’s not marketable. It’s not fast. It doesn’t come with a workbook. But in 2026 — a year already thick with uncertainty, acceleration, and spiritual fatigue — the Dark Night might be more relevant than ever. What is the Dark Night, really? It’s not depression. It’s not burnout. It’s not a crisis of faith. It’s a stripping away. A sacred disorientation. A season where the old ways of knowing God stop working — not because God has left, but because we’ve outgrown the container. The Dark Night is not punishment. It’s invitation. Why it matters now In 2026, many people are quietly asking: Why does my prayer feel hollow? Why do the rituals that once comforted me now feel foreign? Why do I feel farther from God even though I’m doing all the “right” things? These aren’t signs of failure. They’re signs of transit...