MSI Press Blog

    Today's excerpt comes from  A Woman's Guide to Self-Nurturing  by Joanna Romer. What is Self-Nurturing? On a tray in the middle of your bed sits a pretty teapot, milk and sugar, a flowered teacup and, the  piece de resistance , a frothy cream puff on a matching flowered plate. No, you’re not sick, and there is no one invited to this little tea party but you. You have gone out of your way to create a tempting display of yummy food and fine china solely for the purpose of pleasing yourself. “A waste of time,” I can hear you saying—but is it? Gazing at the tea tray and the cream puff, some inner part of your being is unaccountably soothed. It is the side of you that is, undeniably, female. Yes, men and women are equal, but sometimes their needs differ. Even Sheryl Sandberg, author of  Lean In,  the most feminist book in decades, declares, “…there are differences between men and women both in their behavior and the way their behavior is perceived” (San...

For Transformation Tuesday, here is a nugget of transformation from A Woman's Guide to Self-Nurturing by Joanna Romer. " The art of self-nurturing encompasses a broad range of activities from the simplest to the most complex. In its most elementary form, it can refer merely to pleasures such as indulging in a bottle of perfume or buying a bouquet of flowers on our way home from work. On a more advanced level, self-nurturing can entail consciously expressing gratitude throughout the day for everything from the food on our table to a new job promotion. Making lists of items we are grateful for, along with recognizing activities that fill our soul with joy, can have a tremendous impact on our psyche. By acknowledging beauty, abundance and joy, we add them to our lives. A natural concomitant to gratitude is prayer, which then works to enhance our feelings of worth. Acknowledging God’s role in our lives is a powerful aid to self-esteem. " Book description: A Woman's Guide...

  Excerpt from  Think Yourself into Becoming a Language Learning Super Star Affective Dissonance: Disqualifying the Positive Disqualifying the positive says a lot about your own self-esteem. It is a case where you are always putting yourself down, and this probably happens in other areas, as well, not just in language learning. When you do not understand how marvelous you are (even if you are not the top student in the classroom—there are so many other ways to be a good language learner and a good person than a high test score), you start looking for what is wrong with you. When you do that, you start seeing your negative qualities (c’mon, we all have them, and if we look hard enough, we will see them, and if we are honest enough, we will admit them), and overlook all your positive qualities, either personal or related to study and performance even when the positive qualities outnumber the negative qualities. When you do that , it becomes difficult to be a good learner.  ...

    What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Starting in August, we will share near-daily, as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  The Optimistic Food Addict  by Christina Fisanick. Amazon review by E. B. - Worth the read! I finished this book in just a few hours. I didn't expect to be drawn into her story as much as I was. I admire her strength through such a difficult life. I also appreciate her honesty in sharing her story. Reading this book helped me to begin to understand myself a little more, and maybe some of the reasons why I struggle with a food addiction. Some of ...

  Excerpt from A Woman's Guide to Self-Nurturing by Joanna Romer - How to Figure Out What Pleases You You know what your mother likes; ditto your daughter and your best friend. But do you really know what warms your soul? What single thing or combination of factors is necessary to soothe your inner being? Often we don’t know—a family reunion may bring tears of joy to your sister Gillian, but it leaves you cold. Your next door neighbor Amy thrives on frequent trips to the mall, but you’d rather drive to an out-of-the way antique store and shop for a “find.”  Every woman is different, and we make a mistake when we tag along on someone else’s pleasure jaunt thinking it’s ours too (unless of course our purpose is to give that person a treat). If our goal is to please ourselves, we need to plumb to the bottom of our consciousness and discover that special something that brings us joy. The good news is, the older we get the easier it is to figure this out, simply by the proces...