Tag: emotions

Emotional Strength Explained By Alicia Pozsony

~ Nuraine Sadaf ~ Leave a comment

#BookReview

Self-help| Self-improvement| Life| Emotions

A quick, powerful, and effective self-improvement workbook – aimed to help us build emotional strength by practicing a healthy lifestyle.

Emotional Strength Explained by author, Alicia Pozson, is a quick, powerful, and effective workbook that is aimed to help us build emotional strength. In life, we often have ups and downs and we face challenging circumstances that can affect us in many ways. This book teaches us to acknowledge those emotions and weaknesses, accept them, and work towards becoming emotionally strong. 

Emotional Strength Explained is more than just a self-help or self-improvement guide, it is a workbook with a targeted approach. It asks you questions that we might often ignore, they are simple questions but important ones that we need to prioritize. It encourages you to self-analyze and write down your vulnerable emotions and deepest thoughts so you can face your fears. Healing always begins with self-awareness, self-talk, and self-love. It is a slow and step-by-step approach towards building emotional strength. The practice worksheets in this book will help you track your progress so you can emerge as a strong and confident person.

It is a wonderful book that shares the secrets of success and inner peace. It teaches you to find solutions, to face criticism or judgment, and self-reflect on your thoughts. The best part about this workbook is that you can always come back to it every year or whenever you find it necessary to continue making this journey stronger.

Once you have the strength and bravery to be open to see things you may not want to see, you are ready for the next thing.

– Alicia Pozsony

What are your thoughts on open-ended stories?

~ Nuraine Sadaf ~ Leave a comment

Dear reader, today I have a controversial topic to talk about – open ended novels. There was a time when I much appreciated open-ended stories. The mysterious cliffhangers would leave me wondering, “Oh what would have happened if he had chosen the easy path?” Or “Oh is she going to remain mysterious without revealing her true identity?” Or “Will she continue packing lunch for him as a mysterious stranger without meeting him?”

As I reader or an audience I have drawn my own conclusions feeling a sense of power. The unresolved narratives gave me a sense of liberty. I could use my imagination to give a unique ending to the story or sometimes I have left it unresolved too because not every story needs to have an ending. Some movies, books, podcasts, and paintings invited more ideas to be shared amongst friends and family for interesting conversations and perspectives.

HOWEVER, on the other hand this trend seems to have caught on a little too much, isn’t it? Many writers and storytellers seem to choose this path of ambiguous endings for their incomplete stories. Which I now find a little frustrating. Somehow all I am reading or watching or listening to lately are open-ended stories. “I need an ending, please!!”

There are too many stories with abrupt endings, it seems like the authors don’t really want to try and want the readers to do their job for them. I don’t find stories without an ending artful or intriguing anymore, it’s rather a lazy approach. What’s with the unnecessary tease? Why do we have to spend hours and not get answers to all the important plots? Some stories do not even require any layers of complexity.

“What really happened in this book?” “Why did I have to spend hours reading the damn book?” “The author might as well have ended it after the first chapter and called it a cliffhanger.” Why should the reader take the trouble of reading pages after pages and end up with nothing. Sometimes movies with abrupt endings are still fine as they’re over in a few hours. But with books, when there is no sequel, I am not really sure if randomly abrupt and ambiguous endings are fun or entertaining anymore.

Sorry, I’m done ranting. I just finished reading the book Paper Palace and I’m not very happy with the unresolved ending, hence this post. I know it’s not an easy job to write a book of hundreds of pages but as a reader, I’m requesting all the amazing writers to give their readers a good ending, open or closed as long it’s good. Thank you for reading till the end and if you’ve been on the same boat then I’m guessing you’ll share the same thoughts on this subject. If you do, then please do throw some light on your thoughts and share it with us.

Myths, Doves, Tears, and the Rest by Martin Boško 

~ Nuraine Sadaf ~ 1 Comment

#Book Review
Poetry | Love | Emotions | Mythology

Myths, Doves, Tears, and the Rest is a collection of admirably written poems by Martin Boško. It takes you on a journey inspired by Greek mythology while also tugging on the heartstrings with feelings of love, betrayal, and longing.

This book is a collection of poems assembled by the author through one calendar year. The use of imagery, powerful expressions, and moving poems give us an insight into the inner workings of the poet’s mind. The author has shared some of his most intimate moments, emotions, and intentions that make each of his poems memorable. The rhyming nature of the poems was an absolute delight to read and made me want to keep going on and on for more.

When sadness comes as a raging river
I reach into my trusty quiver
To pull out the Arrow made of honey
And heal the wounds that are fresh and bloody.

– Martin Boško

The book has four sections as mentioned in the title: Myths, Doves, Tears, and the Rest. Even though my knowledge of Greek mythology is quite basic, I still found the poems hard-hitting and extremely pleasing to read. The poems on love capture the heart and soul of the feeling of being in love. As I progressed further, I could not help but feel like I was experiencing heartbreak along with the poet through his poetry. There were many moments where I empathized with the poet and wished for a turnaround in his life. Overall, I highly recommend Myths, Doves, Tears, and the Rest for all those poetry lovers who wish to be taken on a journey of imagination and emotions.

Also, read my review on Reedsy.