Bethany Henry: Writing & Wellness

The end of the year is approaching and I hope we’re all taking a bit of time to rest and reflect. These may be simple practices but they are so important! And they also prepare us for looking forward. There isn’t anything magical about goals that are set on January 1st but it’s a decent time to consider what we’re doing and why. Goals can be powerful ways of identifying our priorities and focusing our attention. With that in mind, today we’re looking at questions to ask when looking back at the past year as well as a few prompts for the year ahead. Reviewing Where We’ve Been 10 questions to ask about the past year: What has gone well? What has gone not-so-well? What have we felt fulfilled by? What or who has encouraged us? What has drained us? What would we like to do better? What do we want more of? What did we not get a chance to do ? What went according to plan? What surprised us? Looking Forward To What’s Next 4 prompts for the year ahead: What 1-3 tasks are the most important thin...

Last week I talked about the importance of reading for writers and the various types of benefits books can have. Which got me to thinking about what I’ve been reading lately and what’s on my to-read list! Hopefully we will all be getting a bit of time over the holidays to do some reading, right? Let’s make this happen! Here are some of my reading lists for you to enjoy and hopefully feel inspired by 🙂 Bethany’s Reading Lists Best of the year: Since 2021 is drawing quickly to a close I suppose it’s the perfect time to look back on a years worth of reading! I was lazy in my record keeping and only counted 67 of the books I read- the real number is higher. Overall I read a wide range of books with a maybe more than average amount of fantasy novels. Based on no specific formula, here were a few of my favorites: The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown I read this book slowly over the entire year- there is so much in here! And every bit of it is gold. This is a book to buy, to wri...

Stephen King has famously said: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” And who are we to argue? Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of getting our writing done, the busyness of upcoming holidays, or the general chaos of everyday life. Reading can be seen as a luxury and not very important. Except maybe that’s actually wrong because maybe reading  is  important after all. Very important. Stephen King isn’t the only author to extol the value of reading, after all. Countless writers point to reading as an inescapable part of their lives and their work. William Faulkner put it this way: “Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.” Reading has many benefits. Reading can be many different things. Reading can be a way to learn. It can also be a way to process and experience the beauty and power of la...