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[00:00:00] Hi everyone and welcome to Words of Wellness, the podcast for anyone interested in the ways we think, talk, and write about wellness. Why do we use so many motifs like journeys, gardens, even battles when we talk about wellness? How do writers explain science and wellness concepts? How can we make sense of the wellness information overload we all face?

These are some of the kinds of questions we explore. I'm Daniel Anderson and we're coming to you from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Today we have a special Book Talk episode in store. Our guests are Ethan Hutzler with Guerrilla Mindset. Gracie Brown, speaking about Habits of a Healthy Brain.

Joyce Matondo, with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Katie Dodson will be talking about The Power of Positive Thinking. Natalie Bessier will be speaking about The Mind Gut Connection. And William Novotny on The Science [00:01:00] of Introverts. Let's get started. Okay. Perfect. Thank you for that. Introduction I think what we're first gonna do is just say our names and give a brief summary of their book And I can start us off.

So my name is Katie I read the power of positive thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and this book was It's actually pretty simple pretty similar to its name, Power of Positive Thinking. It really just talks about how positive thinking can lead you to success and happiness and fulfillment in life.

And through this it gave a lot of personal narratives and narratives of people that Peele had met while going through life because he writes this later in his life. And how their positive thinking correlated to good fortunes and good things happening in their lives. And then it gives their tips and tricks, his tips and tricks and just basically that whole journey.

Thank you for that, Katie. My name is Gracie, and I read the book on Habits of a Healthy Brain, and it basically just explores the cognitive health by deep diving into the [00:02:00] neuroscience, and it's basically offering like a practical guide for ways to improve your mental and physical well being, and it's like emphasizing the connection between brain health and overall wellness, which just provides readers like of the book to understand ways they can reduce stress, ways they can improve their physical aspect of exercise and their health journey and how it also improves your brain health and your day to day life.

Yeah. My name is Ethan. I read Guerrilla Mindset by Mike Cernovich. And it's all about reshaping the way you view success how to build confidence, how to be more dominant and assertive. It's a very hyper masculine book and the author really has that tone. But it's also very interactive, it has fill in the blanks throughout the book to help you view your own life and how you could be more dominant in your life.

And that's why he uses the metaphor of a gorilla, because a gorilla is powerful. And another thing he gets onto is being [00:03:00] fit physically and mentally. And he emphasizes the connection between that and how that will help you take control of your emotions and your thoughts. And, yeah, every other aspect of your life, it goes into financial freedom.

And yeah. Thanks. My name is Natalie, and I read The Mind Gut Connection by Dr. Emeryn Mayer. And what's interesting about this is, since it was written by a doctor, he's a gastroenterologist and neuroscientist, so he really focused a lot on the physical impact of how your gut can affect your brain.

There's like something called the brain gut axis, where your gut can send messages to your brain and vice versa. And I thought that was really interesting, especially just how he talks so much about the physical aspect. I feel like this book really combined mental health and physical well being.

Yeah. Hi everyone. My name is Joyce. I read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and basically what the book was about making intentional habits that were basically [00:04:00] impractical ways in order to shift your mindset whenever you get into certain circumstances. And I liked how the book was structured because the different chapters were started with the story so you can get into the book and make sure that you understand everything that's said and it wasn't filled with a lot of highly like scientific jargon so it was very easy for a simple person to understand.

My name is Will, and I read The Signs of Introverts by Peter Hollins. And the main premise of the book just in one word, is about introverts. It talks about the misconceptions they have in society as lonely, unhappy wallflower people. It talks about it talks about how they, sorry, I'm really nervous.

It talks about their role in society and how introverts and extroverts alike are essential for a society to function. And then, probably the biggest point on the whole book is about trying to help people better accept their role as an introvert. Because I think a lot of people labeled as an introvert, they want to go out more and they want to be labeled as an [00:05:00] extrovert.

And the book has a message about Trying to help people be accepting of their personality. That's super cool. So while Natalie was talking, I was thinking about this. So we had done in class the coding with the Instagram posts and look through if it was more, theoretical or scientific.

And you had mentioned that your book was scientific. So I guess this is focusing on you, but a question for everyone. And your books, did you feel like it was more focusing on like a neuroscience? And bringing this like wellness or if it was more giving like theoretical ways, you can change your life and make like a new you.

I think he definitely gave suggestions on how to change the mind gut connection if you're like having problems with eating or like bloating, IBS was a big thing. But I thought a lot of it was very scientific. Like for me, it was a little hard to follow. There was a lot of definitions. I felt like I had.

Like I needed a PhD in biology for a little bit, but I still really enjoyed it. But it definitely got a little bit complex. [00:06:00] Yeah, mine it was actually a little different than what I was expecting. It focused really heavily on a religious aspect to positive thinking. So in that way, I would say that it's definitely a lot more theoretical and mental and it didn't really focus much on I like scientific or neuroscience type of thinking but I feel like that kind of falls in line.

Because while there is neuroscience obviously to positive thinking, I think that in terms of the book the author is just really trying to portray internal things that you can tell yourself such as affirmations were really focused on heavily in the book and it was a lot of things like that, so there really wasn't much focus on a scientific view, but I think, I thought that was super cool that yours Was like heavily related to that.

I don't know if anyone else's. Yeah to go off what you said I thought mine would be more neuroscience related because that was the what she was trying to pursue in the book But then as you start reading you see she's providing Steps and ways for you to reduce your stress [00:07:00] like get out of your comfort zone and stuff because that's the ways that actually You can take these habits and improve your day to day life.

And it was actually cool to see ways that I can improve my life and I'm not sitting here reading just science facts, which allowed me to actually understand the book and see it change. I would say my book was actually really similar to that because I first when I read it was like seven habits of highly effective people, I thought it was going to be more, sorry, more practical, but the book was actually like incredibly easy to understand and then it allowed me to it was easy to apply to your life because he put himself into certain positions that you could see yourself in as well.

So I would say it was slightly a balance since it was also like mental based, but it was leaning more towards theoretical. I was going to jump in on that part about balance I thought my book was so unique in that, yes, it was an informative, scientific book, but at the same time, it maintained this laid back and relatable tone.

The author, multiple times throughout the book he drew the word introvert back to himself. [00:08:00] Trying to make people feel like it's okay to be an introvert. It's okay to feel like this. So I thought it was really cool to have that middle ground between informative yet laid back and relaxed. Yeah, mine was definitely a little closer to yours, Joyce.

There was almost like no scientific talk really in my book. It was all very practical. One of the biggest things he talked about was like posture, improving your posture. And then like also breath exercises. And, yeah, so it's very practical and there's no not a ton of neuroscience or any of that.

Yeah, so it's super cool hearing about all of your guys books because we're all under this like subcategory of mental health but they're all very different. So I guess this is just for like my personal like thoughts but why did you guys like end up choosing your books out of like the long list that we were given to choose from of wellness books?

Yeah, to go off what that question, Katie, I chose my book because it was talking about improving brain health and anxiety in college is [00:09:00] something so real and people struggle with all the time, like with the transition, especially as a first year. So I thought the book would provide me with practical steps on how I can improve my brain health and my mental health as well while being in college.

So I thought it would give me an insight to that. And it did. Similarly, I looked at reviews because I'm a type of person where it's if it was a lot of neuroscience based words, I wouldn't be able to get through the first chapter. So when I was seeing how people said that it was easy to read and that it was very understandable I enjoyed that and that was like one of the main things that I saw when I was picking my book because the fact that it started with seven habits, I already knew what I was getting myself into and I already knew what to look for.

So it was very interesting to see. Yeah, I chose my book because I thought it was just so interesting how I was like googling how your mind can connect with your gut and there's expressions like, Oh, like I, I felt it in my gut or like gut based decision making. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting.

Like I never really thought about how your mind. Played such [00:10:00] a big impact in that and I was googling I was like, oh my gosh, this is so interesting And so I was like, I guess I'll read a book on it. I decided to read the science of introverts it's in the name because I wanted to better understand like my personality type I've always been someone who's just been described as an introverted type and I have friends who want to be out till 3 a.

m And I always thought why don't I like this? Why don't what why don't I want to go out? and it talks about this need to recharge and it uses these metaphors throughout the book and had a really unique way of being relatable and I thought it was really cool to figure out why I'm like this and to feel okay like that.

Yeah. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Will, do you think the author of your book was an introvert as well? Like you said. Yeah, I drew on this earlier so in the very beginning of the book he talks about how I, and I quote the word introvert has been used to describe me a million times. And he draws on his childhood and his current life.

And his, to this day, needs to recharge and break, [00:11:00] get a break from reality. And I think that was one of his strategies in being so effective at using it. And the other thing is that he used a bunch of we words throughout the book. He constantly tried to make it seem like a journey that we were going on together.

I thought that was a really cool thing the author did. No, that's really interesting. Yeah, for me, I honestly chose it because it just seemed really funny. Like I mentioned, it's very hyper masculine. And I looked at the very first page, and the first review he puts says, This mindcast is mind bending.

This podcast is mind bending. It will alter your consciousness into an alpha male god like realm where anything is possible. Yeah, so I read that, and I was like, this book sounds hilarious. And it really was. It was a fun time reading the book, so that's why I chose it. That sounds interesting. I chose mine I think because of how simple the name was like I was thinking I was I don't know It was very clear like the power of positive thinking I'm probably gonna be reading about positive thinking and I've always considered myself a fairly positive person.

So I grew up doing like competitive dance. And if you guys don't [00:12:00] know, it's like a group of three to five judges. They just sit in front of you and they just write critiques about you while you're dancing and then afterwards you get it and that's how you get your score. So I feel like from there I've grown a little bit of a thick skin and things don't really affect me as much.

Not as they should, but as like they would. So I feel like in that sense, it's made me pretty positive because I can like disregard that stuff. But since coming to college I obviously am not really dancing as much as I was. And not that's all just completely shedded from me, but a lot of it I feel like I'm starting to lose a little bit of my positivity, so I think I thought in reading this book it would re reput these ideas in my mind which I feel like it did make me start to think a little bit more consciously about whenever I'm being negative and having negative thoughts which I wanted to just briefly go back because the two of you had talked a little bit about authenticity and we were talking about that in the interview that we had done a few days ago and in class today.

Following that, do you guys think that your author was authentic in writing the book, I guess in terms of [00:13:00] using pronouns and how we had talked about the authenticity scores? And yeah, it's funny. I looked at like the the score that our professor posted online and it was pretty low, which kind of surprised me because I thought that the author of this book, he added a lot of like personal things, like a lot of patients he saw and his experience with those patients and how they got better.

And so I thought that was interesting, but I was wondering if The scientific kind of jargon made it score a little less authentic. I don't exactly know what the scale is what words are used for the authentic score, but I thought that was interesting. I think it's a slippery slope because the words he uses the personal antidotes the we, the us, the whole relatable thing.

Obviously the author knows what he's doing with these words, he's trying to make that connection. But I think it's for the right reasons, because after reading the book, it made me feel better about myself, that's all I can really say about it, but yes, I do think the book was, I do think the book was [00:14:00] authentic.

I would also say that I think my book is authentic because in the beginning the stories that the author used were very personal he mentioned a story about his, him and his child in the way that his thinking affected his child and because of how like vulnerable it was just in the beginning, I immediately could see that the author was actually trying to help us with our success and actually trying to have help us have attentional habits in our lives.

So seeing that helped me see that the author was actually being very authentic. I feel like mine what you had said, it's a slippery slope because the author did talk about himself a little bit, but it was more so talking about people that he had talked to and they had implemented his tips and tricks and stuff and how they had seen positivity.

It's, while he is mentioning himself, it's more so other people's stories. I don't know. I was like on this back and forth of if it was authentic or if it wasn't. Just because he's retelling these experiences that other people lived and though it does semi correlate to [00:15:00] him, a lot of the times I was like, But it's not your story.

And the stories were really simplified and like short down like it would be like this person's entire life anxiety ridden and he's Yeah, they took anxiety meds and it's oh, okay what happened like with the entire rest of their lives? So in that sense, I felt like it was a little bit too fast paced and that made it lack a little bit of authenticity, but Again, he was talking about things that he had experienced and people that he had personally talked to so like it's like a slippery slope.

It was a back and forth for me. Yeah to go of that I honestly think the same about my book because there were times where it was just so Like it was not connected to the author personally to where it didn't feel like what she was saying Was real and like she genuinely meant it but then there was times where she would say these little quotes like your brain is capable of incredible change and Small consistent changes can lead to big results and then give you detailed like answers about how this can really impact Your brain health [00:16:00] and when she did that, I really thought okay This is authentic, but there was times where it was like No, this is too detailed she's going way too far off into a science related topic that's not relating back to the book, or her personally, or a story personally.

Yeah, my book scored very high on the Luke program, and I think that definitely matches up. Like I said, there's no really scientific jargon, it's all practical advice. He includes a lot of interviews, too, with They're all the same, to be honest. They're like, people just like him. So the interviews all feel very the same.

And the book is just like step by step, how to take control of your financial freedom that goes into physical freedom through working out. So it's very the same all throughout, and it's all definitely him speaking. So it scored very high on authentic. Cool. And then I know, Will, you had also mentioned in your book The kind of emphasis on like metaphors like recharging and [00:17:00] stuff and needing that.

And I know in class we've talked a lot about wellness metaphors and how that's very like heavily used. So did any of like your guys books, and I guess you can also talk a little bit more about the metaphors that were used. But did any of them rely on metaphors to get the point across that they were trying to give to you?

I can talk about a little bit of the metaphors that I saw in my book. Since it was basically about paradigm shifting most of the metaphors were like rewiring and connecting to like your personality and your character. I remember there was one that said our character is basically a composite of our habits.

And basically the author was trying to argue that the small consistent actions that we have in our life Can shape basically the rest of our entire lives and something like about those metaphors really seems easier said than done. But because they were so filled with them, the book was so filled with them, you can see that that's what the author was basically trying to get across to you.

But if you're not necessarily able to comprehend them and understand them, it [00:18:00] can be very difficult, I'm sorry, I probably should have started that off. I was going to say the biggest metaphor they used in ours, it talked about how. , if the introvert is a cat, the extrovert is a golden retriever waiting to play fet, waiting to play fetch like relentlessly.

And for probably four pages, it talks about how introverts rely on this kind of internal stimuli. They need to get away from people and they need to listen to themselves. Whereas an extrovert, it's the complete opposite. They need to be social, they need to see people, and that is their way of recharging and feeling better.

And you can talk about that for five pages, but if you don't put it in someone's head correctly, there's not really a way to make sense out of it. And I thought it was cool that in literally just a one sentence, like a one sentence out of a paragraph, they were able to tie all these themes and ideas together into one seemingly almost funny metaphor.

So I thought that was, like, a really cool way to do it. Yeah, and I liked that it was unserious in the metaphor. Mine was pretty broad. It just kept [00:19:00] saying this is a journey. Positive thinking is a journey. It's not going to happen in one night. And like in the stories, it would be people's journeys.

Like how I mentioned he would shorten them down, it's because it was like over the span of like long amounts of times, these people like implementing the things that he had said over long amounts of time and then their brains would think more positively. After that, did anyone else have any?

Yeah so in my book, a big one was they related it to like gardening and taking care of Like plants and flowers. And it was talking about how a garden needs constant watering, weeding and providing the right nutrition to it. But, that's just like your brain. Your brain needs sleep, your brain needs rest, your brain needs exercise, and your brain needs to learn.

And Comparing those two things really provided the reader with an example of how important it is to make sure your brain is having the right cognitive health. Yeah, in mine it's in the name, but the main metaphor is us being gorillas [00:20:00] or primates, as he says. And he'd also be like, the world is he says a primal environment, or like a jungle.

Essentially, he's just saying nobody messes with the gorilla. And he says that every other page, I have a question for you two, because I remember you said that you had metaphors in your book, but you also said you had metaphors in yours. So I was saying the comparison between the two, would you say it made the book easier to understand, or harder to understand?

Because at least for my book, personally reading the metaphors, for me, made it slightly more difficult, but I feel like that can definitely differ between each book, and since your book was focused on positive thinking, but yours was, like, a different topic, how would you say that affects you?

Yeah, I'll go ahead. For me I would say it actually made my book easier to read. Because you know how to garden. Everyone knows that you need to water a plant or water flowers. Providing that example and relating it back to the brain really allowed me to make a connection on What needs to be done for my mental and physical health and it provided just an overall habit that I needed to increase So I think it really helped my [00:21:00] book flow a little bit better Yeah, and then I guess this is taking it.

I'm beyond the book and making a little personal I learned better in like class settings if Metaphors are used like if I can connect it to something that I already know and then this foreign topic It makes me can understand things better. Using it in the book really helped. But also the metaphors that the author was using weren't anything complex.

This is a journey. We've heard that like a million times. We've talked about it in class. I can under, I can understand what that means pretty easily. I think if there would have been more complex metaphors, which is what I'm thinking yours was like. Yeah. It may have thrown me for a loop because if it was two foreign things that they were like trying to like allude to, I'd be like, okay, I don't know either.

But, my, mine was. It's pretty simpler were your metaphors, they were like, yeah, it was like a mix of both, but like mainly it was like slightly complex. So trying to like comp, connect what the author was trying to say to a certain situation was slightly difficult in certain chapters It definitely differed but like in certain chapters I was just confused because I was like, what are you trying to put out right now?[00:22:00] 

But besides that it was okay Yeah I do think my if my metaphors were more complex than I really Wouldn't have been able to relate it back to what they were trying to Persuade about brain health and cognitive health so I can see This is jumping in and I wouldn't say it's going off topic But the introduction of my book was a metaphor.

So the first couple paragraphs it was really cool It took place in a fifth grade student government board selection and it talks about how this kind of upfront and forward teacher is like this kind of person and talks too much, and this kind of person in the 5th grade classroom doesn't talk at all.

And then it talks about ambiverts which they talk about later in the book. And it talks about these middle ground people who are, they don't talk too much, but they're also not completely silent. So before you even go into reading the book, you have this analogy of a 5th grade student government body being selected to help your understanding of these personality types.

So I thought [00:23:00] that was really cool. That is super cool and it like pulls you in. My book started with a narrative. It was I'm trying to remember because the book was a little bit long. It was talking about A guy that he had met and basically the guy was just like going through really hard times and he meets with Norman Vincent Peale and has a conversation and the author tells him to use prayer and start trying to implement that into his life because he's I'm so overwhelmed with everything happening right now and this has been going on for a long time and I just don't know what to do about it.

And so he says that and then talks about how the guy comes back and the guy's I feel a lot better. Which is like a very like long story, probably shortened into two paragraphs. But yeah, it does get you in because you're like, oh, he's immediately talking about someone's story and you feel connected immediately because you're getting to hear this guy who just got over a tough time and then you're like how did he do that?

I want to keep reading and figure out how he did that. Which I guess this kind of leads to another topic. What kind of. brought [00:24:00] you into the book and made you like stay invested while reading it or I guess on the flip side were you not that invested? I would say obviously the topic was really a hook for me and was very made me want to keep reading more but also the language is very clear and concise which allowed me to while it was like trying to say a powerful message the language was simple but I was able to understand what they were getting across, which allowed me to understand the book better and it not be so scientific related in words that I needed.

Like a dictionary for it was very easy to understand and read. So I think that kept me interested in wanting to know more because I was able to actually understand what I was reading. Yeah. For me, the language use it helps me and sometimes it didn't. Sometimes it was very scientific, but other times, and this is going back to like metaphors, but he used, he said something like the brain gut axis is like a highway with like cars moving on both directions, like just like [00:25:00] that.

Your brain sends signals to your gut and your gut sends signals to your brain. So like a superhighway. And then he also talked about the brain gut orchestra, where just like an orchestra, you need all different instruments to make it sound nice. And if one is out of sync, they're all out of sync.

And that was especially interesting to me because I did orchestra in high school and I was like, yeah, that's very true. Like you can always hear if one instrument is like out of tune or something. But he said if one section of the brain is out of sync, like it can impact our gut just like an orchestra and our whole body.

So yeah, for me I've already joked about how unserious my book was and it wasn't that it wasn't very deep. And I do wish I wish I had a deeper book, because I was not that invested. But it's also, I'm not the primary audience, so it's definitely very much so for middle aged men who are like losing motivation in life.

But yeah, I was not very invested in my book, but that's okay. Was it like a mid life crisis kind of book a little bit? Yeah, it's definitely, obviously the audience is like entrepreneurs obviously men. And like people who [00:26:00] are like, have a lot going on, and they want to be able to control their stress.

Which I guess applies to college a little bit, but I'm, like I said, this has a very hyper masculine tone, I'm not middle aged I don't know, it just didn't, it didn't really interest me that much, but. It was still a fun read. Maybe in your future, you'll be like, oh my god. Yeah, maybe I'll come back to it one day.

Sorry. That's valid. For my book personally, I've I've read multiple books about building habits, and whenever I start reading them, I have a, ooh, I have a habit of reading them and then not completely finishing them just because of how how, what's the word? It's not necessarily easy to follow, so when I was reading this book specifically, I wanted to see if it had a different take on how like you're supposed to have this like practical habits for Improving your life because a lot of life improvement is like very like stereotypical and not necessarily real So when I was reading the book and he started off with the story about him and his son and how his thinking affected his son and how his son was negatively going about his school life and [00:27:00] not necessarily living properly, if that makes sense.

It related to me because I connected with the way that the father was thinking, which is the author. And it allowed me to want to read more about how his thinking led to how his son was positively changing his life. And because of that, I continued reading the book. Like the normal take that you see on like I read another book, it was called Atomic Habits.

It wasn't like that necessarily, but it was still very interesting. So that's what kept me reading the book. You talked about what kept you along for the whole book. Obviously the title grabbed me. And the laid back tone, the conservative tone, it kept me going through that. But the big thing through me was the relatability factor.

I've always had these negative fleeting thoughts about being an introverted person. I've always felt like I didn't fit in, and I've had trouble connecting with people. And then to see it like, put in words that you can understand, you're like, Wow I'm not the only person in the world. That feels like this and again drawing on the analogies and the metaphors and [00:28:00] then the Explanations for this in such a relatable way It almost made me feel this is so like cliche But it makes you feel like safe like it's like a safe space reading the book.

So That's what kept me along the way. And then, I'm so sorry, but would you say cause I'm like very interested in how like other people of different personalities like see the world and everything, because I tend to label myself as like an ambivert, extrovert, but since you're an introvert would you say reading the book like actually helped you?

Because you can see Sorry! Sorry, I'm interrupting you, I'm getting excited. 100%, because I've always thought to myself, again, when I see other people going out, and I see other people interacting with people in a certain way, I've always thought, Why can't I be like that? Why can't I think like that?

And I've tried to change myself to act like that. And then the book talks about how not everybody is wired the same way. And it's okay not to be wired the same way. And the other big thing it talks about is the misconception that introverted people hate social interaction. I don't hate social interaction.

I'm having a [00:29:00] great time with you guys right now. But it's simply the fact that for them to recharge, to feel energized, they need to listen, they need to go away from everybody, and they need to listen to themselves. And, listening to these points it helped me have a better understanding of what I need to feel better and how I don't need to feel a certain way.

Yeah, I would say reading the book 100 percent helped me. I'm glad. That's super cool. And then I guess this can be our final question to finish us off. Do you have any critiques for your book? And then would you recommend it to someone else to read?

I can go. I guess my biggest critique which I talked about was that I found it a little hard to follow with all the scientific words. It was very not as theoretical and lean more on the neuroscience science, which I thought was very interesting, but I did have to Google a lot of the scientific terms like I'd heard before, but I was like, how does this connect [00:30:00] exactly?

But I still think I would recommend it, especially it offered like practical tics at the end. Like it said, eating for gut health, like prioritizing fiber rich foods taking probiotics and reducing processed foods and sugar. And something I thought that was interesting was it also recommended, like how to strengthen the mind gut connection.

And it basically said stimulating the vagus nerve, which is It's the nerve that sends signals from the gut and transmits it to the brain. Like one way to do that is like deep breathing, meditation and that like actually will help your gut, which I thought was really interesting. It's not just like eating food.

It's also managing stress, like practicing meditation and engaging in regular exercise. I thought that was really cool. I'm gonna keep this short because I really don't have a bunch of critiques for my book. I thought the book was great, but it talks about how introverts oh, these people, they're not like lonely, weird people.

But it doesn't get enough to the fact that a lot of introverts are lonely, depressed, like outcasted people. And I wish it drew more on the [00:31:00] topic of that select group of introverts who really do struggle to Talk to people or make connections in general. But other than that, I thought it was a really great book.

And this is just another key point I wish I brought up earlier. But it talked about how a lot of introverts even though that they aren't able to make as many, the majority of connections, As a lot of people are it talks about how they keep their circle smaller and they tend to be a lot closer with that small group of people, but I'm yet.

I was going to say it didn't talk about the depressing aspects that a lot of people go through, so I thought that was my one critique I can go. I would say the only critique that I have for my book is, even though it's called the seven habits of highly effective people, the habits that the author outlined for you, it seems like more easier said than done.

The way that the author was telling us to be proactive or to try to have the end goal in mind, those certain habits the way that the author was outlining it, it was seeming You could do this in a day, you can do this in two days, but [00:32:00] stuff like that is like a whole mindset shift.

I would prefer for it to, like the author to actually emphasize how this doesn't have to be done like in two days or one day, like within a short period of time, but it could take like a while for you to actually do this and it makes it more personal and makes it more like relatable if that makes sense.

I'm gonna go off what you said because it's like my critique for my book because it's habits of the healthy brain. The habits listed. It seemed like the author thought, okay maybe whoever the reader is, which I think the people who should read this book are people in college like us or people struggling with their mental health or physical well being.

And it was like the ways the habits she listed she was very like blunt with it I guess you would say and was very Like this is what you need to do and instead of I feel like she could have been went to more detail because I don't think you can just reduce your stress like with the snap of a finger.

It takes time to do that. And so I really think if you would have went into more detail about what, maybe [00:33:00] included scientific articles about what they say to reduce your stress and ways that you can do that, then it would have been easier for the reader to understand. And that was my only critique.

Yeah, for me I feel like my author talks a lot about himself. Throughout the book and I feel like a large portion of the book also is Him justifying his own opinions. And then it leaves him with, like I said, it's very practical but after he gets done justifying himself, it's only three practical tips.

And it's not that long of a book either. And as I said earlier it's, those tips aren't very deep. It's, the only two I can really remember is breath control and posture. It's obviously. That's I don't know. Yeah, that's my critique of the book. But, like I said earlier, it's not really meant for me.

He is a very specific audience, and if you're not in that specific audience, you're not going to get it. But, yeah. Okay for my book I think I've I've mentioned this like 500 times probably but I feel like it's a little bit oversimplified. A lot of the tips and, techniques [00:34:00] were like Close your eyes and imagine yourself somewhere else and it's things that we've heard like a million times and while reading it I was like Okay is this really gonna completely change my mindset and make me think positively?

But then I looked it up, and this was written in 1950, so I feel like that can correlate to a lot of the oversimplified ideas, and I do think that if it would have been rewritten now there would have been a much more specific focus on a few ideas instead of just trying to push this entire idea of positive thinking into one book.

And then, along with that, it was a little repetitive. A lot of the stories, I think was like did I not just read about this person like a few pages ahead because it was like they would have the same problems He would give them the same solutions And then it would be like a different thing from the Bible instead like it would be like a different scripture or a different verse But it was the exact same story over and then I guess the last critique that I would have It's just that it's an intended audience just because it does focus a lot on religion.

And if someone reading the book isn't religious, I can see how it would make them a little [00:35:00] uncomfortable because he brings it up in almost every single narrative about using prayer and going to church and using the Bible and stuff. If someone isn't religious, or even Christian in that matter, because it is very specific to Christianity, I think that kind of limits the audience, and with a title like this, Power of Positive Thinking, I don't think that you would really think it would correlate directly to a religion. So I think that it could be a little bit misleading, but again, I say that with a grain of salt. Just because this was written in the 50s, I feel like a lot was different, and I do think that religion was a lot more Assumed, rather than not everyone is going to be religious, don't write for just one religion.

So yeah, I feel like if it was rewritten in modern day, a lot of this would be different. I would have a lot less critiques. But, with that being said, I still would recommend it to someone if they wanted to read it. I think that it was good to read, it was cool to hear the stories. But I would just say if you maybe don't believe in that stuff, or you aren't religious or anything it might be a little uncomfortable to read, or just something that you wouldn't read.

But other than that, I still thought it was pretty good [00:36:00] and the author seems like a good guy. I've really enjoyed this conversation. It has definitely made it easier to see that we need a balance between accessibility and depth when it comes to wellness writing. The discussion has made it clear and brought out some terrific insights into these books.

Thanks to Katie, Gracie, Ethan, Natalie, Joyce, and Will. And thanks to our listeners. Stay tuned for another episode of Words of Wellness.