Welcome to the book tour for The Best of No Small Thing with its accompanying gratitude workbook, Practice Gratitude. This unique collection of blog posts is by author, Deborah Hawkins!
Read on for details and a chance to win a set of books!
The Best of No Small Thing
Publication Date: December 2019
Genre: Collection of Blog Posts/ Non-Fiction
No Small Thing – Mindful Meditations (NoSmallThing.net) was launched in 2010 with the intention of reflecting on experiences that generated feelings of gratitude in order to create a positive mood and orientation to life. As of fall of 2019, over 500 reflections (mindful meditations) have been published along with over 100 tips that can be employed in a gratitude practice.
This mindfulness process is detailed in a companion book, Practice Gratitude: Transform Your Life. It emphasizes the creation of personal gratitude themes, one’s Grateful Dozen, which can help a person see things that spark grateful feelings in new situations. This is a collection of favorite blog posts that came out of this process.
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Practice Gratitude: Transform Your Life
Publication Date: December 2019
Genre: Practice Guide/ Gratitude Journal
For several decades, studies have supported the idea that gratitude has many positive benefits. It boosts optimism, a sense of personal control, and even enhances relationships. Keeping a simple gratitude journal, where daily entries are made identifying things that spark gratitude, has become a very popular. Deborah Hawkins, originator of NoSmallThing.net, goes beyond listing little boons to generate good feelings. In this book, she teaches techniques for mindfulness, self-inquiry, and writing to build memories that activate strong positive emotions. This guide and workbook helps readers understand what kinds of personal experiences prompt uplifting feelings of gratitude in them, develop broad themes that apply to these experiences, and then use these themes to see and experience gratitude in new situations. This approach can empower anyone to begin each new day with confidence that things they love and value are already present. A companion book, Best of No Small Thing – Mindful Meditations provides examples of posts that were written using this process.
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Excerpt from The Best of No Small Thing
Since I started writing down my mindful meditations, I have tried to pay extra attention to things that affect me, things that change my mood or outlook, or simply things that I’m grateful for. Keeping an eye out for these kinds of things has brought up memories of my father and some paradoxical advice he tried to impart.
My father died when he was sixty-two. I was in my midtwenties and going through a divorce. He was not around often when I was growing up as he worked very long hours, but his presence was oh so constant. We didn’t go to many ballgames together or to the park. He didn’t teach me how to drive or mentor me in some important life skills, but I knew he loved me very much.
Starting when I was about thirteen, he used to pull me under his arm and repeat an odd phrase. “Don’t worry about the little
things. It’s the big things that are important.” Then he’d add, as if confiding something more profound to me, “Don’t worry about the big things. It’s the little things that are important.”
Available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
You can also purchase Practice Gratitude on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
About the Author
Returning to her hometown in 2008, after nearly one year spent, unsuccessfully, trying to create a new career in a new town, Deborah Hawkins found herself fighting depression and struggling to maintain solvency. In her early fifties, looking for financial help from her family was especially hard. A car accident, caused by an uninsured driver, kept her off her feet for months. She felt cursed.
She began blogging on gratitude in 2010 as a way to focus on positives and elevate her mood. Inspired by Eckhart Tolle’s words, “Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance,” she developed a mindfulness orientation for her own gratitude practice. This practice led her to post weekly over the last decade; around 500 posts.
Beyond traditional gratitude journals and lists, Deborah’s approach focuses on understanding things that sparked gratitude in past experiences and using this understanding to identify similar qualities in new situations. She attributes her gratitude practice with bringing a sense of empowerment and contentment to her life.
She plans to make her process available as a tele-seminar in the near future. Deborah has a BA from Knox College and lives in Chicago.
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Giveaway: The author is giving away two sets of these books. Click the link below to enter!
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Blog Tour Schedule
November 16th
Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com
The Faerie Review (Review) http://www.thefaeriereview.com
Rambling Mads (Spotlight) http://ramblingmads.com
November 17th
Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com
The Cozy Pages (Spotlight) http://thecozypages.wordpress.com/
Tsarina Press (Spotlight) https://www.tsarinapress.com
November 18th
B is for Book Review (Spotlight) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com
Sophil Reads (Review) http://sophrilreads.wordpress.com
Stine Writing (Review) https://christinebialczak.com/
November 19th
@BrendaJeanCombs (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/brendajeancombs/
@bookandwinelovers (Review) https://www.instagram.com/bookandwinelovers/
@thecrookedhouse (Review) https://www.instagram.com/thecrookedhouse/
November 20th
Didi Oviatt (Review) https://didioviatt.wordpress.com
@burlingtonbibliophagist (Review) https://www.instagram.com/burlingtonbibliophagist/
Meli’s Book Reviews (Spotlight) https://melisbokreviews.wordpress.com/
Blog Tour Organized By:
NEW BOOK OUT – ACORNS & ROOTS
An indestructible object full of strong magic, tempting the darkest of souls. Rare rainbow roots that are sold for a high price in the city, offering a young man a way to pay rent as he faces eviction. The secret to taking down a corrupt king and avoiding disenchantment, if a young Pixie succeeds in reaching her destination.
It is believed that all of these things can be found in the Valley, accessed through an Enchanted Forest that is struggling to survive against a dark magic- harnessing monarchy. A rebellion is stirring, and when Forest Pixie Fillii falls from a tree, landing directly on top of unemployed Amer (who doesn’t believe in things like Enchanted Forests), their journeys and worlds literally collide.
With vastly different yet strangely similar backgrounds and experiences, Fillii and Amer must both decide whether they can afford to trust each other, and what is worth fighting for.
Joined by magical creatures such as Elves and a Caribou army, Fillii and Amer find themselves in the midst of an epic battle of survival, old magic, and secrets carved in stone.
About the Author
Megs Calleja is a Canadian writer and actor, whose professional screenwriting has aired with TELUS and The CW. A member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Megs is inspired by magical wardrobes, shooting stars, marmalade on toast, and dancing in the rain. This is her first novel.
Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.ca/Acorns-Roots-Megs-Calleja/dp/1525561170/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=acorns+%26+roots&qid=1605223167&sr=8-1
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I did the Anti TBR Tag that was created by Nicole & Her Books! It was weird to talk about books I didn’t want to read but also fun at the same time! Let me know what books you have no interest in reading in the comments below. Check out the video below:
