I’ve rounded up my top 11 inspirational resources that have helped me improve some aspect of my life. I’ve read and recommend all seven of the books listed below, most of which have had a direct impact on my work as a speech-language pathologist. Each recommendation includes links to free content as well. We can choose to make a change at any time, but I personally love the symbolism of a new year!
Outline:
- What do you want from life (free workbook)?
- Build on your strengths and counter your weaknesses.
- Work towards a healthier mind and body.
- Improve your financial well-being.
- Understand the people around you better.
- What are your favorite inspirational resources?
- Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts.
What do you want from life (free workbook)?
Back in January 2016, I printed this free life-planning workbook, put it into a binder, and did the work. I found the quizzes and worksheets incredibly useful, and I still put the skills I learned here to good use.
If you’re feeling a little lost or overwhelmed, you may find it helpful to step back and consider how your values, goals, and current actions align.
Build on your strengths and counter your weaknesses
We all have them. If you’re anything like me, you may recognize your strengths or weaknesses (at least hopefully most of them), but feel a little lost about how to improve things. There are tons of resources out there, but here are my favorites.
Gretchen Rubin: Happier podcast and The Four Tendencies
The Happier podcast is a delightful conversation between author Gretchen Rubin and her sister Elizabeth Craft, a television producer and screenwriter. They discuss healthy habits and mindset.
Listen to Gretchen talk about the science of changing habits in this 12-minute video:
I’ve only read one of her books, The Four Tendencies*, but I highly recommend it. Not only did it helped me to better understand myself and the people in my life, it actually helped me to get along better with a patient’s spouse who I was seeing at the time I was reading the book. I’m sure it’s been helpful since then, as well.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Lisa Feldman Barrett: How Emotions Are Made
Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., is a renowned neuroscientist specializing in emotions. She maintains that emotions are not “automatic, universal, and hard-wired in different brain regions.”
If you search YouTube, you’ll find a number of videos featuring her, including this TEDxCambridge talk.
I highly recommend her book How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the the Brain*. As a speech-language pathologist, I was especially interested in how categorizing is a basic, automatic process that forms the basis of our thoughts and emotions.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
James Clear: Atomic Habits
Our habits determine so much about us, including how we experience things on an emotional level, and the good news is that we can change them. Not only can we change our own habits and mindset, but we can also help our patients (and their families) to change theirs.
Watch James Clear talk about how to get 1% better every day.
I highly recommend James Clear’s book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones*.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Work towards a healthier mind and body
Headspace guided meditation, sleep music, and more
I’ve been using the Headspace app off and on for years and highly recommend it. You can access the content via their app, Netflix, or New York’s State of Mind site (free). They offer a lot of content:
- Guided meditation.
- Meditation music.
- Adorable animations to teach skills.
- Meditation courses.
- Talks by professionals.
- Sleep music.
- Soundscapes.
- Workouts.
Headspace offers both paid and free content. The app itself has a free section called “Weathering the Storm”. New York’s site above is free for anyone. Headspace is free for educators during the pandemic.
The Part-Time Diet: Conquer the Weight Loss Plateau
As a pharmacology professor, Dr. White is well-situated to understand the research related to weight loss. Check out this lecture on the science of weight loss and the research supporting part-time dieting.
He fields a lot of questions about controlling weight and wrote The Part-Time Diet: Conquer the Weight Loss Plateau*. I highly recommend this easy-to-read book if you are curious about:
- A flexible, simple, and effective weight loss plan.
- How to diet without changing the food you eat.
- Why most diets fail.
- How to avoid (or move past) the weight-loss plateau.
- The effects of medication on metabolism and weight.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Yoga with Adriene
There are so many excellent exercise videos available for free or by subscription. Adriene’s channel is a favorite of mine. She is just starting a 30-day yoga journey. Here’s the first session:
Improve your financial well-being
Ramit Sethi: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
I heard Ramit Sethi say in an interview that he regrets giving this book a spammy title, but I Will Teach You To Be Rich* is very easy to read with clear instructions to follow. I recommend this book if you want to learn how to take charge of your financial life.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
He also has an extensive YouTube channel with many helpful videos.
Choose FI podcast
FI (Financial Independence) and FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) are movements you may have heard about. There are podcasts, blogs, books, videos, Facebook groups, you name it. I recommend the Choose FI podcast.
Understand the people around you better
I think it’s safe to say after 2020 that most of us could do a better job of listening with an open mind and trying to understand those around us in the hope of finding common ground. There are SO MANY resources out there, but I’m just going to list three.
Jonathan Haidt: The Righteous Mind
Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion* was eye-opening in helping me to understand how some people can be so adamant that their opinions are correct.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Here’s a TED talk from 2008 in which he lays out the five moral values that determine if we’re left, right, or center.
Robin Diangelo: White Fragility
I highly recommend Robin Diangelo’s book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism*.
*This is an Amazon affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. There is no extra charge to you, and it will help keep Eat, Speak, & Think sustainable.
Feel good with Some Good News
I don’t think an article on inspirational resources is complete without something that makes you cry in a good way. If you’re looking for a reminder that people are basically good and that we have more in common than not, check out John Krasinski’s Some Good News YouTube channel. He went radio-silent several months ago, but did post a video last week. Perhaps he’ll start up again? Even if not, all the videos are well-worth watching, for instance, this one:
What are your favorite inspirational resources?
I bet you have your own list of inspirational resources! I’d love it if you could share your favorite below or by messaging me on the contact form.
Related Eat, Speak, & Think posts
- 24 podcasts for adult medical speech-language pathologists.
- A message of hope to the struggling speech-language pathologist.
- 3 ways a professional mindset changed my life in 2018.
Featured image by StockSnap–894430 from pixabay.
Lisa earned her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Maryland, College Park and her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, San Diego.
She participated in research studies with the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the University of Maryland in the areas of aphasia, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy, and fluency disorders.
Lisa has been working as a medical speech-language pathologist since 2008. She has a strong passion for evidence-based assessment and therapy, having earned five ASHA Awards for Professional Participation in Continuing Education.
She launched EatSpeakThink.com in June 2018 to help other clinicians be more successful working in home health, as well as to provide strategies and resources to people living with problems eating, speaking, or thinking.
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