Connecting to the Good Stuff: Work That Inspires, Uplifts

I’m not a super social person. I’m pretty much happy typing away alone at my desk or reading my books. But, the relationships I have with my family and a few close friends make all the difference in how well I live this life.

Big wigs tell us it’s our relationships – our friendships, marriages and partnerships – that sustain us. There is plenty of research that shows social connection helps our heart, our immune function, our mental health. One study from the University of California, San Francisco even indicates that 59 percent of the people who report feeling “sometimes lonely” experience a faster physical decline — the sort that can make it hard for them to handle eating, bathing, dressing and other basic tasks.

But you don’t need research to know the value of a meaningful connection with friends or family. Just ride the wave of good feelings you get after a dinner with the girls or a date-night with your spouse. Experience the buzz that comes when after you’ve watched a game with the guys or had a long dinner with good friends or received a bear-hug from your child.

Not only do we feel better when we reach out to others we connect to something bigger: shared passions and purposes. We create a collective energy that can inform, illuminate, inspire and in a real way change the world.

I’ve recently been swept up in a modern-day form of connection via the Internet. I’ve been “tagged” by another writer  and asked to share a bit about my work, before “tagging” others. The opportunity prompted me to reach out to writers I otherwise wouldn’t have known. It’s an interesting way to network.

While, the popularity of social media and the Internet does not change our need to experience other human beings face-to-face — we are social creatures who need in-person relationships is to thrive – it has brought a variety of people and ideas in to my life that have broadened my experience and made life more interesting. I do appreciate that.

So, I took the tag, and will use it to pass along the names of other authors I believe have something meaningful and important to share with all of us. They are doing good, inspiring work that is worth checking out.

So here we go.  Now you are also connected.

Tag, You’re It

Be sure to check out the work of Karen Horneffer-Ginter. She tagged me for this Q&A and her new book Full Cup Thirsty Spirit:  Nourishing the Soul When Life’s Just Too Much” (Hay House) explores  how we can use wisdom and humor stay connected to what matters most even as our lives become full and busy.

Also check out the work of Susyn Reeve, www.susynreeve.com , author of a fabulous book, which I’ve posted about on this site, called The Inspired Life:  Unleashing Your Mind’s Capacity for Joy; and the award-winning Choose Peace and Happiness.

Susyn is a self esteem expert who as a teen wrote in her journal, “What would the world be like if everyone loved themselves?”  During her 35 years of experience as a Coach, Corporate Consultant and InterFaith Minister this question has guided her work.

Carole Brody Fleet is another author worth reading. She’s the award winning author of “Happily EVEN After…” (Viva Editions) and the critically praised national bestseller, “Widows Wear Stilettos…” (New Horizon Press). A regular contributor to The Huffington Post and a recent winner of the Books for a Better Life Award for“Happily Even After…” To learn more about Carole Brody Fleet, please visit www.widowswearstilettos.com.

As for me, Polly Campbell, here’s an update on my newly released books.

1) What is the working title of your current book?

I’ve got a couple of books out.  “Imperfect Spirituality: Extraordinary Enlightenment for Ordinary People, (Viva Editions) and How to Reach Enlightenment, (Hodder).

2) Where did the idea come from?

Imperfect Spirituality really evolved out of a time of transition in my life. I’d just had a new baby, cut back on my work – which obviously changed our finances – and was diagnosed with melanoma. I had to find a way to reconnect with myself, my inner essence, even though life around me was crazy and busy and scary. So, I adapted my mindfulness and meditation practice and other little strategies that I’d long used to manage my stress so that I could maintain these practices even while changing diapers, and while commuting to the doctor’s office or doing the dishes.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Self-help/Inspirational

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Oh, I so often feel like my life is a sitcom – but a movie, um maybe Meryl Streep would play me, because she can make anything seem good. Right? Kristin Chenoweth maybe because she’s intense and energetic. Wouldn’t that be fun? Really, I think any woman who is juggling and doing and living and loving could step into a role of Imperfect Spirituality. It’s really about engaging in life, accepting your flaws AND talents and living a whole life with what you’ve got.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

How to find happiness and calm, smack-dab in the middle of a busy and stressful life.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Imperfect Spirituality was published by Viva Editions and editor extraordinaire Brenda Knight. Agent Neil Salkind represented me.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft?

I’d been developing the book – in various forms – for a couple of years. I wrote the book in three months.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

My book is filled with humor and a no-nonsense, direct, and conversational style like that you’d find in books by Anne Lamott or Martha Beck. But I’ve read hundreds of inspirational personal development books and have learned something from each.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I was facing a series of transitions in my life AND talking with my girlfriends who were experiencing their own changes and dissatisfaction. All were left with this profound feeling that they weren’t enough. They weren’t doing enough, they couldn’t do “it” right, they weren’t measuring up to some ambiguous ideal. They just felt inadequate. After years of interviewing the big wigs for my magazine work and decades of studying and practicing my own spirituality, I decided we needed to let ourselves off the hook and find a way to accept where we are and who we are– wholly with our imperfections and our gifts. Then, we could get down to the business of living our best life. The practices I used to do it, are practical in the –moment things that I can do while washing dishes, shuttling kids or even between work deadlines. The book evolved out of all of this.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

This book is filled with everyday examples from my own life, stories of others who are encountering challenge and thriving, and the latest research about things we can do to enjoy this whole, crazy, busy life experience. It’s a conversation really, including humor and practical tips of the sort you’d get during a visit with your friends. But, it’s also full of three-minute practices things you can do right now to feel better, to become more aware, to live a happier, less stressed life. And, I know they work, because I use them too!