Generally speaking, I really hate it when someone tells me, “I think you should read this book. I read it and loved it.” I don’t know why I hate that. Maybe it’s because I spent so much time as a scifi nerd in high school. When my professor said to me, “I think you should read some of Brene Brown’s work. I think you’d benefit.” I smiled and didn’t read it. After all I had the perfect excuse for NOT reading it, as a busy grad student, when am I supposed to find the time to read anything other than what I am assigned to read?

This summer I had no classes. I caught up on some of the readings I had skipped and not read. Finally around August I was done with the reading I wanted to do for pleasure and the stuff I hadn’t read for school. I remembered my professor’s suggestion, Brene Brown. You know her, the Oprah art journaling woman? Yeah her.  Anyway, I searched for her books on my local library’s website and found they had a bunch of her books as eBooks. I requested them and then… waited. With one I just got it and the other I’m the 11th person who has requested it.

I’m reading Daring Greatly and so far I’m really enjoying  the books and she makes some really fantastic points. I’m also looking at it as a source for art journaling and art therapy. In the few chapters I’ve read she asks some questions of the reader that I think would make excellent prompts for art journaling that would not be too deep for journalers to use on their own. Which is a failing I’ve found in many books dedicated to art journaling. The authors ask the reader/journaler to go too deep without the help of a therapist.

Perhaps what my professor was suggesting wasn’t just that I read about vulnerability but also how one can write a fantastic prompt that is not harmful to the user. Maybe she thought I”d simply enjoy these books. Either way I’m getting a lot out of the first book. Enough that I’m continuing to read it though I don’t really have the time.

For those interested, I’m Reading “Daring Greatly.”