What I'm Reading: Feel-Good Book Three

Happy Yoga: 7 Reasons Why There's Nothing to Worry About is written by Hindu monk Steve Ross, a yoga teacher on TV. This yoga class is PBS's Lilias Folan on steroids, and I picked this book up at Barnes & Noble for the great title and awesome cover. I was not disappointed!

Chris and I have a garage gym, the Zokan Fitness Studio, and we love yoga. We've even begun a sunset yoga class that lasts between fifteen and thirty minutes and is strong on shavasana, the most relaxing pose. He and I are the only members so far, so if you're local, join us around 7:30 every night. As you can see, we have plenty of mats! 

Here are some quotes for you to get a sense of Happy Yoga. On Breathing: "Breathe deeply right now. Just breathing can take you from a state of fear into an open state of peace and well-being. Regular deep breathing regulates the heartbeat and calms the mind. Just breathing helps prevent disease, aging, and depression."

On Loving: "Practice loving. Anybody, even people you don't know, can be a target for your loving energy. Start exercising your power to love unconditionally. Take the emphasis off of getting love and put it on giving love."

Door Two Please: "Essentially, there are two ways to go through life: 1) Resist everything that happens and comes into your awareness, attempt to manipulate the world to the point of exhaustion, and think obsessively about yourself and your life situation. 2) Surrender to the perfect mystery and accept each moment as perfect and essential for your evolution. It's that simple."

On Enlightenment: " ... it's similar to uninterrupted happiness, awareness of the source of all and everything, and conscious oneness with the all and everything... This depth of awareness feels like being bathed in bliss and soaked in heaven, until the bliss seeps in and becomes your very being. You are a vibrating, spacious, calm breath of God, so perfectly alive and in love with simply being."

Light-Up Chairs: "Once enlightenment happens, limitations and suffering fade away. Everything is alive, everything is beautiful. Even a chair becomes alive and glows with life force. You naturally love everything and everyone, because all you see is you. You no longer identify with the body and mind: instead the whole universe is your form."

You Still Gotta Pay the Ticket: "There truly is no spot where God is not.... Where under normal circumstances you might only perceive a cranky, bitter parking-enforcement officer, in an enlightened state you see past the facade and recognize the radiance of God playing there." 

On Acceptance: "Everything is perfect exactly the way it is. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. If you wholeheartedly accept that possibility, a big relax can happen. And from this realization, an openness and receptivity to what is appears."

Along with a  number of yoga poses, Ross shares inspirational quotes in his book. Today's takeaway is one I've loved since my college years on the power of presence: "You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." Franz Kafka

Want to try a challenging but fun class? Inhale with Steve Ross

Courage Without Grace is the NIEA Winner for New Age Fiction!

I entered Courage Without Grace in two categories for the 16th annual NIEA awards, Women's Fiction and New Age Fiction, after reading an article by Abbey Campbell Cook called, "5 Reasons We Need More New Age Fiction." You can read it here: 

Writer's Digest. 

Thanks to Cook's article, I had a sneaking suspicion my book could fit in that odd little category. 

On a quest to find the truth, I discovered that New Age fiction has spiritual components, motivational psychology, growth in consciousness, and a worldview that respects the diversity of life and cultures. Also called Visionary Fiction, it can be inspirational and has no gratuitous violence. It's self-help with a story.

And guess what? NIEA chose Courage Without Grace as the winner in the New Age Fiction category!

To view the winners, go to this link: indie excellence 16th annual winners. The Existence of Pity was an NIEA finalist in 2017, so it feels good to win this time around!

What I'm Reading: Feel-Good Book Two

When I picked up Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice from Open Books in Pensacola, I had no idea of the book's prominence. The publication came from talks given by Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, compiled by Marian Derby and Trudy Dixon, and published in 1970. Only now, after some research, have I discovered it is one of the top 100 best spiritual books of the 20th century. My copy, beautifully printed in Hong Kong with a deep red frontispiece and unbelievably soft pages, is from 1994 and in its 32nd printing. To learn more about this classic, go to Zen Mind or check out the Wikipedia entry HERE. 

Some of the weighty chapters I read without completely comprehending, but I hope you feel the peace I felt as I sat at the feet of a kind and helpful teacher and let his gentle words play at the fringes of my mind.

On Waves: "When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer. ... You yourself make the waves in your mind."

On Character: "Just continue in your calm, ordinary practice and your character will be built up. If your mind is always busy, there will be no time to build, and you will not be successful, particularly if you work too hard on it."

On Enlightenment: "Dogen-zenji said, 'Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.'" 

On Wisdom: "Wisdom is not something to learn. Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness. So the point is to be ready for observing things, and to be ready for thinking. This is called emptiness of your mind. Emptiness is nothing but the practice of zazen."

On Practicing Meditation: "Zazen practice is the practice in which we resume our pure way of life, beyond any gaining idea, and beyond fame and profit. By practice we just keep our original nature as it is. There is no need to intellectualize about what our pure original nature is, because it is beyond our intellectual understanding. And there is no need to a appreciate it, because it is beyond our appreciation. So just to sit, without any idea of gain, and with the purest intention, to remain as quiet as our original nature--this is our practice."

On Peace: "The best way towards perfect composure is to forget everything. Then your mind is calm, and it is wide and clear enough to see and feel things as they are without any effort. The best way to find perfect composure is not to retain any idea of things, whatever they may be -- to forget all about them and not to leave any trace or shadow of thinking."

The wrap-up is another quote: "There is no need to remember what I say; there is no need to understand what I say. You understand; you have full understanding within yourself. There is no problem." Reading this book is like taking a long, deep breath. Yes, it's okay. We are here, alive in this moment, and it's okay. This reminds me of one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, It's OK by Nightbirde.

What I'm Reading: Feel-Good Book One

 
A few things have been boggling my mind lately. One is that the United States isn't very big. Our population is only 4.25 per cent of the total world population--just 4.25 per cent! But ... New York City! Can you believe it? If you're curious, here's a link: Population by Country 

Another mind-boggler is how short life is. Even a nice long life of 85 years only has 1,020 months in it, only 745,000 hours. When I realized that, it didn't seem like enough time to get everything checked off my life's to-do list, like traveling and spending time with friends and loved ones. But there's also a daunting stack of books I want to read. And there's so much I still want to learn! Do I have time to become a senior Olympian in pole vaulting? Can I still learn to play the drums, even though I seem to be rhythmically challenged?

There's also more writing to be done. I'd love to write more novels and more poetry, but my mind wanders most often to the books I want to write about. I've set myself a goal of reading twenty uplifting books and compiling the take-aways: quotes, thoughts, realizations. This is the project my life must contain, and since apparently life is short, I'm starting this one now, and I'll be sharing it here.

The first book is The Kindness Handbook: A Practical Companion. The gentle title and gorgeous cover grabbed my attention, and I found many words of wisdom here from best-selling author Sharon Salzberg, a Buddhist meditation teacher.

Here's a credo to live by right out of the gate: "Spending a few minutes each day thinking of the good within us and taking delight in the goodness we can manifest is how we are able to continually touch on and deepen a true and genuine happiness."

Salzberg offers quotes from other worthy sources:

From the Tao Te Ching, "One who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."  

From the Dalai Lama, "In our concern for others, we worry less about ourselves. When we worry less about ourselves, the experience of our own suffering is less intense."

Quoting the Buddha, "Anger with its poison source and fevered climax is murderously sweet." Salzberg continues with, "It has both sides -- the sweet relief of the energy, and the murderous side. Our effort must be not to suppress the feeling of anger, but to not have it be the automatic or inevitable place from which we act." She shares a story about a child who has these words of wisdom that made me laugh. "Just try not to hit people."

Salzberg shares a story about a frustrating airplane ride and what she learned from Bob Thurman, to try seeing people we are randomly associated with as "my people." Her impatience on the airplane changed, she shares, when she saw her fellow travelers in a different light. "I watched the interplay of forces in my own mind as interest opened the door to a measure of kindness."

The wrap-up: In order to foster kindness for myself and others, I can think of the good within me; accept my "enoughness;" give attention to the needs of others; and become more curious about those around us who are our people, since interest opens doors to kindness. Oh, and just try not to hit people.

From Dream to Reality

From the very beginning of my writing career I've wanted my work to be published in audio form. I think it's because I've always loved books on tape, then books on CD. I guess it's time to make the (belated, I know) jump into downloadable books.

There's nothing quite like listening to someone tell a story. Some favorites include the Harry Potter series, narrated by Jim Dale, and Angela's Ashes written and read by Frank McCourt. Now, (drumroll please!) I can add my book to that list of favorites.

Back in December (the 22nd, and it was in the morning lol), I got an email from my publisher, Red Adept Publishing, letting me know Scribd wanted to turn The Existence of Pity into an audiobook. I couldn't believe it, and didn't believe it, until I checked my Amazon page this past Thursday.

It's really happening! As of yesterday, my audiobook is live!! Scribd, founded in San Francisco in 2007, is an audio publishing company and a subscription service. It offers access to millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more at the cost of $11.99 per month. Business Insider says "Scribd is overall the best and most convenient deal for online reading." I've joined and grabbed my book already. 

And to hear my words read by Maria Liatis, WOW! What an incredible feeling! Since she's from Argentina, her Spanish is flawless. Since she studied Theatre and Dramatic Arts at University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!), her English is impeccable. All around, she does a fantastic job narrating. It's perfect in every way.

So if you want to sit back and have someone tell you my story, go to Scribd. 

You can also get it from Audible on Amazon, or listen to a four-minute sample. I'd love to hear what you think! 

The Long Bio

 Here it is, y'all. My long bio. This is my story up to now.  

Jeannie Oliver Zokan, author of the award-winning The Existence of Pity and the recently released Courage Without Grace, both published by Red Adept Publishing, grew up in Colombia, South America as the daughter of missionaries. As a high school senior, she and her brother attended Christiansen Academy, a boarding school in Venezuela, but she also maintains strong ties to Colegio Bolivar, the American school she and her brothers attended in Cali. Her love of books led her to study Library Science, earning her bachelor's degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She then moved to Washington, DC to attend The George Washington University, where she earned her Publication Specialist Certification. Much like Josie, the main character in both of her novels, Zokan became a palm reader in DC, working at the Park Hyatt Hotel, offering private readings, and entertaining at parties, most notably at one of many events hosted by Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn. 

When DC's cold weather finally did her in, she packed up her parka and headed south, taking her motorcycle to Florida's Gulf Coast to write stories for the local paper. She met her husband there, and they co-wrote "Healthy Living," a regular column for The Islander. She also launched Poetry Unbound, a newsletter she edited for over five years. Since then, her poems and stories have appeared in Emerald Coast Review and Hurricane Review. She has been among the winners for both the poetry and short fiction categories in the Walter F. Spara Writing Competition, and she placed in the Awakenings Poetry Contest and the World Congress of Poets Contest. In 2017, The Existence of Pity earned a spot as a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

For over a decade Zokan has participated in National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org). Both of her novels were created during frenzied Novembers, along with other novels she plans to release. As an undeniable "pantser," she works best without an outline -- but with a firm deadline. Zokan served on the board of directors for the Emerald Coast Writers, where she has spent many hours with fellow writers, critiquing and being critiqued. She swears that the time spent in this sometimes painful process has been among her most rewarding. As they help each other attain their writing goals, many have become lifelong friends. 

As a certified aerial yoga instructor, Zokan has taught yoga and is a Reiki Level II practitioner. She is currently the captain of her Ladies League tennis team, a group of fellow moms who enjoy a little friendly competition with lunch afterwards. One fine day, when Zokan's books become bestsellers, she will be able to write full-time, but for now she has a part-time job as a retail merchandiser for Hallmark. She lives ten minutes from the beach, where she and her husband, photographer and personal trainer Chris, enjoy swimming in the surf, walking along the shore, and absorbing negative ions. Many a rough draft of a chapter has been edited under their beach umbrella, basking in the inspiration of the Gulf of Mexico. 

Zokan hasn't lost her love for libraries. One of her proudest moments occurred when she tracked down a copy of her book in her local library, where she hopes to find many more titles in the years to come. Her happiest days are when she gets a little writing in, visits their two grown daughters, (one in Orlando, the other in Alabama), and gets some exercise om, whether it's a bike ride, a run, tennis, yoga, or a workout in their home gym. Of course, her day isn't complete without cuddling up with their pets, a sweet black cat and a rambunctious "beagador" puppy.

To learn more, go to www.JeannieZokan.com

Her books can be found on 

Amazon HERE 

And Barnes & Noble HERE  

Like her Facebook author page at:  Jeannie Zokan Author

The Wood Between the Worlds

Momentum for Courage Without Grace had slowed to a crawl as we wait for the print copies to arrive... but then THIS happened! 

Erin writes book reviews on her beautiful blog, and here is her 5-tree review for Courage Without Grace! Visit her blog here:  The Wood Between the Worlds. You'll be glad you did! 

Here's a taste of the review: "This vibrant novel is like a colorful tapestry--there are so many threads weaving in and out of each other, going in completely unexpected directions, leading you on to see where they end and what new patterns they'll create, in the end forming a cohesive picture of a young woman's broken but beautiful life."  

You can see why this had me dancing around the house! Have a wonderful weekend, and rest assured you'll hear from me when the books come in!