week 8 in the "become a close(r) reader" series: a final exercise to help you gather the energy and confidence to turn your goals into a habitual reading practice
OMG I love this essay SO MUCH Haley! As you reference, I've been thinking a LOT about this stuff lately, too. I also had an every day at home yoga practice for about ten years and somehow, during and after covid, it just...left me. I still love yoga and go to 2 regular classes on the weekend, but the regular roll-out-my-mat-at-home vibe has gone. I really want to move through 2025 with more intention towards the things I KNOW are good for me (yoga, book reading, walking outdoors) and letting go of the rest (but always without judgement). Can't wait to try some of these prompts! 😀
I love the “without judgement” part. I think that’s the part that gets stickiest for me—like my feet sink into that mud so easily. Moving on and moving forward, and still holding a little gratitude for the things (practices, habits, scrolling addictions) I want to leave behind is such a tightrope experience. And wow our “roll out the mat at home” experience is SO SIMILAR. I often find myself wondering where did it go!? And lately I’ve been realizing, it doesn’t matter where it went. It matters that I remember I can bring it back literally any moment I want to.
Okay, when I saw your title I was like "oooh this reminds me of Adriene," so I was very glad to see I was spot on! More to the point, I also like the idea of sitting with our discomforts that I have picked up on my own at-home yoga practice. It doesn't mean putting up with pain, but realizing that growth and development of all types is not easy and does mean we need to push back against our own preconceived limits--and it has meant A LOT for me in intellectual terms this past year. You would think that being in a PhD program would have done this for me, but it has taken me two years out of grad school to finally be able to embrace curiosity and the difficulties that come with it as things I like and that can help me grow!
YES!!! I love that: “we need to push back against our own preconceived limits.” That is such a beautiful way to put it, and it rings so true for me. That is 1000% what a regular yoga practice taught me, and it’s what closely reading teaches me still (every time I do it!).
I want to thank you, sincerely, for this series. It has been such a valuable process of reflection and intention-setting for me going into 2025, and I'm sure I'm not alone! A few years past my PhD and out of academia myself, I have been on a journey of rediscovering what it means to read on my own terms. These exercises have been very helpful to me in this process. Thank you!
Wow! Thank you so much Mollie! I think the post-PhD journey to explore reading and annotating on our own terms (and not for a dissertation) is a really beautiful and also very exhausting journey. I wish you the very best on your explorations and am so glad this series has been helpful!
I gasped when I read find what feels good because I was thinking about Adrienne. Well, it's not a surprise when she's one of the most popular channels on YT.
OMG I love this essay SO MUCH Haley! As you reference, I've been thinking a LOT about this stuff lately, too. I also had an every day at home yoga practice for about ten years and somehow, during and after covid, it just...left me. I still love yoga and go to 2 regular classes on the weekend, but the regular roll-out-my-mat-at-home vibe has gone. I really want to move through 2025 with more intention towards the things I KNOW are good for me (yoga, book reading, walking outdoors) and letting go of the rest (but always without judgement). Can't wait to try some of these prompts! 😀
I love the “without judgement” part. I think that’s the part that gets stickiest for me—like my feet sink into that mud so easily. Moving on and moving forward, and still holding a little gratitude for the things (practices, habits, scrolling addictions) I want to leave behind is such a tightrope experience. And wow our “roll out the mat at home” experience is SO SIMILAR. I often find myself wondering where did it go!? And lately I’ve been realizing, it doesn’t matter where it went. It matters that I remember I can bring it back literally any moment I want to.
Okay, when I saw your title I was like "oooh this reminds me of Adriene," so I was very glad to see I was spot on! More to the point, I also like the idea of sitting with our discomforts that I have picked up on my own at-home yoga practice. It doesn't mean putting up with pain, but realizing that growth and development of all types is not easy and does mean we need to push back against our own preconceived limits--and it has meant A LOT for me in intellectual terms this past year. You would think that being in a PhD program would have done this for me, but it has taken me two years out of grad school to finally be able to embrace curiosity and the difficulties that come with it as things I like and that can help me grow!
YES!!! I love that: “we need to push back against our own preconceived limits.” That is such a beautiful way to put it, and it rings so true for me. That is 1000% what a regular yoga practice taught me, and it’s what closely reading teaches me still (every time I do it!).
I want to thank you, sincerely, for this series. It has been such a valuable process of reflection and intention-setting for me going into 2025, and I'm sure I'm not alone! A few years past my PhD and out of academia myself, I have been on a journey of rediscovering what it means to read on my own terms. These exercises have been very helpful to me in this process. Thank you!
Wow! Thank you so much Mollie! I think the post-PhD journey to explore reading and annotating on our own terms (and not for a dissertation) is a really beautiful and also very exhausting journey. I wish you the very best on your explorations and am so glad this series has been helpful!
I gasped when I read find what feels good because I was thinking about Adrienne. Well, it's not a surprise when she's one of the most popular channels on YT.
Ha! Yes!! I love her channel so much!
a lifesaver
Beautiful post, Haley - thank you!