My Choice Not To Choose

My Choice Not to Choose details the coming out experience of, then, fourteen-year-old DarLuz and the emotional journey she’s traveled to finding inner happiness. Along this journey, the author's mustered up the courage to overcome the traumas of abuse, the scars of domestic violence, and the loss of a brother, followed by the death of a father. DarLuz details the struggles of being torn between the shadows of her Baptist upbringing and developing her own spiritual connection. An extreme advocate of self-love, she stresses the importance of healing one's soul prior to seeking acceptance within the family. My Choice Not to Choose was written with the hope that not only members of the LGBTQ community, but also their loved ones will learn the importance of unconditional love. A love that can only be expressed once we practice true forgiveness, patience, and tolerance. This type of love has the power to change a person's life. Even greater, this type of love has the power to change the world.The empowering message of this book can be shared with fellow LGBTQ peers, family members of people who identify as LGBTQ, or the reader who’s curious as to why someone would “choose” to identify as LGBTQ when life in the straight lane seems easier, conventional, and politically correct.

Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—both big and small—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice—the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.

From the classrooms of Yale and Harvard comes Deb Sofield's inspirational, instructional guide to help you conquer your fear of public speaking. Speak Without Fear transforms our old ways of thinking about public speaking and provides the reader with the necessary tools to move beyond the fe

Written from the students' perspective, this book presents a forum in which students openly share and/or write in their journals their feelings and concerns related to how they look at themselves, others and life.

“Life is all about the choices that you make,” but what about the choices that you don’t? Like family, like sexuality? Often like his untuned guitar, Ayaan would sing the songs of quarrels with his father Rakesh because he believed in becoming nothing like him. Kavita, being Ayaan’s mother would try to protect him but, she was tired of her incomplete marriage & a chaotic family. However, she would hide her turmoil behind her poise. Rakesh, a failure in business, marriage & family, would try to protect Ayaan from the life that he has lived. Ayaan, trying to escape the family drama meets Ruhi, his high-school sweetheart while working on their independent song. On an emotional journey of a chaotic matrix, he finds calm to his storm Zen Kapoor. Zen, the sound of silence, is as serene as a floating cloud. And Ruhi, a calming green meadow. Ayaan, unable to choose amongst the two. Drowned in the emotional chaos of his sexuality & broken family, Ayaan chooses to abandon his family & relocate himself to start afresh. But, a sudden offer drags him back. A year away from home but, when he comes home back his life changes. What choice will Ayaan make when life will provide him with two hearts – Zen & Ruhi?

All Groan Up: Searching for Self, Faith, and A Freaking Job! is the story of the GenY/Millennial generation told through the individual story of author Paul Angone. It’s a story of struggle, hope, failure, and doubts in the twilight zone of growing up and being grown, connecting with his twentysomething post-college audience with raw honesty, humor, and hope.

Many consider the nature of human consciousness to be one of the last great unsolved mysteries. Why should the light turn on, so to speak, in human beings at all? And how is the electrical storm of neurons under our skull connected with our consciousness? Is the self only our brain's user interface, a kind of stage on which a show is performed that we cannot freely direct? In this book, philosopher Markus Gabriel challenges an increasing trend in the sciences towards neurocentrism, a notion which rests on the assumption that the self is identical to the brain. Gabriel raises serious doubts as to whether we can know ourselves in this way. In a sharp critique of this approach, he presents a new defense of the free will and provides a timely introduction to philosophical thought about the self – all with verve, humor, and surprising insights. Gabriel criticizes the scientific image of the world and takes us on an eclectic journey of self-reflection by way of such concepts as self, consciousness, and freedom, with the aid of Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nagel but also Dr. Who, The Walking Dead, and Fargo.

Like asking the eagle to lumber or bear to fly, you will never find your own graceful state of being by looking outward for direction. Grace appears when you step inward to your unique essence and walk your own path. Humans Being is a book dedicated to all who long to find their voice, pursue their passion, and live more fulfilling, creative, and healthier lives. It offers a simple framework in the form of the Universal Soul Grid for reconnecting with unique purpose and voice and for recognizing unconscious choices that block creativity, insight, and lives of ease. The exercises are designed tp provide practice fields for readers to engage at their own pace and to reinforce what it means to live in grace, listen to the heart, and lead a life of clarity and courage. The path to lives of ease and grace is available to all, and yet, not all of us have been engaging all aspects of this path. But its influence and prompting in your life become clear when you look squarely at who you are becoming, the results of your choices, and the relative ease or difficulty of your life. The simple truth in your heart, in whatever form you recognize it, serves your own unique journey. As long as you remember that point, faith and courage more easily follow. The desire to open your eyes and see where you invest your energy to hold yourself back, for whatever reason, becomes a curiosity, rather than a failure. And the possibility of greatness and living your dreams emerges much more clearly.