Interview with Nikki Weston, author of Safe Hands: Recover Your Well-being Through Creativity and Play
Nikki Weston, author of Safe Hands: Recover Your Well-being Through Creativity and Play was very kind this week to answer my questions and give us her book recommendations! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Nikki's book Safe Hands: Recover Your Well-being Through Creativity and Play:
Self-care may be key to our well-being, but when do we get the time to do it? Safe Hands is a short read that uses fun and free activities to help refuel your creativity and add to your well-being. In this warts-and-all workbook, Nikki Weston swaps pretence, perfection, and skill (!) for playful pebble art and dodgy paintings as she faces fears, the dream of writing for a living, and (oh yes) minding her head and heart.
(All affiliate links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Safe Hands: Recover Your Well-being Through Creativity and Play
Whatever your passion - acting to art, singing to screenwriting - use Safe Hands' activities to gently recover your creative plans and find happiness and headspace. Play, make mistakes, but don’t Change Your Life... get it back with Safe Hands.
Buy On:
Amazon UK £8.39
Amazon US $10.99
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Relating to writing or anything that involves pushing yourself (ergo, life), Steven Pressfield's The War of Art introduces Resistance (capital R) and explains that the hurdles we come across improving ourselves and our lives are not a personal reflection of what crap people we make (hallelujah!); instead he claims it's a real force that exists. But turn up every day, do the work day after day after day, try not to throw your toys out of the pram TOO often, and you're jumping the hurdles. Don't worry about the finish line, just keep running. In other words, do the work and don't take the sh!t personally. It's short, digestible, with zero pretence and even fewer excuses, written by a person who's succeeded plenty, failed often, and worked his behind off every single day. A short lesson to writers like me to turn up, do the work, repeat. Ignore the criticism as well as the praise, all that matters is the work.
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Review from Book Depository: A succinct, engaging, and practical guide for succeeding in any creative sphere, The War of Art is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul. What keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor-be it starting up a dream business venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece?
Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success. The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognize and overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectively shows how to reach the highest level of creative discipline.
Buy On:
Book Depository €11.75 Amazon UK £8.03 Amazon US $11.38(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
Marianne Power's Help Me! cuts a fresh swathe through the self-help bull that is peddled by one section of society and devoured by another. It's that old 'get X quick' promise: a mentality that hurts many. Power's quest to closely 'live by' one self-help book a month for a whole year quickly turns unhelpful, unhealthy, and near-dangerous. I enjoyed Power's guileless narrative, her indisputable need for answers, something that we all feel at one time or another, and her battle to really and truly mind herself, in her own way, working from the bottom all the way back up.
Help Me: One Woman’s Quest to Find Out if Self-Help Really Can Change Your Life
Review From Book Depository:
Marianne Power was stuck in a rut. Then one day she wondered: could self-help books help her find the elusive perfect life? She decided to test one book a month for a year, following their advice to the letter. What would happen if she followed the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? Really felt The Power of Now? Could she unearth The Secret to making her dreams come true?
What begins as a clever experiment becomes an achingly poignant story. Because self-help can change your life - but not necessarily for the better . . .
Help Me! is an irresistibly funny and incredibly moving book about a wild and ultimately redemptive journey that will resonate with anyone who's ever dreamed of finding happiness.
Buy On:
Book Depository €14.29 Waterstones £14.99 Amazon UK £11.99 Amazon US $10.09(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Walter Macken's Flight of The Doves. Gripping and honest, Finn and Derval were children I could see, feel, and touch.
Flight of the Doves
Review From Book Depository:
Desperate to escape their vicious uncle in London, orphans Finn and Derval Dove embark on a dangerous journey across England to Ireland. Lonely and scared, their only hope lies in reaching the Connemara cottage of their beloved grandmother.
But for some reason their uncle offers a reward for their return and suddenly Finn and Derval find themselves at the centre of a nationwide search. Dogged every step of the way by people they don't know, who can the children trust...and how far will their uncle go to stop them reaching safety?
Buy On:
Book Depository €8.33 Waterstones £6.99 Amazon UK £6.57 Amazon US $5.00(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Paper, but I use all three.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
A romantic weekend in Wexford had me falling hard for Reader's Paradise bookshop in Selskar; its huge range of pre-loved novels and non-fictions had me hauling 20+ quality and well-priced books back home. A close second is the basement in The Book Haven in Swords' River Mall. Grá mór!
Many thanks to Nikki for answering my questions and for her interesting book recommendations!
Please don't forget to check out her book Safe Hands: Recover Your Well-being Through Creativity and Play.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Nicola McKenna (Safe Hands), Black Irish Entertainment LLC (The War Of Art), Pan Macmillan (Help Me!, Flight Of The Doves)
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