Interview with Shanali Perera, author of Finding Me Beyond Illness - My creative story: Exploring art, illness and identity
Shanali Perera, author of Finding Me Beyond Illness - My creative story: Exploring art, illness and identity recommends a great group of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Shanali's book:
In Finding Me Beyond Illness, the author invites readers to see beyond the physical symptoms of illness and explore the deeper dimensions of the illness experience. Drawing from her own journey and using her art as a medium, she encourages us to embrace a more humanistic approach towards illness, identity, inclusion, and communication.
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Finding Me Beyond Illness - My creative story: Exploring art, illness and identity
The book introduces the author's unique art concept that helps articulate the subjective world of feeling that is often hard to express through words. By bringing a sensory dimension to the patient-clinician conversation, her artwork opens new ways of seeing and understanding, bridging the gap between the biomedical focus of disease and the human focus of the illness experience.
The book is a collection of the author's artwork, thoughts, ideas, and experiences, that aim to create awareness, open dialogue, and foster agency about facilitating the expression of illness. The author's visual narrative presents a rich tapestry of emotions, colours, and textures that speak to the universal human experience of illness, loss, and healing.
Buy On:
Amazon £50.00
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
I read this book during a very challenging and confusing time going through a life altering illness that came out of the blue. My old life completely hijacked, I was dwelling on ‘what was lost’. It really resonated with what I was going through - highlighting the importance of being in the present and the acceptance of the situation, the transformation that takes place and how adjusting the mindset is a key component to move forward and face any demanding situation.
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
To make the journey into The Power of Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle offers simple language and a question and answer format to show us how to silence our thoughts and create a liberated life.
Surrender to the present moment, where problems do not exist. It is here we find our joy, are able to embrace our true selves and discover that we are already complete and perfect. If we are able to be fully present and take each step in the Now we will be opening ourselves to the transforming experience of The Power of Now.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £19.00
Bookshop.org US $15.81
Blackwells £20.00
Waterstones £20.00
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution. by Brené Brown. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
This book echoes with my personal journey and my efforts to embrace vulnerability and find out how resilient we are when face with adversity. I had to constantly reroute my roadmap as I navigate the challenges my illness throws at me. Reading this book was positive reinforcement for me. I rate it 9/10.
Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution.
The physics of vulnerability is simple: If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall. This is a book about what it takes to get back up and how owning our stories of disappointment, failure, and heartbreak gives us the power to write a daring new ending. Struggle can be our greatest call to courage and Rising Strong, our clearest path to deeper meaning, wisdom and hope.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £16.14
Bookshop.org US $17.67
Blackwells £10.77
Waterstones £16.99
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austim. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
I was 12 years old when I first read it and the complexity of human connection, emotion and miscommunication along with misinterpretations and jumping to assumptions intrigued me. Which ever era we live in, this dynamic interplay of emotion surrounds us is ever present.
Pride and Prejudice
When Elizabeth Bennet meets Mr Darcy, she is repelled by his overbearing pride and prejudice towards her family. But the Bennet girls are in need of financial security in the shape of husbands, so when Darcy's friend, the affable Mr Bingley, forms an attachment to Jane, Darcy becomes increasingly hard to avoid. Polite society will be turned upside down in this witty drama of friendship, rivalry and love - Jane Austen's classic romance novel.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £8.54
Bookshop.org US $15.81
Blackwells £16.99
Waterstones £16.99
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Reading on paper is what I prefer but on occasions when there is severe pain in my hands, audiobooks become a better option.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Waterstones
I came across it when I was doing my internship in Glasgow. It was such a peaceful experience to sit down and have a browse after busy on calls and hectic work shifts as a junior doctor. And it was always around as I kept moving across the country, from Glasgow to Lincoln to Cheltenham to Bristol to Birmingham to Manchester. It’s that familiarity of my first bookshop experience in the UK from 2001 that still draws me there.
Many thanks to Shanali for recommending a great group of books! Please don't forget to check out Finding Me Beyond Illness - My creative story: Exploring art, illness and identity.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: (Finding Me Beyond Illness - My creative story: Exploring art, illness and identity), Hodder & Stoughton (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment), Ebury Publishing (Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution.), Penguin Books Ltd (Pride and Prejudice).
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