#BookReviews THE GREEN WITCH & THE WITCH’S BOOK OF SELF CARE by ARIN MURPHY-HISCOCK #nonfiction

ABOUT THE BOOK

Self-care and magic work together in this guide to help you become the best version of yourself. You’ll learn how to nourish your body and spirit with herbal remedies, spells, and rituals inspired by witchcraft in this unique, enchanted guide to self-care.

Self-care is a necessity for any modern woman. The goals of self-care are simple: healthy mind, healthy body, healthy spirit. This book helps you prioritize yourself with a little help from the magic of witchcraft. The Witch’s Book of Self-Care has advice for pampering your mind, body, and spirit with spells, meditations, mantras, and powerful activities to help you to keep healthy, soothe stress, relinquish sadness, channel joy, and embrace your strength. This book features such magical self-care remedies:

-A Ritual to Release Guilt: Learn to burn whatever causes you pain and process painful memories or work through heavy emotions in this therapeutic ritual.

-Green Space Meditation: Learn how to reconnect with the healing energies of nature, even in the middle of a bustling city, as part of a series of meditations based on the elements and your senses.

-DIY Body Butter: Create your own custom soothing and smoothing body butter, powered by crystal and essential oils suited to your intention, and sanctified by a ritual.

And much more! The Witch’s Book of Self-Care shows you how easy it is to connect to the earth, harness your personal power, and add a little magic to your everyday life for a better you!
PUBLISHED BY ADAMS MEDIA

MY REVIEW

This is a helpful little book for witches and non-witchy folk! It is full of information and tips on how to take care of yourself, body, mind and spirit – all so useful in these difficult times we find ourselves living in!

There are tons of ideas for you to pick and choose from in finding a way to help you cope with the stresses of life – from a 5 minute self care routine to start off your day with, to journalling, hygge, candle magic and guides to meditation. There’s even a few recipes to help with creating your own teas, sleep mists and even body scrubs and bath bombs.

I really enjoyed dipping in and out of this book for picking up little hints on how to treat yourself and how to slow down and take care of yourself.

★★★★

ABOUT THE BOOK

Discover the power of natural magic and healing through herbs, flowers, and essential oils in this new guide to green witchcraft.

At her core, the green witch is a naturalist, an herbalist, a wise woman, and a healer. She embraces the power of nature; she draws energy from the Earth and the Universe; she relies on natural objects like stones and gems to commune with the land she lives off of; she uses plants, flowers, oils, and herbs for healing; she calls on nature for guidance; and she respects every living being no matter how small.

In The Green Witch, you will learn the way of the green witch, from how to use herbs, plants, and flowers to make potions and oils for everyday healing as well as how crystals, gems, stones, and even twigs can help you find balance within. You’ll discover how to find harmony in Earth’s great elements and connect your soul to every living creature. This guide also contains directions for herbal blends and potions, ritual suggestions, recipes for sacred foods, and information on how to listen to and commune with nature. Embrace the world of the green witch and discover what the power of nature has in store for you.

MY REVIEW

Another really helpful and enjoyable book that features the magic of nature and how it can be used to help us on a day to day basis in dealing with whatever life can throw our way!!

This goes into a bit more depth about what being a ‘witch’ means nowadays and how the use of nature can help heal, and how to be more aware of natural energy.

There are lots of handy hints on how to overhaul your outlook and surroundings, and how that being more aware of the local surroundings and nature can help focus your mind.

It’s a book that looks into seasons, tides, moon, stars etc are all playing a part in our moods and experiences and I really enjoyed learning a little more, as well as being surprised at how many elements of this way of life that I already practice!

There’s more recipes, a look at meditation, rituals, moon gardening and just becoming more aware of the world around us.

★★★★

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#BlogTour A YEAR OF LIVING SIMPLY by KATE HUMBLE #BookReview #PublicationDay @RandomTTours

Delighted to be on the Blog Tour today for  A YEAR OF LIVING SIMPLY by KATE HUMBLE. My thanks to the author, publisher and Anne of Random Things Tours for letting me be part of it all and sharing my thoughts on this new release on publication day!

‘Simply wonderful.’ – BEN FOGLE

‘Kate’s book has the warmth and calming effect of a log fire and a glass of wine. Unknit your brow and let go. It’s a treat.’ – GARETH MALONE

‘Kate Humble pours her enviable knowledge into attainable goals. It’s a winning combination and the prize – a life in balance with nature – is definitely worth claiming.’ – LUCY SIEGLE

‘As ever, where Kate leads, I follow. She has made me reassess and reset.’ – DAN SNOW

If there is one thing that most of us aspire to, it is, simply, to be happy.  And yet attaining happiness has become, it appears, anything but simple.  Having stuff – The Latest, The Newest, The Best Yet – is all too often peddled as the sure fire route to happiness.  So why then, in our consumer-driven society, is depression, stress and anxiety ever more common, affecting every strata of society and every age, even, worryingly, the very young?  Why is it, when we have so much, that many of us still feel we are missing something and the rush of pleasure when we buy something new turns so quickly into a feeling of emptiness, or purposelessness, or guilt?

So what is the route to real, deep, long lasting happiness?  Could it be that our lives have just become overly crowded, that we’ve lost sight of the things – the simple things – that give a sense of achievement, a feeling of joy or excitement? That make us happy.  Do we need to take a step back, reprioritise?  Do we need to make our lives more simple?

Kate Humble’s fresh and frank exploration of a stripped-back approach to life is uplifting, engaging and inspiring – and will help us all find balance and happiness every day.

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon

hive.co.uk

blackwell’s

waterstones – signed edition

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Humble is a farmer, writer, activist, entrepreneur and one of the UK’s best-known TV presenters. She started her television career as a researcher, later presenting programmes such as ‘Animal Park’, ‘Springwatch & Autumnwatch’, ‘Lambing Live’, ‘Living with Nomads’, ‘Extreme Wives’ and ‘Back to the Land’. Her last book, Thinking On My Feet, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize and The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award. Find out more about Kate on Twitter @katehumble and @farmerhumble, on Instagram @kmhumble and at http://www.katehumble.com and http://www.humblebynature.com.

MY REVIEW

Hands up who needs help in stripping back their life and finding joy in the smallest of things?! ✋ And this is the book that is going to help  you reconsider, reflect and reprioritize what is going on in your day to day life and it was such a refreshing read that I raced through it and am now eager to put into action just a few simple changes to stop me feeling overwhelmed by what life throws my way – 2020 sure has been excessive on that front!! – and to look for more positives than negatives! Easier said than done I know, especially at the moment!, but I’m definitely feeling more equipped to put changes into action after reading this book.

Kate Humble has such a lovely personable way of speaking to you through her words.  She recollects personal memories, her own difficulties she has with letting go and switching off and in this book takes a look at why everyone seems so much unhappier even though we’re surrounded by more stuff than ever before.

Using a variety of different methods from death cleaning, to gardening and to meeting people who have changed their whole way of life to live a more simple existence, I found so much to relate to within this book.  I often find myself at my happiest when I’m in my garden pottering, or with my nose in a book, and it looks at those simple pleasures and those distractions that help take you away from all the negatives and shift your mind into a happier state.

She shares her own experiences with decluttering especially how we can throw ourselves into a task like this to soon be followed by being surrounded by a big pile of mess and wondering what have I got myself into! But by breaking things down into a drawer or room at a time, it can make sorting out so much more achievable and less overwhelming.

I also loved how she shared her own personal memories of happy times with friends and family, and how things have changed over the years that people seem to value things differently now.

There are a few recipes included, some great little ‘simple pleasures’ thrown in for a good measure (yes to soup on a dank day and handwritten letters!) and was just a wonderfully comforting and thoughtful book to help the reader on the road to living a less complicated and less angst ridden life!

★★★★★

#BookReview The Little Book of Sloth Philosopy by Jennifer McCartney

About the book

Relax, unwind and soak up the wisdom of the sloth with the slowest page turner you’ll ever read.


From tidying and Hygge, to living Lagom, the endless pressure to be happier, live better, sleep soundly, and eat mindfully can be exhausting. But this year’s lifestyle trend finally delivers the perfect antidote – welcome to the year of the sloth.


Sloths are mindfulness in action. Contemplative, deliberate, relaxed, and focused. They resist the rat race, the incessant pressures from society to be more productive, and they don’t care how many steps they’ve logged on their fitness tracker. Long-limbed, a little bit shaggy, and a lot wide-eyed, they’re wonderful creatures, not to mention completely adorable.


Here you can enjoy take-it-slow wisdom inspired by sloths; including advice on sleep (more restorative than a 6am run), eating and ‘exercise’ (sloths are the original pioneers of slow food and yoga after all), work (did you know that lazy people have higher IQs?), family life, and love.


Dispelling over-complicated myths about productivity, this brilliant book confirms that it really is OK to be a sloth. 

Published by Harper Collins

Purchase Links

hive.co.uk  £5.89

waterstones  £3.49 in their sale!

MY REVIEW

Such a perfect little book!! I think the whole world needs to embrace the Sloth Philosophy and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon reading this and there’s so much to take away from having a different approach to the frenetic, mad world we live in nowadays. This book has a fun look at how we can all improve our wellbeing and outlook on life if we just take a few pointers from the Sloths of the world – and it all feels achievable! Just little mind changes and activities we can do that can really help us in not feeling so down on ourselves and situations we may find ourselves in. And especially with the advent of social media where outdoing everyone else seems to be the number priority for some, this book helps you figure out that moving at your own pace and doing things you like and not copying others is what we should all be striving for.  There are also a number of very cute illustrations throughout which were just perfect and would make for some lovely t-shirts! There’s lists of books to read, songs to listen to, little quizzes to take as well and it was just a wonderful little pick me up read and the perfect gift for people you know who need to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life!