Candice Mayfield
CONTRIBUTOR
You can’t fill someone’s empty coffee cup if you don’t have any in yours.
Self-improvement and personal growth are hard when life feels like one big time crunch. Here are some quick reads to spark your interest in self-help.
There is beauty in every tragedy and with every beauty, there is a tragedy. But one thing is for sure: people can grow despite the darkness.
The clock goes nonstop, the pressure to be perfect is within every look in the mirror and the unbearable drive to be successful. Self-improvement is fundamental, though it often gets put on the backburner during challenging times.
People struggle to slow down long enough to take care of themselves and to work on growth within themselves as opposed to growing their social status or net worth. An excellent way to practice self-improvement is to start with a book and find inspiration in its words. Use these recommended poetry books to ignite and inspire your personal growth.
“backbone” by m.k.
“backbone” is the raw and beautiful work of art written by author and UNO student Makayla Roumph, also known as “m.k.” Roumph takes readers on a personal journey woven together with poems that tell the story of life’s unpolished imperfections and the beauty that comes from tragedy.
“My backbone is a reminder of where I have been, where I am now, and where I want to be; a reminder of what I have felt, what I am feeling, and what I want to feel,” Roumph says.
This book captures the unmerciful problems that life can bury you with if you let it. Roumph advises readers to embrace their weaknesses, as they are the most crucial part of aligning with oneself.
Her backbone is the weakest part of her. Still, it is also her biggest strength, as it aligns her with who she was, who she is and who she’ll become.
“Although the story ends in heartbreak, it is also a story of releasing your pain held on your backbone and planting a new seed in its place,” Roumph says. “It’s a story of the garden you all have the grounds to grow, but it has to start with planting that seed; it is between every word and every line in ‘backbone’ that you are given the place and space to do so.”
Now available for purchase on Amazon. Be sure to grab yours by using her author name “m.k.”
Pillow Thoughts Series by Courtney Peppernell
The Pillow Thoughts Series is a well-written and compelling collection of life’s deepest cut of emotions by author Courtney Peppernell.
In this series, the four books take readers on an emotional rollercoaster through the dark crevices in life to soaring sky-high through the beauty of life.
“You became lost sometimes; you could be a little unsure: you tried very hard, but sometimes it didn’t feel like enough. I hate to spoil the ending, but: You is fine; you is still here; you is going to make it,” Peppernell says.
This excerpt is in the introduction for Peppernell’s first best-selling novel, Pillow Thoughts. Her poetry can dig deep into wounds that people may not even know existed, but at the same time, it can highlight the most beautiful moments that people too often take for granted.