Recommended Reads: New Writers
Spotlight on Newcomer Authors to the Substack Scene
Introduction
I have been uploading my book reviews as a series of articles on my substack, which proved quite popular. Unfortunately, I have now covered all the books I’ve reviewed in the past, and I just haven’t been reading any new books lately, precisely because there are so many great and varied substacks to read these days which consume all my reading time. Indeed, there are so many wonderful articles being published every day on substack which I am tempted to cross post to my subscribers. However, I am trying to limit myself to sending out emails to twice a week, so as not to overwhelm or annoy folks by over-sharing.
I had an idea which addresses both of these problems - the end of my book review series, and the desire to share lots of great substack articles and writers. I thought I would start a new series to replace the book review one, where I recommend and review things I’ve read here on substack. I will mainly focus on deserving writers who are early in their own journey, to give them a boost and help them on their way.
In this first entry of this new “Recommended Reads” section, I will shine a spotlight on three quite new to substack writers.
Welcome My Therapist
First, I would like to welcome my friend, colleague and therapist,
, to substack, who is writing and vlogging about her therapy technique, experience with clients, and health and wellness more generally:
I have been collaborating with Lilian for nearly a year now, on creating online courses and resources for folks with chronic conditions and people who want to become to physically and mentally healthier, and she has been my therapist for the last six months. During this time, she has helped me enormously to reduce my symptoms.
Lilian uses a technique where you investigate your symptoms very carefully and in depth as if you saw yourself from the inside, and to give the symptom 100% bandwidth in your attention. Lilian gets you to describe the symptom, and most people do it using a visual metaphor. A rope, a ring, a ball. It is just to have a common language so she can follow your story, but the visualization seems very vivid and real. From the words you use to tell the story of your symptom, she can hear if you are using healthy or unhealthy descriptions. She balances and guides the narrative, and lets you find the story behind the installation of the bodymemory.
Here is Lilian’s opening substack post:
A Healing Journey
In parallel,
, who is also one of Lilian's clients, has started writing about her own journey of self-healing and self-actualization via :
Laura Sofia started having symptoms in 2009 and was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2012. Since that time, she has been working very hard trying every possible thing to heal herself. She had some very huge successes and periods of time when she was symptom-free without medication. Unfortunately, traumatic events and intense stresses in life brought her back to being even more symptomatic than she had been. Fortunately, she found Lilian, who very effectively helped her to address these traumas and stress.
The opening article of her new substack features a transcript of a wide-ranging and powerful conversation she had with Lillian, covering everything from the devasting impacts of the way doctor’s currently deliver diagnoses of chronic conditions, the endocannabinoid system, to the role of shame:
A New Vision
Via a comment on of my articles, I stumbled on a brilliant opening article by
for his new substack :
Havakuk has been on his own journey of healing and self-discovery.
“Having made a journey away from a personal dark place, wherein despair represented an abyss into which one could fall -- and having looked over that frightening precipice, I recognised what was at stake and began to measure my own steps ever-more carefully, in order not to stumble.”
His first article is a terrific analysis of what happened over the past few years, where we are now at, and beginning to set out a vision for a better future:
Summary
This is the first in a new series of articles, to replace my, for now, complete series of book reviews, where I instead review, highlight and recommended substack articles and their writers. Please let me know if you think this is a good idea and of interest?
The purpose of this article was to shine a spotlight on three new to substack writers, who are sharing healing stories and their vision for a better world:
and ; and ; and .Please support these new writers by subscribing to their substacks.
Spookily and synchronously, all three summarized their vision and themes with the choice of the same single word:
Regeneration,
and, also synchronously, another recommended, but more established, substack writer,
of , just published an article emphasising the importance of the act itself of setting out better visions for the future, and writing them into existence:
I have been enjoying and benefiting from your writing for years. Thank you for the introduction. I hope my experiences will be helpful to others.
It can be hard for new writers without established followings to start breaking through on Substack. I love this idea of supporting writers at the start of their SS journey. So I vote yea!