By: Greg McMullen on April 17, 2023
Being a pastor can be difficult at times, especially leading a multicultural church. It seems I am always offending a different culture and beliefs each month. Mentioning such words as Easter Egg Hunt, WHO, Economics, Enneagram, Vaccine, a person or culture gets offended and leaves. In all of this, I feel as if I have…
By: David Beavis on April 17, 2023
In a comedic, yet troubling scene in Pixar’s Inside Out the main character, Joy, who is named for the emotion she represents in the psyche of her human, Riley, knocks over several boxes while riding a train. Some of the boxes were labeled “facts” and the others were labeled “opinions.” After knocking over the boxes,…
By: Jennifer Vernam on April 17, 2023
“Remember me” On several occasions, I have had the privilege of working in Guatemala in villages of people who have been historically marginalized. Due to generations of political manipulations and societal injustice these groups of indigenous people have been relegated to the most barren and remote parts of the mountainous regions and are living without…
By: Travis Vaughn on April 17, 2023
As soon as I started reading Julian Treasure’s How to be Heard, a bit of low-grade anxiety snuck in. At some point, I knew I was going to come across the portions about speaking. See, the speaking parts of my job have always been a hurdle. I’ve spoken or presented in front of groups of…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on April 16, 2023
Abandoned at a hospital as a newborn baby, by a 25 year old mother who had a 5 year old son already and could not bear to keep another child, then placed into foster care until a plan could be made… This is how the story of my life began. Nameless, I spent time with…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on April 16, 2023
The year 2020 changed so much about our current world and the way we see the world and even exist in the world. The toilet paper shortage of the lockdown is one that many of us will remember for a lifetime and in years from not will still be the memes the bring both laughter…
By: Chad McSwain on April 16, 2023
What can truly make us happy or what is the connection between personality and happiness? These were some of the thoughts as I read, Personality: What Make You the Way You Are by Daniel Nettle. Interestedly, Nettle had the same idea, as he also wrote a book on happiness[1], concluding that happiness is the evolutionary…
By: Eric Basye on April 14, 2023
William Bridges, author of Managing Transitions, was an expert on change who helped thousands of leaders and organizations understand and thrive in seasons of transition. Susan Bridges co-authored the book, a consultant with the William Bridges Associates, who later became his wife. Managing Transitions provides practical guidance and strategies that benefit organizations and individuals experiencing…
By: Eric Basye on April 14, 2023
Steven Koonin is a theoretical physicist with a PhD from MIT and has served in a range of roles, such as the Director for the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University, the Chief Scientist for BP oil industry, as well as for the Department of Energy under the Secretary of Science…
By: Troy Rappold on April 13, 2023
William Bridges’ Transitions has continued to be an important and relevant book since its original printing over forty years ago. The book is relatable by every individual because everyone goes through multiple transitions during their lifetime. There is wisdom to be found on every page of Bridges’ bestseller. The book is neatly divided into two…
By: Roy Gruber on April 13, 2023
As we approach the end of our GFU journey, it seemed fitting that our last assigned book related to the topic of transition. Many of the books about change I have read focus on the external aspects, namely, the circumstances of transitioning. William Bridges’ self-management book Transitions, in this second edition, includes his wife, Susan,…
By: Caleb Lu on April 12, 2023
In Daniel Nettle’s Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are, he posits that there are five main measurable factors that determine who we are [1]: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness. Nettle ensures that personality, as measured by these five factors, are relatively stable through time.[2] In the second chapter, Nettle continues by delving…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on April 11, 2023
Introduction: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma[1] by Bessel van der Kolk is another book full of great insights. My takeaways from the book include the major role of the human brain in the way we function. I somehow used to see the heart as the engine…
By: Greg McMullen on April 10, 2023
A little over a decade ago, I was in a construction accident that changed my life forever. As I fell a total of 60 feet and spent 7 years after recovering from the fall, I still struggle with emotions in intense situations. I am partially disabled and my spine moves in three sections. Even though,…
By: Jana Dluehosh on April 10, 2023
This week is an amazing in having all the most frustrating parts of myself exposed on the page. Except, it wasn’t exposed on a page for me…it was burrowed into my ear. Let me explain. I have been managing the books for this class as I go, and my “procrastination” had always worked out. Either…
By: David Beavis on April 10, 2023
With the help of Dr. Bessel Van Derk Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score,[1] the subject of trauma has gone from a topic mostly around military veterans to the vernacular of everyday life. For that, we are all indebted to Van Der Kolk. We have come to terms with our own trauma and received a…
By: Daron George on April 9, 2023
INTRODUCTION “Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are” by Daniel Nettle is an engaging and informative exploration of the complex field of personality psychology. In this book, Nettle provides a comprehensive overview of the major theories and research findings related to personality, with a particular emphasis on the Big Five personality traits. The Big…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on April 8, 2023
Human Beings. We are complex! I found Daniel Nettle’s book to be a valuable and interesting resource regarding human personality. Beyond this book, however, I was reminded of the amazing Creator who has woven us together in all of our intricacies, known and unknown to us. Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are British…
By: Jenny Dooley on April 7, 2023
This book is genius. Your Brain at Work, by Dr. David Rock helped my brain make many connections. I’m not sure I can adequately explain just how many connections I experienced while completing the reading this week. After all, it is not good for a brain try to focus on too many things at once!…
By: Pam Lau on April 6, 2023
In 2020, researchers at Queen’s University in Canada used brain imaging to detect how many thoughts people have in one day. By comparing study participants’ brain patterns while watching a movie to those at other times of day, they were able to identify what they called “thought worms,” which were trains of thought that transitioned…
