Blog Tour: The Best of No Small Thing by Deborah Hawkins @RRBookTours1 #RRBookTours #NonFiction

Welcome to the book tour for The Best of No Small Thing with its accompanying gratitude workbook, Practice Gratitude. This unique collection of blog posts is by author, Deborah Hawkins!

Read on for details and a chance to win a set of books!

No Small Thing – Mindful Meditations (NoSmallThing.net) was launched in 2010 with the intention of reflecting on experiences that generated feelings of gratitude in order to create a positive mood and orientation to life. As of fall of 2019, over 500 reflections (mindful meditations) have been published along with over 100 tips that can be employed in a gratitude practice.

This mindfulness process is detailed in a companion book, Practice Gratitude: Transform Your Life. It emphasizes the creation of personal gratitude themes, one’s Grateful Dozen, which can help a person see things that spark grateful feelings in new situations. This is a collection of favorite blog posts that came out of this process.

For several decades, studies have supported the idea that gratitude has many positive benefits. It boosts optimism, a sense of personal control, and even enhances relationships. Keeping a simple gratitude journal, where daily entries are made identifying things that spark gratitude, has become a very popular. Deborah Hawkins, originator of NoSmallThing.net, goes beyond listing little boons to generate good feelings. In this book, she teaches techniques for mindfulness, self-inquiry, and writing to build memories that activate strong positive emotions. This guide and workbook helps readers understand what kinds of personal experiences prompt uplifting feelings of gratitude in them, develop broad themes that apply to these experiences, and then use these themes to see and experience gratitude in new situations. This approach can empower anyone to begin each new day with confidence that things they love and value are already present. A companion book, Best of No Small Thing – Mindful Meditations provides examples of posts that were written using this process.

Since I started writing down my mindful meditations, I have tried to pay extra attention to things that affect me, things that change my mood or outlook, or simply things that I’m grateful for. Keeping an eye out for these kinds of things has brought up memories of my father and some paradoxical advice he tried to impart.

My father died when he was sixty-two. I was in my mid-twenties and going through a divorce. He was not around often when I was growing up as he worked very long hours, but his presence was oh so constant. We didn’t go to many ballgames together or to the park. He didn’t teach me how to drive or mentor me in some important life skills, but I knew he loved me very much.

Starting when I was about thirteen, he used to pull me under his arm and repeat an odd phrase. “Don’t worry about the little things. It’s the big things that are important.” Then he’d add, as if confiding something more profound to me, “Don’t worry about the big things. It’s the little things that are important.”

I received a copy of this book from the Author and R&R Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Best of No Small Thing compiles the author’s favorite blog posts from her blog NoSmallThing.net that she launched in 2010.  This range of stories has something to touch everyone.  The purpose of these stories is to show that in life there really are no “small” things that you can draw meaning from everything.  Personally, I find that it’s the “small” things that have the biggest impact.  This book could not have picked a better year to come out.  With so much going on in the world we need to take every win we get especially if they are “small”. After reading these stories and using the workbook I noticed how my perception has changed.  I am looking for the good more often than not and with the year we all have had that makes a world of a difference.  The more you notice the small things it kinda balances out the stress of our everyday lives. 

GIVEAWAY!!!

Enter to win a set of these books ! There are 2 sets up for grabs!

ENTER HERE!

Returning to her hometown in 2008, after nearly one year spent, unsuccessfully, trying to create a new career in a new town, Deborah Hawkins found herself fighting depression and struggling to maintain solvency. In her early fifties, looking for financial help from her family was especially hard. A car accident, caused by an uninsured driver, kept her off her feet for months. She felt cursed.

She began blogging on gratitude in 2010 as a way to focus on positives and elevate her mood. Inspired by Eckhart Tolle’s words, “Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance,” she developed a mindfulness orientation for her own gratitude practice. This practice led her to post weekly over the last decade; around 500 posts.

Beyond traditional gratitude journals and lists, Deborah’s approach focuses on understanding things that sparked gratitude in past experiences and using this understanding to identify similar qualities in new situations. She attributes her gratitude practice with bringing a sense of empowerment and contentment to her life.

She plans to make her process available as a tele-seminar in the near future. Deborah has a BA from Knox College and lives in Chicago.

November 16th
Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com
The Faerie Review (Review) http://www.thefaeriereview.com
Rambling Mads (Spotlight) http://ramblingmads.com

November 17th
Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com
The Cozy Pages (Spotlight) http://thecozypages.wordpress.com/
Tsarina Press (Spotlight) https://www.tsarinapress.com

November 18th
B is for Book Review (Spotlight) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com
Sophil Reads (Review) https://sophrilreads.wordpress.com
Stine Writing (Review) https://christinebialczak.com/

November 19th
@BrendaJeanCombs (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/brendajeancombs/
@bookandwinelovers (Review) https://www.instagram.com/bookandwinelovers/
@thecrookedhouse (Review) https://www.instagram.com/thecrookedhouse/

November 20th
Didi Oviatt (Review) https://didioviatt.wordpress.com
@burlingtonbibliophagist (Review) https://www.instagram.com/burlingtonbibliophagist/
Meli’s Book Reviews (Spotlight) https://melisbokreviews.wordpress.com/