Chicken Soup for the Soul with Amy Newmark

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and I’m pleased to share new stories with you from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Let It Go, which is our latest best-selling self-help book. I didn’t really understand the power of forgiveness to change my life until I started doing this editor-in-chief job at Chicken Soup for the Soul 18 years ago. I always thought that the word “forgiveness” meant that you were excusing the person who hurt you, saying that it was okay. But it turns out that “forgiveness” doesn’t mean that. What it actually means is that you have decided not to keep reliving all the negative feelings associated with whatever bad thing happened to you. You may even come to understand WHY it happened and what drove the other person to act that way, which enables you to NOT take it personally. Because it was never really about you. It was about themselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. I’m continuing to share stories with you from our new book Chicken Soup for the Soul: Self Care Isn’t Selfish. We all know that we need it, and that self-care is super important, but somehow we all put other things first. So how you do enable yourself to put aside that time that you need, that me time that helps you be the best version of yourself? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul, and it’s Wow Wednesday. I always try to share awe-inspiring or surprising stories with you on Wednesdays, so I went back to one of our older books and found a couple that I really love from a fun read, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Listen to Your Dreams. You may think that dreams are divinely delivered into your brain. Or you may view dreams as your brain telling you stuff you should know but somehow are ignoring. Your brain gets a chance to tell you what you already know while you are asleep and more likely to pay attention. Whichever camp you’re in, from all the thousands of Chicken Soup for the Soul stories I’ve read about dreams, I AM sure of one thing… that we should listen to our dreams. They are often a wonderful source of guidance… a kind of GPS for our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and I’m pleased to share new stories with you from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Let It Go, which is our latest best-selling self-help book. You know, I always thought that the word “forgiveness” meant that you were excusing the person who hurt you, saying that it was okay. But it turns out that “forgiveness” doesn’t mean that. What it actually means is that you have decided not to keep reliving all the negative feelings associated with whatever bad thing happened to you. You acknowledge that the bad thing happened, but you decide to stop having those same negative feelings over and over again. Forgiveness also means understanding WHY something happened. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve realized that something bad that someone did to me wasn’t about me at all. It was about something else going on in that person’s life and there was no deliberate intent to hurt specifically me. When you learn not to take those bad things personally, and understand where those actions are coming from, it’s much easier to move on and not carry any resentment forward with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and I want to share another couple of stories with you today from our new book about why Self-Care Isn’t Selfish. Why is self-care not selfish? Because it not optional. It’s a necessary, powerful commitment to making yourself a priority. And one of those priorities is following your heart and doing what’s right for you, even if other people are disagreeing with you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul, and it’s Wow Wednesday. I always try to share awe-inspiring or surprising stories with you on Wednesdays, so I went back to one of our older books and found a couple that I really love from one of our past bestsellers, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Listen to Your Dreams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and I’m pleased to share new stories with you from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Let It Go, which is our latest best-selling self-help book. I didn’t really understand the power of forgiveness to change my life until I started doing this editor-in-chief job at Chicken Soup for the Soul 18 years ago. I always thought that the word “forgiveness” meant that you were excusing the person who hurt you, saying that it was okay. But it turns out that “forgiveness” doesn’t mean that. What it actually means is that you have decided not to keep reliving all the negative feelings associated with whatever bad thing happened to you. You acknowledge that the bad thing happened, but you decide to stop having those same negative feelings over and over again. Because if you let the bad thing replay over and over in your mind, you’re letting it – or the person that did it – occupy space in your mind. And that’s not cool. You need to take back that space in your mind for yourself, not let someone else control it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and today we’re talking about positive thinking because after all, it’s the new year and it’s time for some new perspective. Our book about 101 ways to think positive will give you lots of great ideas for adopting a new attitude, a new more optimistic approach to the ups and downs of life—and how about this?—motivation to reach out and make new connections. I don’t know about you, but I always feel like I should be working on making new friends and expanding our social circle or at least remembering to keep up with existing friends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. This is the time of year when we are already re-examining our New Year’s resolutions and deciding which ones are actually do-able. I want to share one today that is an all-year resolution for me and my husband, and that is to face our fears and have more fun as a result. We are constantly fighting off that tendency to NOT do something new, usually for some dumb reason like we don’t know where to park there. But we’ve gotten way better about doing new things, eating new things, going to new places, having new experiences. So when you’re thinking about your New Year’s resolutions, you might want to add one about facing your fears or insecurities. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today, with two stories from our new book about 101 ways to think positive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and today we’re talking about positive thinking because after all, it’s the new year and it’s time for some new perspective. Our new book about 101 ways to think positive will give you lots of great ideas for adopting a new attitude, a new more optimistic approach to the ups and downs of life—plus it just happens to be very fun read. There are so many ways that our writers found their path to a happier life and their stories about how they got there are pretty entertaining. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s that time when all those New Year’s resolutions start looking a little less do-able than they did on January first. I’ve learned to be more reasonable and go for incremental changes in my habits. And one kind of resolution that I love is the resolution that you can do inside your mind, one that can work instantly… with no sweating or hunger pangs. So while you’re improving your fitness or organizing your home, you can also do something that will make an immediate difference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and today we’re talking about positive thinking because after all, it’s the new year and it’s time for some new perspective. Our new book about 101 ways to think positive will give you lots of great ideas for adopting a new attitude, a new more optimistic approach to the ups and downs of life—plus it just happens to be very fun read. There are so many ways that our writers found their path to a happier life and these stories about how they got there are pretty entertaining. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s time for all those New Year’s resolutions and besides the obvious ones that most of us have every year – eat less and exercise more – I like to throw a couple of painless ones into the mix--resolutions that you can do inside your mind, ones that can work instantly--with no sweating or starving. And what we find is that positive thinking is one of those new things you can do right away, and a resolution that will make an immediate difference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and we have a new book I’m very passionate about. It’s all about how Self-Care Isn’t Selfish. That’s because self-care is not optional. It’s a necessary, powerful commitment to making yourself a priority. And it also means learning how to stick up for yourself. Sometimes we don’t do that. We are trying to be nice, or we can’t initially believe that someone IS NOT treating us right, so we let it slide, and then it kind of becomes the official way that relationship is going to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul, and it’s Wow Wednesday. I always try to share awe-inspiring or surprising stories with you on Wednesdays, so I went back to one of our older books and found a couple that I really love from a fun read, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Miracle of Love. These stories are about the miraculous ways that two different couples got together, much to their surprise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. I’m continuing to share stories with you from our new book Chicken Soup for the Soul: Self Care Isn’t Selfish. We all know that we need it, and that self-care is super important, but somehow we all put other things first. So how you do enable yourself to put aside that time that you need, that me time that helps you be the best version of yourself? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and I’m pleased to share new stories with you from Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from My Cat, which is our latest best-selling book of cat stories. We spent two years collecting stories for this book and there is SO MUCH variety in terms of what people learned from their cats – about resilience, and forgiveness, and living in the moment, and just plain being clever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and it’s Wow Wednesday, when I share stories that are a bit surprising or miraculous or just plain weird. And I happen to love our stories about dreams and how they can rather magically change your life. Whether you think that dreams are divinely inspired or whether you think that dreams are a result of your subconscious telling you stuff that you kind of know already but were too distracted to pay attention to, we have hundreds of stories about dreams that were like GPS for the people who had them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and we have a new book I’m very passionate about. It’s all about how Self-Care Isn’t Selfish. That’s because self-care is not optional. It’s a necessary, powerful commitment to making yourself a priority. And one of those priorities is your health. We all know that fitness is important, and what’s great about it is that you get to choose your own path to fitness. You don’t have to do what your friend is doing, or your spouse, there are a hundred different ways that you can pursue fitness in a way that works for you. All you have to do is pick your own way, and then put yourself on your to-do list. Fitness needs to come first. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and today I want to talk about premonitions and dreams and how sometimes people have the weirdest ability to sense that something is going to happen, whether it’s a sense of foreboding or a vision or a dream. I never believed that this stuff mattered until I spent all these years reading our stories and seeing this stuff in action. So today I’m sharing two stories with you, one about a father having a premonition that may very well have saved his daughter’s life, and the other about a woman who had a whole conversation with her boyfriend in her bedroom the night that he died, not realizing that he was actually still thousands of miles away. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices