I really need to find a new title for this type or articles, I feel this one is too long and not too friendly and it surely doesn’t attract too many readers. On the other hand, I enjoy seeing the little number in the end, a small token of appreciation from me to myself 🙂 I guess I’ll change it to Weekly Mixed Cuentos. Hope you’ll like it if I do.

Either way, I keep telling myself that the content is more important, maybe? Here I am with the first collection of mixed recommendations for this year, as random as ever:

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I cannot truly describe how much I have loved the Little Women movie. It is beyond my modest writing talent. I did love it so very much and I’ll try to write a bit about it once I am able to see it at least 2 more times. I think it became my favorite movie after many many years of Amélie reigning that top. The soundtrack is so intense, but peaceful. I listen a lot to this lately:

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About the lost art of listening:

None of us are good listeners all the time. It’s human nature to get distracted by what’s going on in your own head. Listening takes effort. Like reading, you might choose to go over some things carefully while skimming others, depending on the situation. But the ability to listen carefully, like the ability to read carefully, degrades if you don’t do it often enough. If you start listening to everyone as you would scan headlines on a celebrity gossip website, you won’t discover the poetry and wisdom that is within people. And you withhold the gift that the people who love you, or could love you, most desire.

Has Listening Become a Lost Art? – by Kate Murphy

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I have probably written 12034802 times about my love and admiration for Esther Perel, but I feel the need to mention it again. If you don’t know yet, there is a newsletter she sends bi-monthly – Letters from Esther, which is real food for thought and soul. The most recent letter is available also here. She brings an out of the box (of course! 🙂 ) perspective on the new year and its resolutions and I think that if you read a “motivational” piece for this time of year, this could be it. She also focuses lately on the workplace dynamics, which is frequently forgotten in the big talks on personal well being. Do check her work out, it is worth it, I promise!

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This:

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🎥 Video & caption by @birddetective – Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul). If you ask me which cat species in the wild i like to see most, my answer is not a tiger, lion, cheetar or etc, but indeed this Pallas’s cat also called Manul, which is a small wild cat with a broad but fragmented distribution in the grasslands and montane steppes of Central Asia. They are so elusive and shy, even after a few weeks wandering around in their right habitat, you can have nothing but maybe some footprints. This video footage however was made with a camera trap. Scientists put this one in front of its nest and after some days collected. Cat is a cat and curiosty kills the cat, this Pallas’s cat, can’t stop itself to come out of its hole to check that camera trap, resulted in a quiet funny and lovely video. If you never heard of this, share it with your cat lover friends, family because it is negatively affected by habitat degradation, prey base decline, and hunting. Follow 👉 @ourplanetdaily for more! Location: Mongolia 🇲🇳 #OPDThrowback – 2/23/19

A post shared by OUR PLANET DAILY (@ourplanetdaily) on Jan 9, 2020 at 6:32pm PST

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Very important:

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Listening is a meaningful way to be supportive. ⁣ ⁣ Listen without jumping in to offer a quick solution, advice, or standard reply statement, "it will be okay." Just listen. Allow them to share. Talk about how they feel. Ask them what they need. ⁣ ⁣ When we respond with a standard reply like, "everything happens for a reason," we are attempting to manage our discomfort or the other person's perceived discomfort. ⁣ ⁣ Allow people to express their feelings without pushing them to "feel better."⁣ ⁣ #nedranuggets #cyclebreakers

A post shared by Nedra Glover Tawwab, Therapist (@nedratawwab) on Dec 14, 2019 at 4:40am PST

• A list of “Thank you, dear feminists” things
• About Book Towns
• How the Finnish survive without small talk – “Silence is gold, talk is silver”
• About MultiLevel Marketing Companies similarities to cults
• Big ears, huge aawwwws! 🙂
• A joy audit on how to have more fun (hugely needed at my end)

That’s all from me for now.

Be good and do good!

C.