AvidBards
Reflections

4 Years of AvidBards: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Like everyone, the past few years have been challenging in so many ways. For us, it’s been a trying time attempting to keep our creative motivation running. AvidBards has been conspicuously put on the back burner, moving further and further down the priority list as concerns around health, work and life occupy the majority of our mental energy.  It’s been really hard for us to find the energy to keep up with Avidbards. The pressures of social media can be a lot, even though we’ve discovered and connected with some really awesome content creators this year and feel like we’ve…

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Books

Self-Help Books that I’ve Found Useful

…and When I Use Them Sometimes, without knowing or expecting, there are days that you aren’t able to handle. Days that you do not want to face, and days that are too difficult to absorb. If you’re lucky, those days are rare, far and few in between. But sometimes, you go through a point when there are plenty in a row. However rare or frequent, they are not days to be ashamed by. But those are the days that you need a little pick-me-up. Sometimes it’s difficult to ask your friends for those pick-me-ups, and on those days I turn…

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Reflections

5 Books on Mental Health I Want to Read

I’ve made it a point this year to branch out and read books on different topics. It can be so easy to fall into a particular genre of books and never branch out. Particularly when, if you are like me, working or studying, or doing both full time, and reading becomes your get away from the stress of everything else. You get comfortable in a particular genre that you know is exciting and enjoyable, that forcing yourself to find something new can be daunting. Additionally, my case, a part of me gets scared that I am going to be disappointed…

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Books

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab Book Review

Have you ever had that moment when you’ve looked around you and asked yourself, “what if that didn’t exist?” or “what if things worked differently?” and you fall down the rabbit hole of imagining a whole different kind of world? Well, that is exactly what reading V. E. Schwab’s novel A Darker Shade of Magic did for me. A Darker Shade of Magic takes place in a world that holds multiple universes, four to be precise, and only those with magic can cross over into the other worlds. While so many things are different in each of the worlds, one…

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Reflections

Best Release 2018: Book

I didn’t accomplish my ’52 Books in 2018′ reading challenge! So what? It’s a New Year! And as such, my mind is perhaps unsurprisingly occupied with reflections of the past year. One such reflection that I’ve been thinking about a lot is the notion of challenges and goals. Specifically reading challenges. As an avid reader, I had never set a book goal before 2018, as I always had a book on the go. As such, I was never worried about how much I was reading. 2018 was the first year that I ever embarked on such a goal. Bringing in…

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Reflections

Benefits of Reading on Personal Growth

How Reading Has Taught Me Patience One of my biggest struggles has always been a desire for the outcome/end product to be immediate. Whenever I set goals I tend to end up dedicated an insane (and unhealthy) amount of time to it right from the beginning and try to achieve it all at once in the shortest amount of time. It has lead to a lot of frustration, and anxiety at times. Similarly, when those goals or habits that I was working towards don’t end up sticking (as is obviously going to be the case) I end up with a…

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