Link Loves and Must-Reads (and Hermit Crabs)

Bear, one of our sweet hermit crab babies, passed on this week :(.  We're going to give him a little burial today in our porch garden cemetery, and I already really miss just knowing that he is in the little terrarium in the living room. We've had many hermit crabs and hamsters over the years, with our apartment serving as a hospital and rehab home for all the smaller pets that get ill at the school my mum works at, and it's always heartbreaking when a pet passes on. I just hope that Bear is now in a happy place with his hermit crab spirit family.
This week's Link Loves and Must-Reads are from many different times and places, but I think they're all important and/or interesting in their own ways, covering everything from happiness to mindset to education.  Education is a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately because, while being a superhero and communciating with the spirit world writing, reading, and dancing are my favorite pastimes, my "daytime identities" include being a teacher and a student. I spend a lot of time in classrooms surrounded by children.  I think their circadian rhythms are on a totally different schedule from mine, though.  When I'm exhausted, they're ready to run an Iron Man or scale walls (the latter of which they've actually attempted).

• What Happy People Do Differently by Robert Biswas-Diener and Todd B. Kashdan
• We actually read this article for class, and it couldn't have been a more timely read.  A loved one of mine is currently going through a really hard time health-wise, and I'm praying for them to get better and also thinking a lot about one of the things we talked about the last time we saw each other--balance.  Balance is so important.  Anything to the extreme is detrimental, and even if we think that having control over all aspects of our lives is going to make us happy, IT ISN'T.  If you need any research to back this claim up, "What Happy People Do Differently" lays it out pretty fantastically. Intuitively, it doesn't really make sense that there are many times when discomfort and unpredictability shouldn't be avoided but rather embraced, but curiosity is directly linked to satisfaction and long-term growth. Curious now?  Yes, yes you are ;).
• Paralysis by Analysis (vlog) by Maddy Moon
• I've shared some of Maddy's work before, and I keep returning to her podcast, vlog series, and blog because of how inspiring and honest she is.  Her insights on body image, loving yourself, and being true to yourself are incredibly motivating if you're going through a hard time and trying to release limiting beliefs that are holding you back from really living your life (as opposed to just being afraid of it).  "Paralysis by analysis" is something I definitely deal with, and having Maddy tell me to snap out of it is very helpful.
• Beautiful Women Smile from the Soul by Brooklyn of No Sleep Till Peace
• This is a post by a Peace Corps volunteer working in Peru, and I love it because of how sweet it is. It's a real cheer-up that'll make you feel like there's still good in the world, no matter how dark things seem sometimes.
• Why we should all be reading aloud to children TEDTalk by Rebecca Bellingham
• Anyone who remembers being read to as a little kid, be it at home or in a class or even via a television program (Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, etc.) will be able to relate to this TEDTalk.  It's really quite amazing to think that, of all the little kids I've known, very few have been unable to become engrossed in a book.  Read-alouds seem to be a universal sort of entertainment.  

<3 Frances