The Literary Compass Podcast

You Are Living Inside Your Thoughts (Whether You Realise It or Not)

There are some books that don’t overwhelm you with ideas.They give you one, and trust you to take it seriously.As a Man Thinketh by James Allen is one of those books.It’s short. You could read it in under an hour. And yet, if you really sit with it, it has the potential to change how you see your entire life.Not dramatically. Not overnight.Quietly.The idea at the centreAt its core, the book offers a simple, almost uncomfortable, truth:Your life is shaped by your thoughts, more than you might realise.Not just your circumstances.Not just what’s happened to you.But the patterns you return to, again and again, in your own mind.Allen doesn’t say this harshly. He says it clearly.Your thoughts become your actions.Your actions become your habits.Your habits shape your life.It’s easy to read this and nod.Much harder to actually live it.Why this still matters nowWe live in a time of constant input.Scrolling.Noise.Opinions.Information we didn’t ask for, arriving all day long.And in the middle of that, it’s easy to forget that we still have influence over one thing:Our attention.As a Man Thinketh feels almost more relevant now than when it was written, because it reminds us that the quality of our inner life still matters, even when everything outside feels chaotic.The mistake most people makeThe book is often treated as motivation.Something you read, feel inspired by, and then move on from.But it’s not really a motivational book.It’s a practice.And the shift happens when you stop asking:Do I agree with this?…and start asking:Where am I seeing this play out in my own life?How to actually use this bookIf you’re listening to or reading As a Man Thinketh, here are a few simple ways to make it practical:1. Notice your default thoughtsNot the ones you say out loud.The ones that repeat quietly.* What do you tell yourself about your life?* About your future?* About what’s possible for you?You don’t need to change them immediately.Just notice them.Awareness is the first shift.2. Interrupt, don’t forceYou don’t have to suddenly become endlessly positive.That’s not realistic.But you can begin to interrupt patterns.When you notice a familiar thought, especially one that feels limiting, pause.Ask:Is this the only way to see this?That small question creates space.3. Choose one guiding thoughtInstead of trying to overhaul your entire mindset, choose one thought you want to live from.Something simple.Something steady.For example:* “I can handle this.”* “I don’t need to rush.”* “I’m allowed to take this one step at a time.”Return to it. Often.This is how thought becomes habit.4. Pair it with stillnessThis is where meditation comes in beautifully.Reading about thought is one thing.Experiencing space between thoughts is another.Even five minutes of stillness, or a short meditation, helps you step out of the constant stream and see your thoughts more clearly.That’s where real change begins.Listen on Substack: Or on Insight Timer: https://insighttimer.com/georgiaclare/guided-meditations/gentle-meditation-for-feeling-overwhelmedA book to return to, not finishThis isn’t a book you read once and move on from.It’s one you revisit.A few pages at a time.At different stages of your life.When things feel unclear.Each time, you’ll see something new, not because the book has changed, but because you have.Listen in your own wayYou can listen to the full reading of As a Man Thinketh directly here.If you prefer, I’ve also shared it on YouTube, so you can return to it easily, or listen while you’re out walking, travelling, or between moments in your day.There’s no need to take it all in at once.Even a few minutes is enough to shift how you notice your thoughts, and how you move through the rest of your day.A question for youWhat’s one thought you’ve noticed yourself returning to lately?If this is the kind of thinking you want more of each week, subscribe below Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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in the midst of hate, tears, chaos and winter

Oct 27, 202400:06:25Tap to summarize

"Au milieu de l'hiver, j'ai découvert en moi un invincible été." ~ Albert Camusinvincible summer by albert camusIn the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realised, through it all, that… In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger something better, pushing right back.The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.You can also support me here :) Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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Promise Yourself

Oct 20, 202400:02:04Tap to summarize

Promise Yourself by Christian D LarsonPromise Yourself To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something in them. To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. To think only the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile. To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but great deeds. To live in faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.You can also support me here :) Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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drinking the sea & an inexhaustible cascade of wine

Oct 13, 202400:05:57Tap to summarize

“Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.” – Ernest HemingwayI live in the southwest of France, so wine is big here. I am close to three major wine regions, Cahors, Bergerac and the well-known Bordeaux. So today’s P&P is all about wine!I also have an exclusive discount for you for my photography. You can use the code WINETIME in my Etsy shop to get 25% off anything :)I have always loved the Hemingway quote below as it’s from one of my favourite books that he has written. I had never eaten oysters until I was in my late 40s and went to the west coast of France for a holiday with my daughter. We sat in a typical restaurant with our bare feet in the sand and ate oysters with slices of freshly baked baguette and drank white wine.This quote came to mind straight away as I have never come across something so perfectly described before. It was like drinking the sea.Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”That’s a short quote so I thought I would also share a beautiful poem that I found recently.Pablo Neruda beautifully captures the essence of wine in a way that feels almost intimate, like he’s describing a cherished lover. He portrays wine as something rich and sensual, using vivid, almost tactile imagery to compare it to the curves and textures of a woman’s body. The way he describes its ingredients and flow makes you feel like you’re experiencing something more than just a drink—it becomes a symbol of indulgence, passion, and deep connection. It’s Neruda’s gift, really, to turn something as simple as wine into something so deeply human and evocative.Ode To Wine by Pablo NerudaDay-colored wine, night-colored wine, wine with purple feet or wine with topaz blood, wine, starry child of earth, wine, smooth as a golden sword, soft as lascivious velvet, wine, spiral-seashelled and full of wonder, amorous, marine; never has one goblet contained you, one song, one man, you are choral, gregarious, at the least, you must be shared. At times you feed on mortal memories; your wave carries us from tomb to tomb, stonecutter of icy sepulchers, and we weep transitory tears; your glorious spring dress is different, blood rises through the shoots, wind incites the day, nothing is left of your immutable soul. Wine stirs the spring, happiness bursts through the earth like a plant, walls crumble, and rocky cliffs, chasms close, as song is born. A jug of wine, and thou beside me in the wilderness, sang the ancient poet. Let the wine pitcher add to the kiss of love its own. My darling, suddenly the line of your hip becomes the brimming curve of the wine goblet, your breast is the grape cluster, your nipples are the grapes, the gleam of spirits lights your hair, and your navel is a chaste seal stamped on the vessel of your belly, your love an inexhaustible cascade of wine, light that illuminates my senses, the earthly splendor of life. But you are more than love, the fiery kiss, the heat of fire, more than the wine of life; you are the community of man, translucency, chorus of discipline, abundance of flowers. I like on the table, when we're speaking, the light of a bottle of intelligent wine. Drink it, and remember in every drop of gold, in every topaz glass, in every purple ladle, that autumn labored to fill the vessel with wine; and in the ritual of his office, let the simple man remember to think of the soil and of his duty, to propagate the canticle of the wine.The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.You can also support me here :) Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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buy my english posies!

Oct 6, 202400:07:01Tap to summarize

The Flowers by Rudyard KiplingBuy my English posies! Kent and Surrey may — Violets of the Undercliff Wet with Channel spray; Cowslips from a Devon combe — Midland furze afire — Buy my English posies And I'll sell your heart's desire! Buy my English posies! You that scorn the May, Won't you greet a friend from home Half the world away? Green against the draggled drift, Faint and frail and first — Buy my Northern blood-root And I'll know where you were nursed: Robin down the logging-road whistles, "Come to me!" Spring has found the maple-grove, the sap is running free; All the winds of Canada call the ploughing-rain. Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again! Buy my English posies! Here's to match your need — Buy a tuft of royal heath, Buy a bunch of weed White as sand of Muysenberg Spun before the gale — Buy my heath and lilies And I'll tell you whence you hail! Under hot Constantia broad the vineyards lie — Throned and thorned the aching berg props the speckless sky — Slow below the Wynberg firs trails the tilted wain — Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again! Buy my English posies! You that will not turn — Buy my hot-wood clematis, Buy a frond o' fern Gathered where the Erskine leaps Down the road to Lorne — Buy my Christmas creeper And I'll say where you were born! West away from Melbourne dust holidays begin — They that mock at Paradise woo at Cora Lynn — Through the great South Otway gums sings the great South Main — Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again! Buy my English posies! Here's your choice unsold! Buy a blood-red myrtle-bloom, Buy the kowhai's gold Flung for gift on Taupo's face, Sign that spring is come — Buy my clinging myrtle And I'll give you back your home! Broom behind the windy town; pollen o' the pine — Bell-bird in the leafy deep where the ~ratas~ twine — Fern above the saddle-bow, flax upon the plain — Take the flower and turn the hour, and kiss your love again! Buy my English posies! Ye that have your own Buy them for a brother's sake Overseas, alone. Weed ye trample underfoot Floods his heart abrim — Bird ye never heeded, Oh, she calls his dead to him! Far and far our homes are set round the Seven Seas; Woe for us if we forget, we that hold by these! Unto each his mother-beach, bloom and bird and land — Masters of the Seven Seas, oh, love and understand. The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.You can also support me here :) Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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write it on your heart

Sep 29, 202400:01:30Tap to summarize

Write It On Your Heart by Ralph Waldo EmersonWrite it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.You can also support me here :) Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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all the difference

Sep 22, 202400:03:38Tap to summarize

The Road Not Taken by Robert FrostTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveller, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less travelled by,And that has made all the difference.The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.You can also support me here :) Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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only once in your life - bob marley

Sep 3, 202400:06:49Tap to summarize

I’m going to start this new podcast with a beautiful quote by Bob Marley. Below the quote I have pulled out 5 points from it that I think are worth reflecting upon.After all, a quote is only words on a page unless we can see the wisdom in it that we can use in our own lives. It has to make us think, and it has to resonate if it’s to be of value to us.“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.” ― Bob Marley* Finding a Deep Connection: Once in your life, you find someone who completely changes your world, allowing you to share your deepest thoughts, dreams, and disappointments without fear of judgment. (I do believe that this can happen more than once, but we have to be open to finding it again. We have to keep our hearts open.)* Unconditional Support and Acceptance: This person builds you up, shows you what makes you special, and loves you for who you truly are, without any pressure, jealousy, or competition. This can be a family member, a soulmate, romantic or platonic.* Cherishing Simple Moments: Ordinary things like a note, song, or walk become invaluable treasures because they are shared with someone special, making life feel more vibrant and meaningful. To have experienced this is to have truly lived.* Comfort in Presence: Just having this person nearby brings comfort and contentment, even without continuous conversation, and their presence makes life more exciting and worthwhile. If we have this or have had it, to have experienced this level of connection is a gift we should always treasure.* Embracing Vulnerability and Love: Opening your heart to this person, despite the risk of it being broken, allows you to experience true joy and pleasure, bringing a sense of hope and security in their loyalty and companionship. As C S Lewis said, “To love is to be vulnerable.” We cannot love fully unless we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and open our hearts, risking the possibility of it being broken.The Literary Compass is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Literary Compass at theliterarycompass.substack.com/subscribe

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All episodes

You Are Living Inside Your Thoughts (Whether You Realise It or Not)

in the midst of hate, tears, chaos and winter

Promise Yourself

drinking the sea & an inexhaustible cascade of wine

buy my english posies!

write it on your heart

all the difference

only once in your life - bob marley