Mindfulness Mode

Jennifer Steil is the author of Exile Music, which won the Grand Prize in the Eyelands 2020 Book Awards; the Multicultural and Historical novel International Book Awards; and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Lesbian Fiction Award and the Bisexual Book Award. Previous books include The Ambassador’s Wife, which won the 2013 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Best Novel award, the 2016 Phillip McMath Post Publication book award, and was a finalist for the Bisexual Book Award and the Lascaux Novel Award., and The Woman Who Fell From the Sky.

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Contact Info

• Website: www.jennifersteil.net
• Book: The Ambassador's Wife: A Novel
• Book: Exile Music: A Novel
• Book: The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Woman's Adventures in the Oldest City on Earth

Most Influential Person

• Glennon Doyle

Effect on Emotions

• I suppose I'm less anxious, I'm more able to ground myself in moments of panic, whatever I'm panicking about. So I think it helps me be less reactive and less defensive.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I was kidnapped at gunpoint when six months pregnant. And it was yoga breathing that saved me and my daughter. And I remind her, every time she makes fun of me when I'm doing yoga, I say yoga saved your life, which is breathing saved your life because it helped me. Sentiments Of An Award-Winning Writer
• Because of the stress of that situation, I was having premature contractions. And I was worried I was about to lose her. And so I had to calm down. It was a matter of life or death. I didn't know that the only way I knew how to calm myself down is breathing.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Ambassador's Wife: A Novel
• Book: Exile Music: A Novel
• Book: The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Woman's Adventures in the Oldest City on Earth
• App: Calm

Bullying Story

• My daughter has actually had a terrible time in three different schools with bullying. And I felt quite powerless to help. We got the school involved, we got teachers involved, and yet, it didn't help.
• I would love to hear your thoughts on how to help a child who's in that situation, I think, when I was growing up, I never listened to the word bullying. We just didn't talk about it that way. When I look back at my childhood, I was not a popular child, I had no social skills. I was bookish, I was awkward. And people made fun of me a lot.
• I remember in the girl's room in third grade, girls climbing over the top of the stall to make fun of me, on the toilet. They make up rhymes about me on the playground. In seventh grade, they made fun of me, because I did well in school, which was not a popular thing to do. I mean, one positive thing I see in my daughter's schools is actually the most popular kids also are the ones who work the hardest. And I'm like that was not the case. When I was little, it was cool to be a slacker. It was not fantastic to work hard.

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Special Offer

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