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Mentatrix is all about reflection; it brings you fictional characters, personal stories, reflections on mindfulness, local culture, and even hiking trails and landscape — all twisted into reflection prompts.
Why? It’s through reflection and awareness that we move on from merely coping with life to grasping it, and steering it accordingly.
I’m a Romanian living in the Black Forest in Germany, doing a full-time job in English. I commute between the three languages and ways of being on a daily basis. Lucky me.
What, and how often?
I publish once a week (Sundays) a post that proposes a self-reflection exercise, through one of the five types of prompts shown in the picture above.
Some of my tags are in the top navigation menu, the others are grouped on the home page.
Here’s what you can expect under each category of posts:
Fiction and The Invisible Hero
You might like to start from:
Forget High Tech, tagged: Personal growth. A short Corona-pandemic story of a young professional awakening to what she really wants.
Lili Comes to Herself (3) - I Don't Want to Be a Hero, which is an excerpt from the novel I’m almost done writing. It’s set in the communist Romania of the 80s, with an 18-year-old protagonist called Lili.
In the The Invisible Hero theme, I’m sure you’ll like part 1 of the opening story, When the Place Is a Map, and the Map Is a Maze.
Personal growth and Becoming
Some of the most popular posts are:
The Upside Down Is My Privilege, tagged: Personal Growth, Becoming. It’s a personal story of how my toughest challenges turned out to be a privilege, by enabling me to grow.
Do It, So You Can Feel It, tagged: Personal Growth, Fiction (yes, it’s a cross-genre piece!). It provides a flash-fiction piece as a showcase of how we can handle goodbyes.
Mindfulness Myths
In these stories I engage critically with mindfulness teachings and what they may actually mean, beyond popular culture cliché. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the story of an eerie midsummer feast in Mindfulness Myth #5, Accepting and Letting Go Are Twins.
Mentatrixes
Here’s an example:
Mentatrixes #9: Don't Shoot Your Gunpowder Too Soon! A small town in an idyllic landscape has seen stories of resources being wasted on false opportunities.
Mindful Wanderer
Whatever theme you prefer, I hope you enjoy the journey and stay with me!