Vow of Aliveness
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Synopsis
Through memoir, culture critique, and Zen teachings, this book shares the difficulty and necessity of prioritizing what makes us feel alive – and the path I’ve walked in doing so. I share my nearly two-decade journey of training in Zen Buddhism, and how it affected how I navigated career, relationships, and life itself. Through it all, I made sure to keep centering the people, places, and passions that made me feel alive – my aliveness, as I call it – but this was frequently not easy, given how much our culture and economy insist on our conformity.
Over time, I realized just how difficult the struggle always is, and my commitment to my aliveness became a vow. The first half of the book is a memoir of my journey, while in the second, I share the principles, practices, and communities that I keep close as part of my vow of aliveness.
Example Book Cover Descriptions
The Mountain Is You captures the simplicity I’m hoping for in the book cover. The words are legible, and the art is simple, hand-drawn, and subtle. It is my favorite of the bunch.
Pathless Path is my friend’s book, and it also captures a sense of simplicity.
I find Zen and The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance difficult to read, but I like its color palette — Matcha green as the dominant color, with touches of black and/or white. I’m open to many color combos, but out of the gate, I think that’s what I want to prioritize.
Designing Your Life successfully uploaded, but it puts together the above concepts and adds a circle, which might be a motif I want to rely on. The Ikigai cover is similar, though the image is perhaps too big/involved (but with the right image, this could maybe be alright).
I spend a good chunk of the book talking about behavior/habit loops from Nir Eyal’s book, Hooked. In short, in these loops, we receive a trigger (like a push notification or a thought to pull out our phone in a moment of boredom). We then take some sort of action (open up Instagram), receive some sort of reward (content), and then invest in the behavior in some way (like, comment, send a DM, etc.). This investment makes it more likely that we’ll receive the trigger at some point in the future.
I included the Hooked book cover and an image of what these loops look like (“Hook Model” graph). I don’t mention loops in the title, nor do I think they need to be on the cover necessarily, but that’s one of the main concepts, so perhaps some sort of circle or loop motif would be helpful
Wrong Direction Book Cover Descriptions
Doubling on the Motorcycle one because it’s way to busy and not legible.
The Rich book looks old and feels crowded and gives off a stuffy vibe. Not what I’m trying to evoke.
Rising Strong (while I like Brene Brown) feels like it’s doing too much with the font, which makes it kinda folksy. Not going for a folksy vibe.
General Likes & Overall Vision
Strong readability, title should be the most important part of the cover but doesn’t need to totally dominate. The vibe of the book is feeling alive – present, connected, enthusiastic. Things that convey that vibe are really all I care about in terms of vision. And I don’t think I have a “general” aesthetic. I feel very open to your vision. I do like that Mountain cover because it’s simplicity (minus the black, I like color but also probably don’t want this to be drenched in mulitcolor or something). To be clear, though I’m feeling a bit called to some sort of soft green, I’m very open to whatever color (or design or anything else) inspires you. That’s what’s most important (and it’s kinda the point of the book).
Dislikes & Things to Avoid
Probably not interested in a scene or imagery that’s too involved. The point is the words and that they’re legible. I think Pathless Path does this well. I’m open to a variety of fonts though, and it’s totally possible that what I love is not something I can predict. For example, I think I would hate hand-drawn letters, but if you’re feeling super inspired in that direction, I trust that inspiration. (That’s basically what the book is about.)
So most of all, trust your intuition, especially on round one.
