Wabi Sabi

I've always believed that I would die young. I can't really explain it. It's a deep feeling within that I've had from a very young age. I'm the exact age now as my mother was when she died, and this has been a pivotal point for me as I wrestle with my values and beliefs from my past and form new ones that will serve me far better into the future. Some people think I'm morbid talking about death openly like I do. Frankly, I don't think we talk about it enough. In Death doesn't have to be morbid, Michelle Cox shares her experiences about overcoming an enormous amount of death and loss at a young age. She shares intimate details about overcoming gut-wrenching grief and offers her suggestions on how you can better support others around you going through grief, instead of being too afraid to hurt them more by raising the topic. This is a book about death, dying and grief. It's about overcoming fears of dying young and how you can use that energy to propel you forward in ways you didn't realise were possible. It's also a book about resilience — about overcoming the odds and bad genes, and still living the best life possible.

It's my inherent belief that you are the only person on this earth who knows your body better than anyone else. Our bodies talk to us all day, every day, and we need to be listening to what they're saying. This is not a story about badmouthing general practitioners and ridiculing the medical fraternity. It's a centuries-old notion that doctors are healers and near to gods, but they are mere mortals and their expertise is limited. You should be taking control of and responsibility for your own health and wellbeing – pure and simple. In Doctors are not gods, Michelle Cox shares her very personal experiences of both her mother being medically mistreated and her own case of being misdiagnosed for months before needing emergency surgery for cervical cancer. With an attitude of learning from mistakes, Michelle asks what she herself could have done better in order to be the boss of her own health and wellbeing in future and stop handing over the power of something so important to others. This book is about creating a working relationship with your medical professionals to ensure you are responsible for your own health, especially in a world where the healthcare landscape is changing so rapidly.

There are numerous reasons why people don't have kids and the most common is NOT because they are selfish. In today's society, many of us understand that it's not appropriate to make comment on another person's weight, ethnicity, religion or sexual persuasion. So why do we still feel it's appropriate to not only comment, but have an often-uneducated opinion on whether a person has a child or not? In It's okay not to have kids, Michelle Cox shares her experiences about not only surviving cancer and losing the ability to have something she always wanted - children - but then having to navigate societal pressures placed upon her and other people's opinions on how she lives her life. This is a book about resilience. It's about leading the life that you want and that's right for you. But mostly it's a book about understanding and appreciation for other ways. Everyone's life path is not the same and that's perfectly fine.