Review: I LOVE this book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 9, 2013
It's chock-a-block full of journaling exercises. That's right up my alley. I keep a journal and I have found writing to be both therapeutic and transformational. It's like this book was written with me in mind.One of the journaling exercises is to recognize all the little accomplishments one tends to overlook. In listing all the things I did over several days I found I'm much more productive than I thought. That definitely made me happy.The author acknowledges that not everything he suggests will work for everyone. But he also suggests that the experience of reading his book will inspire us to find what works for us. I found this to be true. He tells us to laugh at our mistakes and I tried, I really did. But the more I looked for something to laugh at, the more mortified I felt.I did find a way to deal with it. A few weeks ago Fareed Zakaria interviewed a beautiful young lady who is a millionaire and CEO of her own company. She attributed her success to her father. Whenever she made a mistake or failed at anything (horrors!), her father gave her loads of congratulations and high fives. Thus he encouraged her to stretch and grow. When I remembered that interview, I also could give myself congratulations and high fives for my mistake, for giving myself a chance to grow and learn.If I hadn't been reading this book, I wouldn't have been so conscious and purposeful about finding a way to deal with it. I would have just stewed in mortification.And on another occasion I actually did wind up laughing at a silly mistake I made. And, yes, it did lift my mood. So it worked!I'm going to seriously work on the precept, "Love Thyself." That's a difficult one for me. Here's a great quote from the book: "I believe that when you really love yourself, mistakes carry less weight and distress; anxiety and stress dissipate much faster. You then see the gifts in your life, and happiness becomes you." As he very rightly says, no one can love you like you yourself.I've always wanted to be a writer, but summoning the will power and discipline to write is difficult. Because of this book I've picked up the threads of the novel I started several years ago. And when I journaled at day's end about my writing, I experienced a surge of not just happiness, but euphoria.Good job, Bryan Hutchinson. Good job.I received this book for free in exchange for an unbiased review.