There really is something disturbing about someone recommending you a self-help book. To quote the grandparent of many self-help books, it really is saying "I'm OK, you're not OK!!" at the worst and "I'm not OK, you're not OK!!" at the best!! (or would the other way 'round be preferable? I don't know).
I know I can be too sensitive at times, but really, what is someone trying to tell you when they say you might be interested in a book "on how we use our feelings and emotions to unconsciously manifest negativity or lack into our lives and how we can also use them to turn our lives right around and create the sort of life we really want"??
It really makes me wonder what my stories sound like to her down the other end of the phone line at times... Especially when I'm surrounded by other people who are constantly moaning about how shit their work is and often I feel that if I didn't listen to anyone else's opinion and just kept my head down and worked, I'd probably be a lot happier. And I might add that I spent much of my childhood listening to my own parents moan about their work, and not turning their negative situations right around to the situation they wanted!!!! (mind you, it's hard to just pack up and migrate to a tropical island if you have 2 kids to think of).
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Phew, glad I got that off my chest. Just replied to my mother's email, making a joke about buying an office copy. I'll just treat it like a book recommendation that she thought I might like but got wrong this time (I'll save the recommendation for when I'm driven to despair).
1 comment:
oh I say dive right in - borrow the book and read it with an open mind over a cup of tea. In the last 6 months I have actively sought out the self help psychobabble tome from a zany range of sources from realigning your chakras through to working with your inner child to pondering life's great mysteries with the sufi mystics. I think it's fascinating to sort the bits that mean something to you from the bits that sound like an American marketing seminar. And remember, if someone else has the book already then they at least don't think you're any more screwy than they were when they bought and read it! :) (I currently have 2 books at least on loan that vaguely fall into this genre....maybe we could swap reviews in Booklub!)
j
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