Book Review: Conversations With God

While traveling in Cappadocia, Turkey in Fall 2011 I stayed at a hotel built into an old cave. The Cappadocia region is known for the early christian culture that made refuge from non-christian leadership by making their hidden homes inside carved rooms in the mountains. The landscape looks like a cross between drippy-sandcastles and the surface of the moon. Over breakfast in this scenic location, I found a book of interest in the book-swap shelf. Actually, I found 2. Conversations With God Books 1 and 2 by Neal Donald Walsch. I had heard of the books before, but wanted to know more. I swapped a few books of mine to pick them up and started reading.

The books are meant to be a ‘real’ conversations between the author and god. A conversation the author claims happened between 1993 and the few years that followed. He considered himself a christian, but the books cover a perspective that is decidedly non-traditionally christian, or not christian at all, depending on your point of view. The original 3 books covered here sold very well, as have some follow-up books by the author. More about the author can be found at his website nealedonaldwalsch.com.

I found CWG, particularly book 1, to be a refreshing take on religion. It is seductively easy to read, because it tells the reader what he wants to hear. That we are empowered to be anything we want, that heaven and hell do not exist, and that there is no sin and no judgement process.

Summary of CWG

Here is Sylvain Poirier‘s summary of Neale Donald Walsch’s doctrine as expressed in the Conversations with God book 1:

The goal of your life is to seek what is Truth and Love (according to God’s messages of feelings (and I do not remember what)) and to recognize, re-member, find, choose, create, become and make the experience of Who You Are and Who You Want To Be. You do not have to seek knowledge (because you  already have knowledge, as a spirit connected to the Whole), but you have to act to express Who You Are without worrying about the result, because the result is assured: nothing is bad, nothing matters, nothing does oppose the will of God or escapes Him, because God is all, accepts all and will be always there to recover us.

Nothing comes by chance, all is the expression of a will by oneself, others, or the totality of the spirits of the universe. One does not have to want something from outside (as to want it is the assertion of a lack, a negative thought which has the spiritual power to be realized as a lack thus pushing away its satisfaction) but if something that we undergo does not reflect our Highest Idea of the life, one must endorse one’s responsibility by recognizing our unity of spiritual nature with those who caused it, and change our choices in order to bring us closer this Idea that we want to reflect.

Decision Making

I created this diagram to outline the CWG perspective on decision making.

God’s motive for creation - In Walsch’s first dialogue, God notes that “knowing” and “experiencing” oneself are different things. Before creation there was only That-Which-Is, which cannot know or experience itself fully, without something it is not. It cannot know itself as love, since nothing exists but love. It cannot know itself as giving since nothing else exists to give to. It cannot experience itself in myriad ways because everything is one.

Some parallels we see between Walsch’s god’s perspective and other religions are;

  • Souls reincarnate to eventually experience God-realization ([Hinduism]/’ ‘Bhagavad-Gita/Sikhism).
  • Feelings are more important as a source of guidance than intellect (Rousseau).
  • We are not here to learn anything new but to remember what we already know (Hinduism/Plato).
  • Physical reality is an illusion (Hinduism/ Sikhism/Buddhism‘s concept of maya).
  • One cannot understand one thing unless he or she understands its opposite (Tao Te Ching).
  • God is everything. (Hinduism / Spinoza / Brahman)
  • God is self-experiential, in that it is the nature of the Universe to experience itself. (Hinduism/Hegel, and process theology as first outlined by Alfred North Whitehead)
  • God is not fear-inducing or vengeful, only our parental projections onto God are. Fear or love are the two basic alternative perspectives on life (Drewermann)
  • Good and evil do not exist (as absolutes, but can exist in a different context and for different reasons as Nietzsche).
  • Reality is a representation created by will. (Schopenhauer)
  • Nobody knowingly desires evil. (Socrates)
  • It’s just a ride. (Bill Hicks)

In Favor of CWG

Evita Ochel of EvolvingBeings celebrates the book. She says, “I personally consider this one book, and it is “the book” that has helped me remember who I really am, why I am here and the greater purpose of it all. This is the book that changed my life, and began a huge spiritual shift within me, as well as marked the start of a very special journey of awakening for me.“

Aaron says, “I don’t know if Mr. Walsh is talking to God or not. I don’t really care. What I have read in these books has caused me to ask questions about my own belief system and ask questions about my understanding of me, God, and the Universe. The real treasure with this book and this trilogy, is that we are asked to question our understanding of our Self. We are asked to do the unthinkable and question the validity of organized religions. We are asked to question the direction of our life and determine if that direction will define Who We Really Are.”

Against CWG

Professor Donald Mitchell says, “The main thing I would like to say in the beginning is that this book shares some elements with Christianity, but is certainly not Christianity of the sort that most people will recognize. So if you do not like to read books that are at odds with your version of Christianity, avoid this one. It will be a one star book for you.”

The most unexpected part of the book for me was that the voice of God (as described in the book) is a very colloquial and humorous one. It is hard for me to equate this God with the God of Moses and Jesus Christ. But that may just be my limitation. To give you a flavor, the language is much like that in the George Burns movie of many years ago, Oh God.

Blogger, JPH found poor Biblical exegesis here and there, but nothing solid or worth reporting.

Here are some highlights from each book

Book 1

Cwg book 1 280 100 v1

Summary

From Amazon – Conversations with God Book 1 began a series that has been changing millions of lives for more than ten years. Finally, the bestselling series is now a movie, starring Henry Czerny (The Pink Panther and Clear and Present Danger) and Ingrid Boulting (The Last Tycoon). Produced and directed by Stephen Simon (producer of Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come) and distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Fox Home Entertainment, the theatrical release is set for October 27, 2006. The movie is the true account of Walsch (played by Cierny), who went from an unemployed homeless man to an “accidental spiritual messenger” and author of the bestselling book

Highlights

Here are some quotes;

  1. “So-do you want your life to ‘take off?’ Begin at once to imagine it the way you want it to be–and move into that. Check every thought, word, and action that does not fall into harmony with that. Move away from those.”
  2. “When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts–thoughts that negate your highest idea about a thing–think again! I want you to do this, literally. If you think you are in a doldrum, in a pickle, and no good can come of this, think again. If you think the world is a bad place, filled with negative events, think again. If you think your life is falling apart, and it looks as if you’ll never get it back together again, think again.”
  3. “There is nothing scary about life if you are not attached to the results.”
  4. “Choose, but don’t want. Think ‘I choose success,’ not ‘I want success.’”
  5. “There is nothing you cannot be, there is nothing you cannot do. There is nothing you cannot have.”
  6. “The most rapid way to change a root thought, or sponsoring idea, is to reverse the thought-word-deed process. Do the deed that you want to have the new thought about. Then say the words that you want to have your new thought about. Do this often enough and you’ll train the mind to think a new way.”

Book 2

Cwg book 2 280 100 v1

Summary

From Amazon - In Conversations with God: Book II, Neale Walsch and God resume their discussion and move on to larger topics than the personal issues addressed in their previous dialogue in Volume 1. For an “unedited transcript” of a conversation, Book II is remarkably well organized and articulate, as if Walsch anticipatd our “but what about” questions before we asked them. The peculiar pair discuss time, space, politics, and even kinky sex, but Conversations with God: Book II isn’t here for just shock value. It is an honest look at some of the broad issues important to all of us on the planet, and a suggestion of how things might go if we are all willing to open our minds and have our own conversations with divinity.

Book 3

Cwg book 3 280 100 v1

Summary

From Amazon - The dialogue expands . . . Conversations with God, Book 3 is the final book of the original three-book series. As was written in the introduction to Book 1, it deals with “universal truths of the highest order, and the challenges and opportunities of the soul.” In Book 3, the dialogue expands to include more about the nature of God, about love and fear, about Who We Are and who we may become, and about the evolution of the human species that is about to take its place in the universal neighborhood. Here is a profound dialogue about the culture, philosophy, and spirituality of highly evolved beings (some of whom we presently call “aliens” or “ETs”) in other realms of the universe, and how they have learned to view life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. By reading this book, you will begin to see life in a different way and begin to question the truth of what you have known on this planet: “And so I end this dialogue as it began. As with life itself, it comes full circle. You have been given truth here. You have been given joy. You have been given love. You have been given here the answers to the largest mysteries of life. There is now only one question remaining. It is the question with which we began. “The question is not, to whom do I talk, but who listens?”

Misc

There is a movie of Conversations With God, from 2006. It has an ‘after school special’ low-budget feel. I don’t recommend it.

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Book Review: The Guinea Pig Diaries

Excerpt from the book jacket:

In his role as human guinea pig, Jacobs fearlessly takes on a series of life-altering challenges that provides readers with equal parts insight and humor. (And which drives A.J.’s patient wife, Julie, to the brink of insanity.)

I loved The Guinea Pig Diaries, by A.J. Jacobs. It came into my life just yesterday – I spotted it while out shopping and couldn’t resist the title, especially since Jacobs’ The Know-It-All had been highly recommended by Carrie from Books and Movies (The Know-It-All is currently sitting in my to-be-read pile).

It’s rare that I decide to read a book on the day that I receive it; I’m such a moody reader, and my mood has to coincide with a book’s genre, plot and theme first. But late in the afternoon yesterday, I was feeling a little down, so I decided to read an essay or two from The Guinea Pig Diaries because I just didn’t feel in the mood for a novel.

What a ride those first few essays were! I couldn’t stop at just two essays; I ended up reading the entire book last night.. Did I say “feeling a little bit down”? It’s hard to stay down when you’re laughing out loud, and laugh out loud is exactly what I did while reading this book.

The charm of the book doesn’t stop there, though. Jacobs is very funny, but his words are more than pure comedy. He takes his experiments seriously, and writes about the insights he’s gained during the course of each experiment. Each essay ends with a Coda that talks about how the experience of the experiment itself has altered his life, for good or for bad.

And the experiments run such a wide range. There’s his outsourcing experiment, where he decides to spend a month outsourcing both his work and his personal life to a team out in Bangalore, India:

I had [Asha] call AT&T to ask about my cell phone plan. I’m just guessing, but I bet her call was routed from Bangalore to New Jersey and then back to an AT&T employee in Bangalore, which makes me happy for some reason.

Then there’s the month he decides to give Radical Honesty a try. Radical Honesty isn’t just about not lying; it also requires you to remove that filter from your brain and your mouth, so that you’re always – and that’s always – saying what you think:

One other thing is also becoming apparent: There’s a fine line between Radical Honesty and creepiness. Or actually no line at all. It’s simple logic: Men think about sex every three minutes, as the scientists at Redbook remind us. If you speak whatever’s on your mind, you’ll be talking about sex every three minutes.

There are other experiments, too. There’s the month he decides to live his life according to George Washington’s 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation; the month he gets a taste of what being a beautiful woman is like when he persuades his sons’ nanny to let him handle her online profile at a dating site; there’s the time actress Mary-Louise Parker agrees to write an essay for Esquire about what it feels like to pose naked (with an accompanying photo), provided Jacobs agrees to appear in the magazine naked too; and there’s the time he appeared at the Academy Awards disguised as a celebrity, for his “240 Minutes of Fame”.

My favourite piece, though? It’s a toss-up between “The Rationality Project” and “Whipped”. During Project Rationality, Jacobs decides to eliminate all cognitive biases from his brain for a month:

As one scientist puts it, we’ve got Stone Age minds living in silicon-age bodies. Our brains were formed to deal with Paleolithic problems. When my brain gets scared, it causes a spike in adrenaline, which might have been helpful when facing a mastodon but is highly counterproductive when facing a snippy salesman at the Verizon outlet.

What I liked most about “The Rationality Project” was the aftereffect Jacobs experienced as a result. There’s something that’s so appealing to me about letting go of the assumptions we make all too readily about various situations in life, and Jacobs highlights some real long-term benefits of his experiment.

In “Whipped”, Jacobs decides to go along with readers’ suggestions that he make it up to his wife for all that she has  had to put up with during the course of his quirky quests and experiments:

I need to pay Julie back in a more appropriate fashion. I need to spend a month doing everything my wife says. She will be boss. I will be her devoted servant. It will be a month, they say, of foot massages and talking about feelings and scrubbing dishes and watching Kate Hudson movies (well, if Julie actually liked Kate Hudson movies, which she doesn’t).

How could I not enjoy reading about that? Jacobs was figuring that his wife would get bored of being in charge. Do I even need to say it? That didn’t happen.

I loved The Guinea Pig Diaries. It was funny, yes, but each essay also made me think. And to me, that’s essay writing at its best.

I’m very eager now to read Jacobs’ The Know It All – or at least, I would be, if it weren’t for the fact that he misspelled Wayne Gretzky’s name in that book (and that is an inside joke you’ll only get once you’ve read The Guinea Pig Diaries).

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Filed Under: Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Reviews


Book Review: Blink

In 1983, an art dealer approached the Getty Museum in California with an ancient Greek statue called a kouros — a sculpture of a male youth — in remarkably good condition. Naturally the museum conducted in-depth tests to determine whether the statue was genuine. It passed all of the scientific and technical tests to determine its authenticity, but when it was shown to expert geologists and art collectors, they identified it as a fake in seconds. The Getty later discovered that they were right.

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell’s second consecutive national bestseller, examines those first, crucial seconds.

“There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis,” writes Galdwell, who is also a staff writer for The New Yorker. His book asks the question: What would happen if we took those instincts seriously?

Blink comes replete with real-life examples of a phenomenon that Gladwell dubs “thin-slicing.” When we thin-slice, he says, our minds take extremely small samples of data and somehow find patterns or keys that we use to draw broad conclusions. In fact, he argues, we do it all the time. It is why car salesmen tend to start their prices higher with women than with men, even when claiming no gender bias. And it is how psychologist John Gottman can analyze a couple for fifteen minutes and predict with 90% accuracy whether or not they will still be married fifteen years later.

As the book progresses, Gladwell challenges his readers’ assumptions regarding the human decision-making process. He writes about the United States military’s 2002 Millennium Challenge, a massive war game that pitted Blue Team (the “good guys”) against Red Team (the “bad guys”). In the scenario, designers outfitted Blue Team not only with superior armies but also with a complete rational analysis of its opponent’s abilities, likely moves, and communications. Red Team, on the other hand, represented a rogue commander in the Middle East threatening to start a war in the region. Despite having a numerical, statistical, and intelligence advantage, Blue Team suffered a severe defeat.

Gladwell attributes Red Team’s victory to its choice of unpredictable methods — for example, using World War II lighting signals and letters in place of radio communications — and to the rogue team’s snap-judgment and ingenuity in the heat of battle. In the face of such tactics, Blue Team’s vast collection of information proved to be a handicap.

From this, the author concludes that too much information can confuse our decision-making. When we have to completely explain everything we do, he says, it hampers the effectiveness of our unconscious thinking. Hidden deep inside us is an instinct born out of experience. Sometimes it is better to go into a situation partially blind, he argues, because too much information overloads our consciousness and prevents our minds from acting on our mysterious, but powerful, unconscious reasoning.

Gladwell’s strength as a writer shines throughout Blink. He has a knack for emphasizing specific points or drawing parallels without being overbearing. In fact, it seems that the more Gladwell emphasizes something the more curious we become. Every chapter engages the reader by beginning with several pages of a dramatic, real-life example. When seeing the war game between Red Team and Blue Team unfold, for instance, one wonders what lesson the author will draw out of it.

Blink also succeeds on a literary level because Gladwell always writes with a specific concreteness in his prose. Even when discussing abstract concepts that could easily turn the book into a theoretical mess, he tackles the information with a wonderful balance of sophisticated intelligence and down-to-earth simplicity. All of his claims come from real-life examples, and every important person that Gladwell interviews he also physically describes, so the reader can form a more visual, comprehensive picture. Instead of writing another psychological study or treatise on social theory, Gladwell writes for the common man living in the real world.

Blink’s pleasant readability has only one hiccup. In his chapter-six discussion of the manifestation of emotions in facial expressions, Gladwell suddenly starts using very technical — and unhelpful — muscle terminology. The reader must trudge through sentences like this: “The inner brow raiser (frontalis, pars medialis) plus the brow-lowering depressor supercilii plus the levator palpebrae superioris (which raises the upper lid) plus the risorius…” In this section I found myself skipping over his long descriptions of which facial muscles were moving because it felt too tedious to follow. In context with the rest of Blink, it seemed quite out of character.

It would be easy for skeptics to doubt the conclusions of Gladwell’s research. Just because thin-slicing is true for marriage, one might argue, doesn’t mean it’s true across the entire board of human snap-judgments. I found some of Gladwell’s experimental findings and statistics tended to raise questions about the details — questions that are never really answered. This is especially true with claims that I found hard to believe at first glance. For instance, Gladwell writes that something as trivial as indicating their race on a test can lower the performance of black students. That’s not something I wanted to accept right away. His use of such specific and diverse examples made me wonder whether any research goes against such findings. If such studied exist, he never brings them up.

That said, Gladwell has a knack for turning the tables on readers who may not like a given conclusion. By exposing the “dark side” of snap-judgments, like a racial bias in our unconscious, he provides hope for solving these problems.
Rather than fear our hidden unconscious, Gladwell encourages readers to harness the “power of thinking without thinking.”

Those who enjoyed The Tipping Point will probably enjoy Blink as well, as it follows in the spirit of understanding the world in order to make it a better place. Anyone interested in the realities of human thinking would do well to pick up Blink. It might surprise you just how wrong — and how right — we humans can be.

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Filed Under: Personal Growth, Reviews


Book Review: New Economy Superstar (Free)

I’m very proud today to present to you this new free eBook entitled New Economy Superstar.

This is the first book I’ve published here at Free Pursuits, and I hope you enjoy it. My goal for the book is to help people become aware of the tremendous change and opportunity going on in the way people live and work.

Technology, outsourcing, the recent global economic meltdown and a growing desire of workers to take control of their own future is giving small businesses and individuals advantages over big businesses that hasn’t existed before.

I’m convinced that this change will be the biggest opportunity of this generation. This could be your chance to live a happier, wealthier, more independent life.

What’s in the Book?

  • Why the New Economy is the biggest opportunity of this generation
  • How small businesses and individuals are beating big businesses
  • Who the Superstars of the New Economy are and how to join them
  • How the benefits of the New Economy will enable your dream lifestyle
  • 10 essential tips for succeeding in the New Economy and how to get started

I’m very happy to have included fantastic guest contributions in the book from Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Guillebeau, Chris Garrett, Lea Woodward, Jonathan Mead, Adam Baker, John Bardos, Colin Wright and Andrew MacPherson.

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Filed Under: Business 101, Personal Growth, Reviews


Book Review: The Monk who sold his Ferrari

Much has been written about this book “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma and I am not surprised. You can either like this book or hate it, but you cannot ignore it. Before I begin this review, I must honestly admit that I am skeptical of self-help books which harp about “Leaving things to the forces of the Universe”. Yet, if one reads such books with an open mind, there are lessons that one can adopt, even as one chooses to ignore certain things that don’t make practical sense. The Monk who sold his Ferrari is one such book. I can almost call it spiritual pop. But, yes, who says that you do not have the freedom to pick and choose and adopt those ideas that do make practical sense and can turn your life for the better?

This book begins with the story of Julian Mantle, a successful lawyer who quite simply suffers a burn-out. He survives a heart attack, drops out of the rat race, sells his possessions – including his Ferrari and sets off on a journey (albeit to India) to find out life’s true meaning. Years later when he returns and meets his former associate, another advocate, he is a changed man – both physically and mentally. He has learned some valuable lessons from mythical Himalayan sages which he shares with his former associate (and the readers).

Julian tells his former associate a parable. How can a garden, a lighthouse, a sumo wrestler, a pink wire cable, a shiny gold stopwatch, fresh yellow roses and a winding path of diamonds be interlinked? Well they are.

Much as I hated the naïve dialogue in this book between Julian and his former associate, the best part of this book are the action steps provided at the end of each chapter. Now let us turn to the mysterious objects and find out how they are linked and how they can make our life more meaningful.

The Garden: The garden, in this book is the symbol of the mind. The key lies to banish all negative thoughts, to concentrate on definite meaningful objectives and to remove inner turbulence. Like most other such books, this chapter adds, find your real purpose in life then act on it. It even suggests that you can take risks and give up your profession for something you truly love. I guess, this is not always possible, even as one can try and attain a work-life balance through some sacrifices on the work front and find time for their passions, be it music or painting or writing or family time.

The gems that one can take away from this chapter is to learn to focus on the present, to keep negative thoughts at bay, imagine yourself as you want to be and to run your own race.

Practical tips: “A worrisome thought is like an embryo. It starts off small but grows and grows. Soon it takes on a life of its own”, explains Julian. He wears a necklace around his neck. Whenever, he is unable to shake off a negative thought, he removes one bead and puts it away in a cup. This reminds me of the “Worry dolls” traditionally made in Guatemala. According to folklore, the doll is thought to worry in the person’s place, when placed under the pillow at night. This permits a person to sleep peacefully and wake up without their worries, which have been taken away by the dolls during the night. Yes, this habit of banishing negative thoughts is worth a try, because endless worrying saps energy, it prevents us from focusing on our dreams and attaining it.

The Lighthouse: “The purpose of life is a life of purpose” says Julian. Clearly defined priorities and goals in every aspect of your life will serve a role similar to that played by a lighthouse, offering you guidance and refuge when the seas become rough. You should clearly know what aims you wish to achieve over the course of your life, be they material, emotional physical or spiritual and you must then manifest this vision into reality by consistent action.

From a practical point of view, this begins with goal setting. Julian says that accomplishing little feats will prepare us for realizing the big ones. There is nothing wrong with mapping out a full range of small goals in the process of planning your bigger roles. Above all, he says: Stay spirited, joyful and curious.

Practical tips: Julian explains the steps as below

  1. Have a clear vision of your outcome;
  2. Create positive pressure to keep you inspired (something as simple as telling your best friend that you want to lose 5 lbs by the end of the month so that he/she can encourage you towards this goal);
  3. Set precise doable time-lines to your goals;
  4. Commit you goal to paper. Prepare a “Dream Book”. You can have different sections for different goals – viz: physical fitness, financial, personal empowerment, relationship/social, spiritual. Fill it with pictures of things you desire, of people whom you wish to emulate;
  5. Stay with your goal for the first twenty-one days and soon it will become a habit (for example: an early morning walk).

The Sumo Wrestler: The Sumo wrestler is a constant reminder of the power of kaizen, the Japanese word for self-expansion and progress. Here the key take away is that we must learn to live out of our comfort zone to realise our fullest potential. “The only limits on your life are those that you set for yourself. When you dare to get out of the circle of your comfort and explore the unknown you begin to liberate your true human potential” says Julian. This chapter then goes on to explain ten rituals of radiant living – from spending some time everyday in solitude, to vegetarianism, to getting up early, to reading.

Practical tips: I think the concept of stepping out of your comfort zone is an important point. It could be something as simple as conquering one’s fear of public speaking. It need not be something as drastic as giving up your career to pursue something else. Even as the author says, that if you truly believe that an alternate career will bring you joy, go for it. Thus identify your fears, chalk out how you can conquer them and work on them everyday. For example, if you are scared of public speaking, join a study circle which also includes several of your friends, participate actively in that, and then move on to a wider audience.

A pink wire cable: The sumo wrestler had donned a pink wire cable. It denotes the power of self control and discipline in building a richer, happier and more enlightened life. Alone, each strand of wire is very weak. But a cable which comprises of several strands of wires is tough and strong. To build up an iron will it is essential to routinely perform tiny acts and build up an abundance of inner strength. Inner strength enables you to tackle whatever life throws your way.

Practical tips: Start up doing the things that you know you must be doing, or which are good for you, but you find it difficult to do. Like waking up early and going for that morning walk. Small victories lead to larger victories. Once a bench mark has been attained, raise the benchmark higher. Soon you will be doing things you never knew you were capable of doing with an energy you never knew you possessed.

A shiny gold stop watch: This was a symbol of our most important commodity – time. Time mastery in short is life mastery. Julian reiterated the well known phrase that: 80 per cent of the results we achieve in life come from only 20 per cent of the activities that occupy our time. Julian called for a holistic system of time management that encompassed not only life at the work place, but life per se. He advised that we should keep away from time thieves who for flimsy reasons eat into our time. It is also essential to simplify our life and to savor each and every moment as if today will be our last day.

Practical tips: Time management may sometimes necessitate saying -No. When someone calls for an idle chat while you want to finish your report, learn to say No. When dragged in all directions, prioritize. Keep time for yourself, for your family. Build a time table which includes everything, not just the client appointment, but the trip to the doctor, or the parent-teachers meeting. What is high priority is something you alone can decide for yourself, use time judiciously; after all, no one has more than 24 hours a day.

Fresh yellow roses: A Chinese proverb says: A little bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gave you roses. When you practice random acts of kindness daily, you enrich yourself. Think less of yourself as an individual and more as a member of the universe to which you belong. Julian brought out the true meaning of inclusiveness and friendship in this chapter.

Practical tips: Cultivate richer relationships. How about taking the new joinee to the lunch room? Or helping the technically challenged colleague to help fix the printer? Or volunteer at the local NGO during your spare time? In short, help others smile, and they shall smile back at you.

A winding path of diamonds: This signified ‘enlightened living’. Julian explained that: Happiness is a journey. We can either marvel at the diamonds along the way or can keep running all day chasing that elusive pot of god at the end of the rainbow that ultimately reveals itself to be empty. In other words, we need to live in the now!

Practical tips: Practice gratitude and live in the now. Perhaps you could keep a journal where you note down daily whatever you have been grateful for during the course of that day. The size of your car, or your house, or for that matter your bank balance cannot buy you happiness. The size of the gratitude that you experience everyday can.

Conclusion:

Although I cannot give this book my highest rating, Julian in one of the chapters says: “You need not apply every strategy to make your life work. Try the techniques and use those that feel right to you”. This makes a lot of sense, even as not everything in this book does.

You may well ask, what was the reason for bringing in the Sumo wrestler or the pink wire cable, or for that matter the lighthouse? Well, these were just mind clues. The more bizarre a clue, greater are you likely to remember it, and perhaps even practice it. So take those baby steps, towards a better YOU.

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Filed Under: Lifestyle Design, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Reviews