We are only ever up against one thing in life - the content of our own minds.
Yet we are not taught about our amazing minds in school? This thing we use all day every day for our entire lives.
It is vital to understand how we humans work or we are literally bound to unnecessarily suffer and struggle with life.
In this book, you will uncover your innate mental health and wellbeing. You will realise you CAN effortlessly create a life you love.
No not tomorrow, but TODAY. Starting right now...
We are only ever up against one thing in life - the content of our own minds.
Yet we are not taught about our amazing minds in school? This thing we use all day every day for our entire lives.
It is vital to understand how we humans work or we are literally bound to unnecessarily suffer and struggle with life.
In this book, you will uncover your innate mental health and wellbeing. You will realise you CAN effortlessly create a life you love.
No not tomorrow, but TODAY. Starting right now...
No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Alan Watts
We are probably similar, you and I. We tend to want to be somewhere we are not. For most of us, there is a compelling and imaginary life waiting, where we are finally secure and content. Where we are happily doing all the cool, exciting stuff we would like to be doing. It’s so tantalisingly close, but have you noticed it never quite feels like we are there yet?
I struggled for many years. I didn’t like feeling bad, so I searched for solutions in the world. I made unhealthy and healthy choices to feel better temporarily. When nothing really worked, this led to more insecure feelings of failure and anxiety. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, so I was playing catch up. I began to imagine that I needed to be someone who didn’t look like me, who had things I didn’t have and did things I wasn’t doing. Then I would feel better. I was always busy yet also weirdly stuck. I could not understand why life often felt so damn hard.
Like me, you have probably done your absolute best to do and achieve MORE.
If I could just get this… Just have that… Just do this next thing... Then life will be all good. THEN I can relax.
There is lots of great advice to help us do life better. And yes, it may be helpful to create routines, work smarter, meditate, exercise, eat well, enjoy less screen time, sleep better, etcetera. I’m sure you have tried some of these things. But if you are tired of struggling to ‘be better’ and you are as fed up with being fed up as I was, then you are in a great position: you know what it is not to feel ok—AND you know you don’t have to feel that way. You have hope. That is your wisdom, leading you here to the answers you have been looking for. I will show you it CAN be another way.
This is a book about how we are perfectly positioned to overcome our struggles and thrive. Unlike many other methods, the goal is to take stuff OFF our minds, not add more things we ‘should’ be doing to the mental party.
We will get to the root of what stops us lovely human beings from fulfilling our potential and enjoying ourselves. I’m pretty sure it’s the elusive secret of life. Simply put, we are only ever up against one thing, and it is hidden right before our very eyes… Our own minds.
Understanding how our beautiful, creative minds work will help us in every area, especially where we struggle. Unfortunately, we are not taught about our minds in school; this most precious resource we use all day, every day, every second we are alive. Yet everything we need or want is found in the perfect system that generates our psychological experience.
When we come to appreciate the genius within us, we realise we get to create anything we want in life. We begin to look in the mirror, into our infinite irises, honouring and respecting the person we see because there is so much more to us than meets the eye.
Miracles do happen within us and all around us, all the time. But we tend to overlook them and focus on what’s wrong and where life doesn’t feel good. It does not need to be that way. So, let’s get ourselves back on track, skipping down the yellow brick road of life and creating wonderful miracles. But first, are you open to a simple miracle?
What would be a miracle?
We create space for something new to flow in by asking ourselves questions. You have picked up this book and started to read it; try to get a sense of what you would love to have. Is there one thing you would like clarity on or to change? We don’t need to know ‘how’ it will happen yet; this is an invitation to dream big. What would be a miracle for you?
Allow yourself to get curious and open to the possibility that making miraculous changes might even be quite simple! After all, if now is always and magically new, then we don’t know what will happen in 5 minutes, let alone five years. Right now, is the only place we can step out of our current ideas of what is possible into the unknown and create something new. When we settle down and discover the magic of getting present to this precious moment, we won’t need to worry about the past or future. We are ok, just as we are.
Life is short, so ideally, it would be less of a struggle and way more fun. Let’s go on a ride and untangle you from the things holding you back. Free you up to fly by the seat of your pants. No, not tomorrow, later, next week, or in the new year. Starting wherever you are, here and now. Let’s understand what is getting in the way of you living a life you love. What exactly are you up against in life?
NOW IS NEW. Stop Struggling. Start Living. How to effortlessly create a life you love is a self-help guide that provides a reset point; asking its intended audience to take the time out to place themselves on pause, reflect on problem areas and gradually move to a place where they can change their attitudes and ultimately overcome them. The book is aimed towards the young person market, an age demographic that can be challenging to tackle.
Chidiac's publication is filled with metaphors and anecdotes, which is incredibly useful when translating some of the more challenging concepts into easy-to-understand situations and scenarios. It was great to see the author making efforts to remove the stigma of there being a right or wrong way to process emotions, and the addition of simple line drawings help with making the content informal and visual so as to keep it engaging throughout.
The book is easily digestible and as you move through the chapters you feel a sense of progress acclimating in the final chapter "creating our next steps" where the author neatly summarises the content, reminding the reader that the pace of self-improvement is gradual and anything but quick. "The first step is not to become a YouTube star," Chidiac says, "...[but] opening the app. Then, maybe we could create an account."
This publication could have been improved in its placement of reflection exercises. Often the reader is recommended to undertake a mini-exercise in the middle of a chapter, such as completing part-started sentences or pausing to reflect or mediate. They are contained in the body of the text, often sandwiched between two analogies and an inspirational quote. There was times I became so engaged with the exercise that afterwards I lost my engagement of the content contained in that section. Reflection exercises would have sat better at the end of each chapter or at a clear break-point.
The book would have benefitted from consumer or editorial feedback on tone of voice. While agreeable on the whole, at points copy dipped into the overly familiar and I wasn't too convinced by the use of curse words for something aimed at young adults, even if they were concealed by use of asterisks. I would also have liked to have seen a clear statement of this book's intended readership age range in the introduction.
A nifty book that provides young people with a gentle introduction to self-betterment.
AEB Reviews