Books That Could Change Your Life....FOREVER!

There aren’t many of us that reach adulthood, unscathed, well balanced and well adjusted human beings. Virtually all of us at one time or another, will have events that make us sit up, take stock and look really hard and deeply at our lives. We can choose to hide away in the hopes that if we ignore it, it will go away. It doesn’t! It may take many years to rear it’s ugly head and the world feels like it’s crashing down around you. Those who bury their inner most pains, fears, sadness, anger, resentments and many other negative feelings can suffer terribly with anxiety, depression or even worse a complete and absolute nervous breakdown.

On my blog I try and be as open and honest as I can. Hopefully connecting to others and hopefully identifying ways of thinking, feeling and changing our beliefs about ourselves and life in general. We are after all, human beings with many, many emotions, some good, some bad….but at the end of the day, whatever we go through can lead to one of two things, either you’re a survivor or a victim. Be assured though, whatever your weaknesses either now or in the past, you are not alone. I hope by wearing my heart on my sleeve you may find help, inspiration, comfort and support.

We all have challenging situations in life, all through our lives. We all have to face up to our inner selves at some point in order to grow. Some of the most painful and frightening situations in our lives are the greatest teachers. With this in mind, I want to share with you, the 5 most important books that changed my life, my way of thinking and probably set me on a wonderful path of self discovery that I share with others on a regular basis. I hope that this particular blog entry comes just at the right time to help even just one person….for if it does, it will be time well spent. I hope to blog more about this over the next few weeks and for far too long, it’s where I’ve wanted my blog to go. To motivate, to heal, to inspire. I could post these on a separate blog, but feel that my main blog is where people will find it most readily. Anyway….on with the post……

YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE
At 23 I was diagnosed with pre cancerous cells of the cervix. Pretty terrifying at any age, but with a 4 year old son….even more frightening. For 3 years I was told that there was nothing to worry about, and the cells could change back just as quickly. Then after repeated smears and regular check ups, they decided, well actually, we were probably wrong and you need a hysterectomy. Yeah right! Like hell I thought!
The book You Can Heal Your Life was a particularly hard one for me to read, but I found it fascinating as to how our thoughts, beliefs, fears, anxieties and anger etc. can actually lead to a physical condition, basically that I caused this on myself! Some of the book I was ready to accept, some not, some I accept now later in years, some I will never accept (and that’s my choice). However, probably the most valuable thing I learnt from the book was the power of Affirmation. Something I am still really big on today (more about this coming soon).
(read some of the book here) By the way.... just for the record...I was clear of cancer after 1 year of diagnosis with minimal treatment and have been clear ever since. While I do not advise anyone to try this route, in my case it was an option and one that I decided to take. Fortunately it worked for me.

YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE LUXURY OF A NEGATIVE THOUGHT
Just after reading this book I came across another called You Can’t Afford The Luxury of a Negative Thought. With the subheading of: For People With Life Threatening Illnesses, including life itself! I learnt many things from this book and it’s an easy one to dip in and out of. It’s been well used over the years (as have all these books I recommend!) But one of the most important things I learnt, is that if you have an illness, and one person has survived, there is no reason why you should not be the second. If no one has survived, then there’s no reason you should not be the first. This philosophy was to be proved with my long term pen friend, who had such a severe form of cancer, he should basically have been dead before he saw the consultant! As the longest anyone had survived this cancer was 6 months. I talked to him, sent him a copy of the book and kept in regular contact. He went down in the Lancet Magazine as the longest survivor of Oats cancer, living a further 8 years and dying at the grand old age of 88!

LIVING MAGICALLY
Then a chance meeting with a friend who called round for coffee, showed me the book Living Magically by Gill Edwards. A book based on metaphysics and self awareness which was to open many avenues and doors for me, and enabled me to once again look at the bigger picture and tackle the demons within. It was probably the beginning of my spiritual journey as I know it today and lead to many, many paths of self discovery. It’s not fluffy or super spiritual hocus pocus nonsense, just a good all round starting point for anyone wanting to see past the world we live in and explore new ways of thinking.
(You can browse some of the book by clicking here)

CREATIVE VISUALISATION
Along side all these books on self awareness, taking responsibility for my mental, emotional and physical health and well being came the deep need to learn to meditate. I had tried so many times to meditate but found it so hard to quieten the mind, still those thoughts and cut out the outside world. After reading and trying just one of the exercises (the pink bubble technique) I found that at last I could meditate and visualise to the extent that where I ended up, I didn’t want to come back from! Lol. The Book Creative Visualisation worked well with the other self help/self awareness books I was reading and more and more I was committing myself to take charge of myself and my own health. Some of the tools I still use today and get others to practice too, if you want to see more (read some of the book here)

FEEL THE FEAR....And do it anyway!
Feel The Fear….and do it anyway is another book I advocate. It’s a fantastic motivator which helps you move through your fears whether money, relationship, you job or other situations which hold you back in life. The aim of the book is to offer readers a path of re-learning, by means of which they can get rid of faulty thinking, feel the fear and push through it to turn anger into love and indecision into action.

SELF ESTEEM AND PEAK PERFORMANCE
I suffered severely with S.A. D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and Winters were a nightmare. Every year was the same. Once the light started to fail and the weather grew colder, my moods became so low I was probably borderline suicidal. Only sufferers of this disorder can identify with the absolute disperse that this condition brings and the abject misery that it inflicts not only on ourselves, but those around us.
I didn’t read a book by Jack Canfield, but listened relentlessly to an audio set of about 8 tapes. I listened to them back to back day in and day out while I worked. The audio book was called ‘Self Esteem and Peak Performance’. It was primarily as a sales and marketing tool but very bound up with the Self Esteem side of things. His audio books are now available to the wider public (click here for a list). Jack Canfield is now recognised as one of Americas leading motivational and life coaches. One of the ‘old school’ who probably inspired most of today’s self healing and self awareness coaches all over the world. Jack has also written or co written Chicken Soup FOR The Soul, which many of you will be more familiar.

So I share with you these books in the hope that they help someone somewhere. You are not alone. Learning about self awareness, self improvement and self help techniques to get you through is not a sign of weakness, on the contrary, it’s a sign of strength. I’m not saying that by learning and reading these books will prevent you from ever suffering again. We cannot avoid crisis’s happening. Crisis is not dependant on how rich you are, how healthy you are or how good and or clean you live your life. The just happen…to everyone at some time of other. What you will gain however are methods and tools to help guide you through, tackle those unwanted thoughts and behaviour patterns that hold you back and give you the chance to live your life in joy, happiness and wisdom.