There have been so many books to influence my life and way of thinking. My first ‘self-help’ book was ‘A Road less travelled’ by M. Scott Peck. It was this line which is early on in the book:
Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult.
At this age of 19, this blew my mind. I had a sense of entitlement that being a ‘good person’ should mean I got an easy time of this ‘life thing’. It leads me to wonder why it had to be difficult? That’s when my growth journey started.
The next book might not be an obvious choice. ‘Tale of the body thief’ by Anne Rice. In this one of the vampier books, Lestat, now a human not a vampier meet a nurse. She tells the story about how she used to play the piano, brilliantly. Due to a circumstance, she made a deal with God to give up the piano and ‘do Gods work’ healing people as a nurse. Lestat asks her if she thinks that music can heal people just as much if not more than a nurse. This got me thinking about preventative wellbeing. How the arts and culture can boost your munge system. I then started researching that. At the time I was working in theatre and thinking about leaving that industry to ‘help’ people. I switch direction and took ‘stand-up comedy’ into my personal development teaching.
Finally a New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. By this time I was writing my own books. I read this when I came back from living in San Francisco and I was at the editing stage of my book ‘You do know – Learnt to act on intuition instantly. In the foreword of this book, Eckhart explains that he had to leave London to write this book and went to San Francisco. I’d had the same calling. My book came about due to a conversation with a librarian who was at CIIS where I was a student. She was even clear on what the title would be long before Hay House had agreed on it. I found out later this lady had edited a New Earth. Another mind-blowing moment. I know people rave about ‘The power of now’, but to me, a New Earth is such a powerful book. If you haven’t read it, do.
