Confessions of a NY Times Bestseller reader.

I am a reading a New York Times Bestselling self help book.

I have been handed many a self-help book in my short time in this planet.  Most of them are about efficiency, learning faster, kicking procrastination, and have all been assigned by a class.

I have read none of them.

I imagine the people that subscribe to the #1 New York Times Bestseller self help book.  They know everything.  They know how to fix my life before they meet me.  They wear Bananna Republic and read the Red-Eye and have a yoga membership that they use twice a month.  And all their yoga gear has that weird sperm looking thing on it because it is from that special yoga store in Lincoln Park.

I hate these people.

But Nivan handed this book my way.  I respect him.  I gave it a chance.  This morning, I let the commute to work fill me up.  I passed no judgment.  I stood back and ‘observed my physical and mental self’.

I need to tell you that implementing the strategies in the first two chapters of this book have already yielded positive results.  Basically, the book tells you to stop thinking compulsively and live in the now.  The now is all we have.  It’s all about that esoteric ‘let the universe fill you up’ stuff. 

Usually this tone is out of my reach.  I can’t take it seriously.  But:

I am ready to write a novel and I am calmer than I have been in weeks and I feel like I could take on the world.

Try it.

If you are thinking compulsively (meaning that you are worrying about the past or future or passing judgment in the present moment) step back and observe your mind doing this.  Your mind will stop and you will be free to experience the present moment.  It is pretty amazing.

Maybe it’s because I put some Patchouli oil on my wrist at the co-op yesterday…

Anyway, the book is called The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.  At the very least, it has cleared up some writer’s block.