Self-Help ?

My husband sees the books that I have lying around the house and most of the recent ones are of the 'self-help' variety. He asked me on the weekend, "Why?"

I guess he feels that I am "just fine" so why do I feel the need to buy these books for guidance?

As I get older, various ailments have entered my life and I am of the mind to deal with them without prescriptions for medication.  Every pill that we take to cure something, has repercussions.  The self-help books have helped me to deal with the changes that have occurred in my life both physically and mentally. 

If you suddenly learn that you have a disease, no matter how common, your perception of yourself changes and some people find much needed support in the "self-help" section. When someone in your life dies, you are left with many feelings that you may not be comfortable talking about with a friend. I myself found reading the stories of others, to be just what I needed at one of those moments in my life.

I personally love to learn from the people who are walking a similar path to mine. How did they cope? What did they do?

I have yoga books and meditation books lying all about the living room and my husband was most curious about meditation and why would I want to do this.  I explained to him that the wonderful thing about meditation is it teaches us to slow down and hopefully learn to direct the mind chatter. When you meditate, your mind is far from quiet. It wants to go off in all sorts of directions but learning to focus back on something real and concrete like your breath, helps us to stop from making simple facts, into overwhelming fictional stories. I tend to spin things into complicated webs and then I suffer, worrying about what I have dreamt up. 

Meditation practice is teaching me to deal with the here and now and as a result, I am calmer and better able to handle tough situations.  Sometimes when we get a new diagnosis on our health, we start to worry about 'what if' scenarios.  This in turn can literally make us 'sick with worry.'  So in my case, I found that by turning to self-help books I have learned wonderful strategies for coping with life. 

That is why I have become a fan of this genre. 

If you have never wandered into this section of the book store, give it a try.  You may find exactly what you need.

Have a great day.
Beth