Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged self-help

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

I am not the biggest fan of self-help books. I began reading this book to validate the quarter-life crisis I have been having for quite some time. My definition of a quarter-life crisis is a person who, in his or her twenties, realizes they have been sleeping through their lives while fulfilling the dreams of their parents, culture, or class. Consequently, they awake into a reality that has nothing to do with what they really want, creating a critical turning point brought on at the speed of warp. I am in my thirties and what can I say, I’m a late bloomer.

Boyfriend University: Take Advantage of Your Man and Learn While You Can

In 1994 I was sitting around a bonfire in my combat boots and a thrift store granny dress, drinking homebrew and wondering how many years it had been since I’d used a razor, when someone handed me a pamphlet from the 1930s about how to be a “good wife.” And I couldn’t believe what I was seeing—it was demeaning and yet terribly serious all at once, and we laughed with a combination of horror and relief that the world had changed so much since our grandmothers were young.  This particular memory came flooding back to me when I received _[Boyfriend University](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/

Emotional Bullshit: The Hidden Plague That Is Threatening to Destroy Your Relationships—And How to Stop It

Emotional bullshit, however far flung, rarely consists of strategies for conflict aversion. Carl Alasko’s Emotional Bullshit: The Hidden Plague that Is Threatening to Destroy Your Relationships—And How to Stop It consists of strategies for identifying and replacing those habits.

My So-Called Freelance Life

Goodman has been freelancing for sixteen years at the time of publication. From the jump, her writing is accessible and fun. The follow-up to the somewhat well known The Anti-9-5 Guide: Practical Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube, Goodman is once again onto something. What other how-to guides (repeatedly) use phrases like “get this freelance party started”?

Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help

From Freud’s creation of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology by means of talk therapy, to spilling one’s guts on Oprah’s couch or skyping into her soul series webcast, we all just really want to know (dammit!): who am I and why am I here? Saving the Modern Soul examines the language and practice of psychology, essentially, from an American cultural perspective.

Your Life Your Way: The Essential Guide for Women

Think life ends when turning fifty? Writers Lynn Hull and Julie Molner believe it’s only the beginning when dreams become reality. In Your Life Your Way: The Essential Guide for Women, these professional co-active coaches want every woman to push aside their insecurities and stand up for a more satisfying life.

Practically Perfect in Every Way: My Adventures through the World of Self-Help—and Back

As a person who has always been suspicious of self-help culture in all of its forms—from the traditional I’m Ok, You’re Ok quick-fix-for-life bestsellers, to the recent influx of mega-preachers and spiritually informed The Secret-style fads—I was grateful and delighted to discover Jennifer Niesslein’s debut non-fiction book, Practically Perfect in Every Way: My Misadventures Through the World of Self-Help—and Back. Jennifer tracks her readers through a two year experiment in which she follows, verbatim, the advice of our country’s most popular self-help gurus.

HELP! I'm Living with a (Man) Boy

Seems like writer and feminist psychotherapist Betty McLellan has heard my cries. Help! I’m Living with a (Man) Boy tackles what really needs to happen in dealing with the men (or boys) in your life.

Hip Tranquil Chick: A Guide to Life On and Off the Yoga Mat

I don’t know about you, but for me, being a girl today is hard work. The stress of relationships, working, trying to stay healthy, managing a meager financial budget and just trying to figure out what to do with the rest of your life is strenuous and draining work for the body, mind and spirit. Luckily, Kimberly Wilson’s Hip Tranquil Chick is the modern girl’s guide to feeling strong, chic and ready to take on the world. In this book, Wilson breaks down the philosophy of yoga and how it can be applied to enrich your everyday life—on and off the mat.

On My Own: The Art of Being a Woman Alone

In today’s society, there’s no shortage of dialogue from women about the downfalls and loneliness of being single. Romance and the stability and reciprocal affection it brings is arguably one of the most fundamental desires for many. On My Own reconstructs what is means to be a woman alone, and emphasizes the value of solitude.

Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws

Kate Bornstein has for two decades inspired fans and readers by mixing feminist sensibility, queer theory, performance art and personal experience. That Hello, Cruel World is heart-felt and friendly reflects parentage by Lutheran minister and 1939’s Miss Betty Crocker.

Life Skills: Improve the Quality of Your Life with Metapsychology

Life Skills serves as a great introduction to the nebulous field of metapsychology, a variation on the newly popular field of positive psychology. The book attempts to use the tools of psychoanalysis to provide a guide for emotional self-improvement. And it succeeds.

The Complete Being: Finding and Living the Real You

The Dalai Lama once said, “Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” In her book, The Complete Being, Tami Brady echoes this mantra. Approaching the subject from an anthropological perspective, Brady adeptly ties our present identity crisis to the gradual loss of a cultural identity. In her examination, she discusses four aspects required to become a “complete being”: mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical.

If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

As a writer, I was excited about reading and reviewing Brenda Ueland’s book, If You Want to Write. I thought that it would give me helpful tips on honing my craft. The book is full of tips, but not the kind I had expected. Subtitled “A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit,” the book is more philosophical than anything else.

Life After Your Lover Walks Out: A Practical Guide

This is, indeed, a practical guide; think of it as a seventy-nine-page crash-course on how to get over a breakup. Bevan, a fifty-nine-year-old charity manager and radio relationship counselor who is on her third marriage, makes no bones about her own past relationships. Throughout this short book, one feels as if Bevan, who lives in Wales, is coaching the reader by saying that if she has gotten through relationship bumps, they can too.

The Woman’s Belly Book

The title made me laugh. After all, I am a woman with a belly upon which childbirth and a lack of exercise have left their marks. Like countless women, I love to loathe it. However, the uplifting tone of the author, Lisa Sarasohn, (also a public speaker, yoga instructor and bodywork therapist) has changed my outlook on my pudgy pooch and may do the same for others. Boosting vitality, releasing stress, revving up one’s sex life and sensuality, plus even increasing confidence are many of the goals Sarasohn aims to accomplish through suggested yoga-based exercises, journaling and crafting.
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