The best self-help tools along your spiritual journey

How many self-help books do you have on your shelves? 5? …And they were given to you? 20? …You’re just starting! Over a 100! That’s more like it! Everybody I know who’s into self-help has A LOT of books on the topic. So does anybody who has a passion for something, right? Well, I believe it’s not exactly the same thing. I find books to be among the best self-help tools I have. But we don’t collect self-help books for the pleasure of collecting them, we collect them in order to grow. So how is that working out for you? Have you made all the progress you hoped for? If not, carry on…

There are tons of self-help books out there. But instead of reading them all, I try to mainly reread the same few ones. It’s quite fascinating to realize how much we can learn from a second, third or fourth read! It’s always the same book, but you get a new perspective as you read it with a different awareness. I believe that we don’t do this often enough: revisit the same books, the same movies. There is so much we can learn that way! I find it strange because we do it with people! We keep the same family our entire life, we keep the same partner, we keep many of our friends. Isn’t the beauty of life to deepen our relationships instead of accumulating them? Why should it be different with books? That’s how Bob Proctor did it! He owes all his success to the careful study of only a very few books!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get hooked on Think and Grow Rich like so many other people did. I even had trouble finishing it! The book I read the most often in my life is definitely The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. And every time I did, I understood messages I didn’t get on the previous read. Maybe I love this book so much because I recognize myself in the traveler who leaves everything behind to fulfil his true purpose. Maybe that’s because I have also been to Egypt and it’s been the best trip of my life!

Next in the list is Deepak Chopra. Deepak’s books played a very important role in my spiritual path. Discovering him marked my shift from reading books on psychology for 10 years to slowly shifting towards spirituality. He’s the one who introduced me to meditation 3 years ago. I loved him… until I saw him on video. I find that he lacks enthusiasm. When I saw him during interviews, he looked bored. Anyway, he’s still the one who opened up my eyes on spirituality so he deserves to be on my best self-help books list!

And the most recent is Bob Proctor. I discovered him less than a year ago but the impact of his teachings made me want to meet him right away. I did meet him at Matrixx in October 2013 and I also went to his Science of Getting Rich seminar in L.A. in February 2014. Everything I learned from him and from It’s Not About the Money have influenced my life in the most impactful way. I am now confident that I can achieve what I decide and I’m putting everything in place to become financially independent within the next 3 years!

So that’s it! What are the most influential self-help books in your life? What have been your best self-help tools?

Inner Talking – Neville – Awakened Imagination

The Inner Talking we live with is incredibly important. It is what controls our daily actions and regulates the extent of our achievements. In his book “Awakened Imagination“, Neville relates to this concept in Chapter 5, The Coin of Heaven, when he claims that:

“As a rule, man is totally unaware of his inner talking and therefore sees himself not as the cause but the victim of circumstance.”

This concept can be very hard to grasp at first. After all, why would we think that we voluntarily cause ourselves pain? The answer is that we don’t do this consciously to ourselves, but we rather do it subconsciously. Some people are programmed to think negatively, to believe they are constantly sick or simply programmed to keep them in a poor state of mind. This is entirely done through the inner talking. It is the “recorded” voice that plays over and over in our minds and that we become so accustomed to that we ultimately concede it the ultimate power of being the voice of Truth. We don’t even question its authority anymore. We don’t ask ourselves where it comes from, nor if it serves us well. But the first step is to become aware of what that inner voice is telling you. Is it positive? Is it serving you? Where is that voice coming from? Why does it have so much authority on you? The messages that loopback in your mind come from various sources, but the bulk of it probably comes from your parents during your childhood. This is the time in your life when you were the most influenceable. (Read my article on Subconscious Mind Childhood to learn more) If you were repeatedly told that you could achieve any project you undertook: great for you! But if you received messages such as “life is hard”, or that “you easily get sick” or any other negative message, repeated to you over and over, then it took root in your subconscious mind and became one of your internal programs. And when I say “messages”, I don’t mean only the verbal ones. If you saw your parents struggle financially, even though they told you everything was fine, you probably understood two messages. The first is that life is a financial struggle, the second is that you should hide it and pretend you are doing fine. These are some of the messages I got. The most difficult to overcome was the “pretending” one. Because, in order to solve any problem, you need to acknowledge it first. Neville claims it too when he writes that:

“Right inner talking is the first step to becoming what you want to be.”

Once I realized that pretending wasn’t going to solve any issues, and that in fact it simply made matters worse, I started a slow process of recognizing the areas in my life that needed improvement. I became aware of my inner talking and gradually replaced the limiting thoughts with positive ones. This can be a rather long and roller-coaster process. The key to success therefore is perseverance. (You can read my article on Self-Help Perseverance here) Again, the difficulty is that we are limited by our physical senses and it is difficult to persevere in a good habit if we don’t see the results after a short period of time, as this leaves us with the feeling of wasted efforts. In order to counter that, you need to develop faith and the understanding that internal change is occurring even though you don’t yet see it externally. But be certain that, with a great dose of courage, you WILL change your inner talking and achieve what you want to achieve.

Lastly, to increase you chances of success, find an accountability partner! This is what I did and it surely raises the spirit and makes the journey more enjoyable!

Martin