It’s the self-help book to end all self-help books.
It’s called Confessions of a Self-Help Junkie and it’s written by my friend Linda Pruce, a self-described holistic speech therapist whose blog Enter the Circle is one of my favorite web destinations for biting wit, personal insight, feminist opinion and all around woo-woo.
Confessions chronicles Linda’s downward spiral into self-help hell and the resurrection that resulted from her realization that she was looking in all the wrong places for the truth she needed. Which, as Dorothy would say, was right in her own backside… I mean backyard…(Read on, you’ll get the reference…)
Readers of Linda’s blog willl recognize her unique writing style that blends self-deprecating wit with no-holes-barred frank personal insight –
I officially became a self-help junkie in September of 1998. I was sitting on my bed, minding my own business, breastfeeding my newborn and wondering whether it would be wrong to smoke a cigarette while nursing. As I was figuring out the logistics of this dilemma – Could I reach my cigarettes without breaking the baby’s seal on my breast? Could I blow the smoke towards the window instead of up the nostrils of my daughter? And, how do you explain a burn mark on the check of a 6-week-old?– I caught the start of Oprah’s fall season.
But don’t let Linda’s humor fool you – underneath that wit is a wise woman with lot of great advice. Take, for example, this passage on finding the seat of one’s self, or as Linda puts it, your “Authentic Soul Self” or A.S.S –
Finding your A.S.S. is just the first step and the easiest part of your journey. Once you find your A.S.S., you will need to pull your head out from inside it. This, otherwise known as enlightenment, is what most people are attempting to do – and is probably the hardest thing to achieve.
Confessions meanders through the world of enlightenment, taking choice bits from here and there, creating a salad of thoughts, advice and wisdom for the woman seeking peace and fulfillment. Along the way, it sometimes ventures dangerously close to the self-help world it derides, and I can’t say I completed any of the tasks or lists offered to me. But, after all, a Junkie loves nothing better that a fellow addict to shoot up with, and I know Linda couldn’t help herself but to lay out a few lines of self-help smack for her visitors. But hey, it’s her party…
The best parts of the book for me were when Linda tells us her story – how she learned, for example, to ask the universe for what she needed. (Once I figure out what I want, I’m definitely gonna’ try that for myself.) Or how she figured out why Sundays were always so stressful for her and her family, and then made it better. Or the simple rules for living she learned from her Grandma (who sounds suspiciously like mine).
Beautifully illustrated by Kristen Smedley with graphic design by Tomara Arrington, Confessions of a Self-Help Junkie is not only a great read, it’s a work of art. Too bad it’s not available in other than electronic form, or Oprah could put it on her coffee table. It’s that beautiful.
You can download the first chapter for free from Linda’s blog, or buy the e-book online. Then tell your friends, who’ll tell their friends, who’ll tell their friends, and if that whole Six Degrees of Separation thing really works, Oprah is sure to hear about it from Kevin Bacon.
Congrat’s Linda!
