During my late 20's and 30's, I spent probably a decade reading "Self-help books". I left home at 18, flying by the seat of my pants, with little to no certainty about who I was or where I was going. The human instinct is fight or flight, and in those days, I was all about "flight". But I brought myself along with me, no matter how far I travelled or where I went, I was always there.
Not saying that "self-help" books were of no assistance along the way. One of my favourites was "The Road Less Travelled". That resonated with me. I also read books by new age writers like Shakti Gawain, and all the Seth books, the Joseph Campbell series, and quite a few books about Edgar Cayce. All of these books changed my perspectives and viewpoints about the differences between what I had been taught to believe from childhood, and where I had landed at the time.
Along the way, I experienced some great adventures, to new places and new people, and I learned a lot. In fact, my travels taught me a more than any of the "self-help" books I had read. My travels led to encounters with people, real life and human people, who had experienced similar, but different, life stories and circumstances from what I had believed as "truth" before.
Some believe we can change our "truth", and guess what? I believe that as well. But it is never as simple as that. This life's journey is long and even arduous. And I will add that those of us fortunate to have born inside a relatively comfortable society have been given the grace and opportunity, whether we deserve it or not, to explore our minds, our existence, and our places inside it.
But now, never have we been more challenged to experience our spiritual connection to each other, we the relatively lucky ones, but for the place of our birth. We are not yet simply consumed by feeding our starving children, or running for cover from war, or barely surviving in refugee camps all across the planet as the result of our tax supported bankster wars. Those people only have survival on their minds. No other choice.
But for now, and not for much longer, you and I still have choices. We need to make them and start waking up and just saying "NO MORE". Otherwise, imagine yourself starving in a refugee camp. Think I am being over the top alarmist? Have you not been paying attention?
No matter how much one might be consumed with working on "self help", the world as we know it is changing rapidly, and it doesn't care about you. But, you still have the power to care about it. We truly are all in this together, but way too many just don't recognize that yet.