Shrubaboti Bose's Blog - Posts Tagged "self-help"

The Light Within The Darkness: Mental Management & Mind Manipulation by Aisha Khan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Positive and motivational!

This book takes us on a journey in the author's life and examines the troubles she has faced due to her mental health issues. Depression and anxiety often go hand in hand, but it is our desire to get better, to heal and to understand our own selfworth that helps us overcome these obstacles or illnesses.

Psychological wounds can be invisible but it still hurts, and influences not only our perception of life but also the entire worldview through which we judge our situations or circumstances.

Depression can make us feel insecure, guilty or even worthless. Throughout this book, the narrator attempts to reflect on these nuances of mental health, tracing reasons which lead to frustration and a sense of powerlessness during the course of treatment and therapy. External treatment can be effective only when we have the mentality to accept our own shortcomings.

A motivational read, this book covers an important subject in brief and gives the readers some handy tips to deal with it. Recommended for those who are interested in reading memoirs and tales of struggle against mental health issues!



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Love, Loss, New Life: Writing Your Way from Grief to Happiness by Karen Skillings

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A collections of poems written with sensitivity and understanding to help readers come to terms with their own grief

Grieving can be a very isolating experience. Often when we lose someone close to us, we find ourselves suddenly thrown into pitch darkness, a state of mind from where it is impossible to get out and we welcome the darkness which seems to envelop us. It paralyses our senses and makes us inaccessible to other people. This is where this book particularly stands out as a beacon of hope. Karen beautifully draws brief sketches of her own turbulent thoughts and shifting dialogues with herself after her agonizing loss, while also remembering to invite the readers to participate in her journey of healing.

She offers her poetry collection as a gesture of empathy and support to encourage the reader to walk along with her, transferring us with the power of her words from utter desolation and mourning to a state of joy and happiness. What is particularly interesting in this book is that it has a list of writing prompts and space to jot down your own thoughts after every section. Karen believes that writing helps in the overall process of healing and with that thought in mind, she decides to encourage people through her poems to inculcate a writing habit as they processed their own grief and anguish.

Her poems may not have exceptional value in terms of their literary merit, but one must admit that they possess a certain level of sensitivity and nuance that only someone who has personally gone through such a range of emotions can write. The poems are original and the language utilised in them show genuine emotions that reflect the depth of feelings for Ron, from day to day as she had journaled them. But there is light at the end of the tunnel and there is hope moving forward, that is to transcend from the state of sorrow into happiness. In the end, the author is able to connect with her inner Self and liberate her mind from the past.

This book is specially recommended for those who have recently lost someone they held dear and also for people who enjoy reading simple poetry.

(Note: ARC obtained from Reedsy Discovery)



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