Hello my loves! I hope everyone has had a good weekend and is looking forward to the week ahead!

This week I am back with another review!  I will be reviewing Mind Platter by the inspiring, charismatic and wilful Najwa Zebian. How exciting!

It took me 3 months to finish reading Mind Platter. Now, I know you’re probably all thinking ‘that’s an extremely long time to finish a book, don’t you think?’ and that is true, partly. The reason why it took me so long to read this book is because I took it in full force and accepted what it was – a self-help book. And surely, it doesn’t make sense to read a self-help book in one day or even a week, does it? To me it doesn’t.

Take it this way. Every single passage in Mind Platter aims at unveiling a part of the reader to themselves, for them to appreciate and understand. And by the end of the book Najwa has come full circle in such a way that readers have uncovered every singer layer, every aspect of themselves and understood the core of their identity. Now, I don’t think it’s possible for one to understand themselves completely and take everything that a self-help book has to give them in such a short period of time. So I took my time with this one. Slowly, I read and re-read and re-read until I completely understood what one passage was telling me before I moved onto the next.

It was only in this way that I was able to accept the gift that this book was giving me and take it forward with me.

I’m not usually a fan of self-help books and often I feel that reading a book that tells you how you should be feeling and what you should be doing to improve yourself and allow yourself to grow are just failed attempts of getting you to understand yourself without them (the book, that is) understanding you.

I was so very wrong.

Self-help books are so important because they allow a reader to delve into their own soul and uncover secrets boxed up in corners of their mind that torment them and prevent them from being happy. And the most amazing, beautifully written and relevant book that allows a reader to do this is Mind Platter. This book helps a reader answer questions about personal identity that aren’t covered anywhere else. And by personal identity I don’t mean the metaphysical debate of whether we’re minds or bodies or minds with bodies. Rather, I mean the identity that forms the foundation of our consciousness, which builds our personality and fuels our character.

It is this personal identity that helps us function adequately in society, which helps us appreciate one another and form meaningful bonds. It is the betterment of this personal identity that Mind Platter is devoted to. Each page of Mind Platter reveals a truth, either harsh and raw or pure and organic and told in a beatifically simplistic manner that puts the reader in a trance at the end. Such palpable truths, so easily deducible; yet we’re ignorant in our everyday lives of them.

This is what Mind Platter brings to the fore.

It allows us to unveil the causes of our pain, tears, and unhappiness and suggests a way of peeling them off comfortably. It teaches us ways of becoming better people for ourselves without biting at our skins because of our inability to do this until now. It appraises human imperfection, human emotions and human failure and paves a way out of inevitable depression that lies at the end of the tunnel for so many on this journey.

Mind Platter is a mirror for so many of us; reflecting our difficulties, anxiety and reasons for confusion back to us. It is written by an extremely intelligent and talented woman who understands the human condition beyond her years and writes them down on paper effortlessly.

I absolutely loved reading Mind Platter! It is such a beautifully conceptualised and exceptionally well-written project and I will always admire Najwa for helping so many people on their rocky journey. Najwa is another warrior – joining the pedestal amidst Rupi Kaur and R.M Drake for me and it is on that pedestal that she will remain.

The time comes once again to share my favourite piece from this book brimming with so many jewels;

“No  dream  is  ever  too  big,  and no  step towards a dream is ever too small. Believe  that you  will get there,  and  you  will. Your  doubts   will  only  hold  you  back  and  make  each step harder,   each   decision   harder,   and   each   change  harder. Celebrate the  little successes so  that you  may appreciate the bigger  ones.  Learn  from  the  little  failures  so that you may learn  how  to  deal  with  the   bigger  ones. Be  at  peace  with yourself, for you  cannot  achieve peace  with the world if you can’t be at peace with yourself. Give more than you  take and don’t give anything  because  you  expect  to get  something in return. Be genuine. Truly wish goodness from your heart. The world will have no other option but to smile back  at you and grant  you  the  happiness  that you  define for  yourself. What does happiness mean to you?”

So breathtakingly honest and enlightening for a reader!

Undoubtedly, this book is a 5/5 and I highly recommend it to every single young person, mature person, teenager, mother, father, grandparents; everyone needs to go and buy this book. It has helped so many people around the world and I know that it would do wonders for you.

Until next week, my loves!

Happy reading!