My Favorite Self-Help Stuff

Imagine you're in a bookstore, heading for the self-help isle. What would you be looking for?

Well, here's some of what I'd be looking for:

Info on how to make my life happier, more relaxed, less stressful, more self-empowered, more enRICHed ;-) Yay to the last one!

That's my idea of self-help. And, well, the last one is not usually found in the self-help isle either, except for maybe the books directly related to the psychological aspects of money issues.

But they should be. Remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs? If the basics aren't met, you don't really get to the higher-level stuff. So that's a really important part of self-empowerment.

And that's what I've tried to combine in my interview project eMoney Magic!

And you may also want to visit my self help blog for more info.

Here a couple of quick tips, gleaned straight from Abraham and then elaborated upon:

"Nothing is as important as that you feel good"
-- Abraham

What can we learn from this. No, this is not the manifesto of an egotist. Truth is, we're not much use to anyone, ourselves or others, if we don't feel good. So the number one thing we have to do is take care of ourselves.

According to Abraham, nothing is as important as that we feel good. For all sorts of reasons, but also in order to achieve success and prosperity - and happiness of course.

Does that make you cringe just a little bit? I think there are two reasons why we're not all that comfortable with this statement.

First, it sounds awfully selfish, doesn't it? And yet, if you think about it - if you don't feel good, nothing much works. So in order to be at your best and do your best, you HAVE to feel good. This means taking care of yourself, getting enough sleep, getting nutritious food on a regular basis, getting some exercise, being around people you love, and... being able to get out of a funk fast!

If it makes you feel selfish, you don't have to look much further than those in-flight instructions where we're told to first put on our own oxygen mask before helping anyone else. That's exactly what this is about - if we're not taking care of ourselves first, we're not in any shape to take care of anyone else for very long either.

The other reason why it makes us uncomfortable is that so many of us feel not that great so much of the time. Not only that, but we feel like Abraham has it backwards. Of course, it's US who have it backwards. The thing is that once we're happy and feel good about ourselves, the other stuff will fall into place. Not the other way round, i.e., as in, well, I'll be happy once I have the money, the guy, whatever.

I remember when I first heard about this. I really resented it when I was told that I had to feel good and happy FIRST, before I would get my goodies, especially money. But of course it all turned out to work that way. As Brian Tracy says in the short video, it's important to focus on the positive.