Review: Let Them, by Mel Robbins

The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can't Stop Talking About by Mel Robbins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I do follow Mel Robbins, have done for about a year or so. She's all over instagram with shorts, and has a podcasts and does some interesting interviews. I prefer her when she interviews, because on her own she rambles - much like this book.

I'm seeing in other reviews people saying she stole this theory or concept from a poem - a poem titled Let Them by Cassie Phillips - and hasn't had the decency to credit it, probably because she'd have to pay for it out of the amazing amount of money she has made off this book.

And this is the thing I see time and time again from those in the 'Personal Development' and 'Self Help' industry - and it is an industry, many of them saying the same thing again and again just repackaging it - when someone who already has a huge platform decides to write a book. Though this is not Mel Robbins' first book, this one has landed her in a way she wasn't before. Probably because she now has a HUGE PR team who can push this book. It's a Hay House published book too, and thus why she then gets an endorsement from Oprah, a show host who has managed to become a guru to these people, though all she ever did was interview people, people who were vulnerable and needed help.

It's a money-making scheme and a successful one, thanks to the internet and social media.

As for the book. It is a lot of ramble, and I skimmed a lot of it as it is regurgating much of what she says on her own platform and using endless examples from her life and her families lives. It goes over some interesting approaches to dealing with friendships and comparison to others, but it's a big book for such a small concept really: Let people do what they are going to do, and allow yourself to not feel you have to keep up.

I didn't hate the book, but there are others I would recommend instead of it, that are more constructive and less rambly for people who genuinely struggle.

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Review: Proof of Heaven, by Eben Alexander.

Proof Of Heaven Neurosurgeons Journey by Eben Alexander
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's always difficult to review a book that is someone's lived experience. I had watched an interview with Eben Alexander and was intrigued enough to buy his book. It made for an interesting read, especially after reading An Autobiography of a Yogi. There were things that aligned.

But mostly I felt that for the author this was a spiritual awakening, and felt that it was also a sort of autobiography. I expected a more clinical analysis of what he had experienced, but he was much taken with the spiritual side of his experience, and by the end I felt there was a religious bent to it.

I am always fascinated how they come up with the concept of God, this one creator, when that didn't seem to be expressly part of his experience. It's never fully explained. What actually changed his mind? What actually happened in the event when he was on the other side that iterated this concept? Why does there always have to be the idea of this one single being that created everything? Why couldn't the experience just be of another existence on another plane and other beings welcoming him in?

These are the questions I ponder on after having read it, and although I do have two other books by him - as I bought them as a collection of three - I am worried it is just going to spew religious concepts. From someone who was a non-believer of such things before this experience, I found it all a bit too easy for this sudden change of heart. And the concept of helping others by writing this book, I don't see that, although as I haven't had this experience it has no direct relation.

Interesting, but my sceptism is still intact - not so much about the experience, as I absolutely believe there is something 'on the other side', but the turning to the religious concepts.

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Review: Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and have been for some time, being a subscriber to his Daily Pump newsletter and enjoying the helpful health and mental health tips and advice. This book sort of combines that with his life story.

Arnold uses the events in his life to highlight how to take control of your own life and push through. How to be inspired and how to follow your inspiration. How to go about getting excited about your life and getting disciplined.

His voice and manner of speaking comes through clearly in this book, and there was so much to absorb. If you find him inspiring it's definitely worth a read.

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Review: Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda

Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book fascinating. Yognanda's way of writing is warm and easy to read, despite being written in 1946. The text much more accessible than I had imagined. The topic itself, and how you receive it is all down to what you choose to believe and understand from it.

As an agnostic I found it was able to teach me a little bit about religion that I would normally shun, especially bible related information. Yogananda actually explained some of the religious concepts in the Christian faith and the bible, explaining where they have been misinterpreted and the truth of them. He made them more digestible as he explained a lot of the science and backed it up with sources and evidence, even from that period of time. For me personally, a believer in the concept of us all being one energy and made of atoms that vibrate, and after having read and understood those concepts before reading this book, a lot of the 'miracles' made a lot of sense - and he explained them in the same terms that I already understood.

Having spent time meditating off and on, it wasn't an impossible concept, but I did wonder where the idea of Yoga exercises come from as that doesn't seem to be a part of the teaching as it is never mentioned in this book.

A few things that I still struggled with were:
1) the concept of God, a single being that created all that we live in, and the idolisation of that being; it was never explained fully, other than in 'we are Gods dream', which didn't really explain much.
2) how spending 16 hours a day or more in a trance-like state actually helps or serves anyone; I am not sure where the 'being of service' concept comes from; being off in another consciousness or plane of existence (a concept I could accept) means you are not living this life you have been assigned, and showing others how to do the same doesn't really help the world we are living in - though the world is dismissed as just being a delusional chaos that distracts us according to Yogananda - and in 2024 it definitely suits that description.
3) why do people that do this deserve idolisation from others and special respect from other world leaders? I can understand the fascination but not the kissing of the feet.

I also wondered, as it's mentioned many times in the many miracles described, that if these yogis/swamis/saints can all see the future or someone's personal life path, exact events and outcomes in the future like a psychic, and can choose to intervene or not, does that mean that nothing any human being does is actually choice or 'free will' but in fact every single thing is 'fated'? And how then does that work in the concept of breaking free of karma and working it out on a human level to enable you to reach the cosmic levels of consciousness to bring you close to 'God' the single creator?

So although I found this book fascinating, helping me understand many things and religious concepts, it hasn't changed my stance, though it was thought provoking and something I will ruminate on a lot in the years to come.

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Review: The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'd heard of Gary Chapman a few times, and thought I'd give this a go. I have read about Love Strategies in Tony Robbins book, Unlimited Power, but not in such a simplistic, relationship focus way.

Gary easily explains the five different love languages, using examples from couples he's known and worked with, and at the end of each of them, explains how to use them even if this is not one of your own strategies. At the back of the book is a his & her quiz to learn your own love strategy - mine wasn't what I thought it was when reading the book.

This book make me feel it was possible for me to rekindle my marriage in an easy, simple, seamless way, working on one thing a week or month, and gave me the confidence to also share it with my husband in the hope we can recreate a relationship which has turned cold.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone struggling, or even if you are not, as it is a good way to liven up your relationship or marriage.

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Kill The Goblins reviews

I was blown away by some of the reviews that Kill The Goblins has recived. I'm so glad that it is being recieved so well by those within the industry. 

Review: No Excuses, Brian Tracy

No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I spent my time reading this, my first book from Brian Tracy, and I took a lot from it. Each chapter offers something, even though sometimes they follow a more 'sales' orientated pitch.

There are actions and questions at the end of every chapter which really help you focus, and Tracy drives home the need for self discipline and how to go about it through three overall themes: personal, work and lifestyle. And how you apply self discipline to several aspects within them, laying out a perspective and action to take.

This was very much the book I was looking for to help train myself into getting more out of my day to day life. I'll definitely be dipping back into it.

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Review: Quest for Love: Memoir of a Child Sex Slave, by Anneke Lucas

Quest for Love: Memoir of a Child Sex Slave by Anneke Lucas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I finished this book in a week, which is super fast for me. It was as compelling as it was disturbing and I'm still struggling to put into words my thoughts about it.

Reading through reviews I see people victim blaming and just disbelieving this account, and I can understand why they might, because it is a lot to take on, and in such great detail. But as someone from a traumatic childhood - though nothing on this scale - your ability to recall the very visceral details of a moment of abuse stays with you a lifetime. Although Anneke had help and support to accomplish this complete recall and her feelings about it.

I live in the Netherlands and to think much of this was perpetrated by a Prime Minister just over the border in Belgium, and that a case (Dutroux) was covered up by an investigation team to placate a network that undertakes pedophilia, torture and murder on this scale, is sickening. Since the Jeffrey Epstein case, and people like Prince Andrew being involved, this book allows you to see how it is possible. It seems that money and power really can allow you to do anything.

Anneke Lucas recounts a certain time period of the abuse, and alludes to 'training' she had. I would have been interested to know more about that and who was involved, but I also appreciate that there comes a point where you can't keep going over such horrific events. Plus it makes me wonder if it will make her a target again.

This book is not for the faint-hearted and would trigger anyone with sexual abuse in their history. It is not an easy read, especially with some of the detail, and I felt devastated, frustrated, angry and disgusted throughout the entire reading. But the one who I reserve the majority of my anger for was her narcissistic mother. She was utterly disgusting and without any remorse for her treatment of her daughter. I really would have liked to have seen justice done with her. I myself had a narcissistic mother and it made me wonder if she had had access to such a place would she have taken us there, but no matter how difficult and jealous she would get, I do believe that morally she was not that corrupt.

I'm so grateful Anneke was able to get out of it alive, and I felt a strange sense of serendipity when she mentioned during her near-death experience having visions of Paramahansa Yogananda, because I bought his book, Autobiography of a Yogi, just last year, and it's currently on my tbr pile.

I also loved her words about healing:

"Healing breaks our heart so that love can enter. Healing from trauma is to feel suppressed feelings so that we can expand and feel everything. It means to go inward, to connect with our own truth and so connect with greater truth, so that we can know what we know with certainty, because we can feel it, because we are in touch with our true selves."

And her words about our current corrupt power systems, couldn't be truer:

"The psychopaths who attempt to rule the world have no access to their inner selves, and are trying to know themselves only through outward means, through status and control, needing to feel superior in order to feel worthy."

"Even as we steadily move into a more enlightened era, the slaves to power, bound to earth and its riches, are fighting tooth and nail to protect their lies and way of life, which is creating the turbulence we are experiencing today."

This is not my first reading on such a topic, so I had an idea of what I was going into before reading. Just as Anneke is not the only person trying to shed light on these horrific goings-on. You need to be mentally prepared, because they will give you a mental hangover which is hard to shake, and may never leave you - unless, like some of the other reviewers, you just choose to disbelieve it all.

Thank you Anneke for sharing this with us. I admire you strength and your courage.


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Review: The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D Wattles

The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I listened to the audio version of this and have to remind myself that in 1910 when this was published, it was a whole new concept. Now of course it is everywhere in the self-help, personal development world, which has been highjacked by spirituality. And this book sees the same cross over as he uses his religious beliefs and quotes the bible continually to support what he is saying.

And what is he saying? The Law of Attraction. If you hold something in your mind you draw it to you. And the concept of setting an intention: Stay focused on what you want and work towards it, but just sort of reiterated in multiple ways. And really The Law of Attraction and The Secret were born from the 'New Thought Movement' which Wallace Wattles was part of. And it was brought back a century later by the creator of The Secret talking with Oprah Winfrey. Like and Like attract. The same people, putting out the same things, with one intention, to make money. There is now an entire industry about packaging this same concept, in both books, websites, podcasts. I could list name up on name. Oprah was one of them first to bring it to a wider audience in our current time.

I don't disbelieve the concept: if you stay focused and moving forward to what you want to achieve, of course you will achieve it. You have to take action by keeping it in the front of your mind and take physical steps towards it every day. It's quite logical. It is not specifically religous, or some special ordained action that only special people do. It's like doing the laundry. If you want to see the end of that pile of laundry, you have to take action and put a load in the machine, then dry it and then iron and fold it. Then it is done. Rinse and repeat in all aspects of your life.

In also talks about not spending too much time thinking about the past or colouring the future with thoughts of the past. And the laundry analogy works again: You can stand and look at your laundry and lament past times when you should have done it earlier, and find it a harder task that you didn't do it sooner, but if you want it done you still need to take action in the now.

It was interested to hear the dated origination of a lot of today's thinking, but there are more up-to-date books out that would be more helpful.

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