Bookshops may be flooded with masses of \u201chow to live\u201d self-help books<\/strong>, but we all know from experience that their effect resembles taking a drug. For a while after reading one, you feel better. You seem full of energy, and with the zeal of a convert you want to change the world. But after a few weeks, everything returns to normal. Once again, you understand nothing of what is happening, and your mood collapses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only person truly doing well is the author of the self-help book. He or she makes a pile of money by offering the market something it has been sucking up for years like a frog swallowing a fly. After all, we are all standing on the edge of despair<\/strong>, though most of us are trying to free ourselves from that feeling. Often, we look for guidance from various \u201cteachers of life.\u201d We discover that the advice of such a teacher works like Buddhist Dharma candy \u2014 only at first, and only within limits \u2014 after we have already spent a few dozen z\u0142otys. Then we feel foolish for having fallen for it again in a moment of weakness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The books I have chosen for you do not flatter the reader by promising a land flowing with milk and honey. What they offer instead is the kind of kick every well-read, knowledgeable person dreams of. And yet the reader still feels pleasantly surprised, because they have just read a work that makes them want to want<\/strong> \u2014 and not want not to want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Assuming that each of us goes through smaller or larger crises, we need, from time to time, reading that soothes and cleanses. We do not want horror, crime novels, or ghost stories. We want something light and meaningful at the same time. Jon Frederickson\u2019s The Lies We Tell Ourselves<\/strong><\/em> fits that need perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frederickson is a therapist with 25 years of experience. Painfully marked by life<\/strong> after the loss of his brother, he spent a long time struggling with psychological suffering. One day, he realized that pain is a fact, but suffering can end. To heal, Frederickson argues, we need to know precisely the pathogenic lies we live by. Only then can we accept the healing truth. Most of us, however, flee from truth in every possible way, using sophisticated methods to avoid, muffle, and falsify it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We suffer because we flee from life and from death, rejecting the lesson they offer. We heal when we begin to accept ourselves<\/strong>, other people, and our life. At the same time, we must remember that the human being is a mystery that can never be fully known. After reading this book, you may feel: \u201cYes, of course. I sensed it was like that.\u201d And that feeling will be entirely justified. This is a book about what we know, but have somehow forgotten, or have been afraid to admit. A deeply cleansing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another book worth keeping at home for years is Necessary Losses<\/strong><\/em> by Judith Viorst, the American writer and poet. The book remained on The New York Times<\/em> bestseller list for 2 years. It is not hard to see why. With extraordinary wisdom, compassion, and wit, Viorst analyzes the stages of our life, including the painful loss of closeness with those who seem destined to accompany us to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\nReading that soothes without lying<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When we have to face what is difficult<\/h3>\n\n\n\n