Three New Self-Help Books

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life - Lila Dahl

Making Right Turns in Your Relationship - Myron Lewis

Soul Sex: Tantra for Two - Pala Copeland & Al Link

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When it comes to the ever-growing field of self-help books, it really comes down to a matter of taste. With these three most recent books that have come across my desk, I couldn't imagine a wider diversity of style, content and approach. My clear favorite was the third, Soul Sex. Then again, I found worthwhile insights and perspectives in all three.

Lila Dahl writes from personal experience in healing herself from potentially fatal cancer. She took her inner experience of what worked in the healing process and developed a system to share with others, called MRT (Mind Revision Technology). Actually it's not a technology in the usual, mechanical sense, but in an applied method of reprogramming one's unhealthy thoughts and decisions, replacing them with life-affirming and healing choices. The book accesses both medical facts, in outlining the body's organ systems responsible for immune function and emotional regulation, and a spiritual insight necessary for getting our bodies, minds, and lives back on track. The artwork and writing style verge on the "New Age" side of the self-help genre; but skeptics should take note that the powerful lessons contained in the book are not to be merely dismissed on that basis.

Myron Lewis's book is a no-nonsense, systematic guide to working through issues of conflict and reconciliation in relationship. Its subtitle is "How Couples Work together to Create Change, Enhance Intimacy & Strengthen Communication." The author's style is rather plain, even dry. But the sober reader in search of a workable toolkit for relationship improvement will find useful tips here. The experienced reader will have to forgive such redundancies as the opening to the chapter on Communication: "What is Communication? Communication is the process of sending, receiving and interpreting information." The book can fill gaps in one's awareness of necessary steps in building a fulfilling relationship (creating a relationship vision, making your relationship a priority, ranking issues on negotiability), or it can serve simply as a review of already-learned skills, such as active listening.

Soul Sex: Tantra for Two takes the prize, both for the quality of its writing and the choice of material making up the content. No, it's not for titillation, but for holistic relationship building and physical/spiritual bonding that this book is valuable. If anything, the occasional black-and-white photos are downright unappealing. But on virtually every page is an inspiring and fresh articulation of just what is missing in so many of today's ordinary love relationships. The authors are well-versed in the literature of contemporary tantric teachings, and they also bring an obviously well-experienced perspective from their own relationship journey. The book is so comprehensive, in fact, that often the writing skips rather too quickly over the many methods for deeper, more intimate and more spiritual connection. Or, maybe that's as it should be: not a blueprint for ecstasy, but rather a collection of points that might be stimulated further with the reader's own creativity. In the meantime, there are profound truths to chew on, such as the following:

The arbitrary separation of body, mind, and spirit in most cultures is an intellectual, psychological, and emotional tragedy of incalculable proportions. This error of judgment has been the cause of great suffering for countless generations of people. It is now time for sexual healing that can only be possible by reuniting sexuality and spirituality. (p. 15)

--review by Nowick Gray

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To order or read more information:

Change Your Mind, Change Your Life - Lila Dahl

Making Right Turns in Your Relationship - Myron Lewis

Soul Sex: Tantra for Two - Pala Copeland & Al Link