Obvious Magazine - Divorce Issue

Book Recommendation and Review

by Christopher Small

With a compassionate eloquence for feeding the soul, In Your Skin: The Self-Help Guide to Living the Life You Aspire to Live NOW by Spirit is definitely a manuscript that is more than just another self-help book. In Your Skin takes the content of many foundational elements important to mental-health and wellness and pairs them with the warmth and relaxation found during a refreshing conversation with a best-friend over a cup of java. Through the pages of In Your Skin this “Talk with Spirit” is taken to a new plateau of figurative and literal meaning.

The foundational principal of LOVE that Spirit discusses in the prologue of her book take on the task of bringing awareness and consideration to how much one actually invests in self-happiness and love for self. As Spirit puts it, “No one will ever be able to love you more that you love yourself, so if you want a better love, start with the love that you give to yourself first”. The ability to be connected with someone in a relationship of mutual respect, love, and trust is a dream that is naturally part of human nature. However, if you are not able to direct just as much love as you are willing to share with others toward yourself you are truly missing out on complete happiness and contentment of your spirit. You are worth living and God makes no mistakes in the creation of human life.

Another important tenant that runs swiftly and consistently through the pages of talking with Spirit is the interweaving of the importance of faith. Spirit writes that, “Life is a Journey, not a destination”. This journey is inclusive of decisions that we make, outlooks that we have, barriers that we place on ourselves, and people we attach ourselves to. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. In other words, if you truly want to see a change in your life and the direction that it is headed you must first conceive and believe it in your mind. Additionally, in life we have our ups and downs. We have times that we stumble and fall flat on our face. The key as Spirit outlines is to pick yourself back up and refocus on the race at hand. It matters not how many times one falls down, but the true measure of success is how many times one gets back up.

Lastly, Spirit leads the latter part of the text down a path associated with building relationship with others. The variables in the equation of love and marriage are tough to navigate in today’s society. Spirit jolts her readers cluttered mind loose with a few doses of reality regarding this topic. First and foremost, “don’t assume that every relationship will be the same, and don’t feel the need to behave the same in every relationship”. In other words, don’t bring misconceptions and old baggage into new relationships and don’t hold the person presently sitting across the table from you accountable for mistakes of the last person. Additionally, you were created by God for his purpose and his will. You were created to be great and in order to be great you must push yourself to grow and develop each and every day. You should not be the same person you were yesterday and as a result with each relationship you don’t have to behave in exactly the same way.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. With every decision that you make and every connection that you entertain you are responsible for accepting the consequences of your actions. At the end of the day you must be able to be happy with yourself and the life you lived. In agreement with Spirit, if you wake up and you have to question whether on not you are happy being in your own skin something has to be done and that change can only begin with you. This is definitely a book that can be read over and over again. I encourage you to sit back, pour up a warm cup of java, and divulge yourself in a “Talk with Spirit” from time to time.

Order book at www.talk2spirit.com