With my background of counseling, meditation and positive psychology, I have found everything in this book to be familiar. The author herself says in the introduction that she is presenting age-old wisdom, and so she is.

This also means that her message, the tools she teaches, are valid.

That's the first requirement for a self-help book. The second is to present it in a way that will induce the reader to read on. This book's language is clear, chatty, amusing in parts, inspiring in others. Because it's an instructional, you are not supposed to read it from cover to cover, but point by point, thinking about each. I found that even though I did this, going on to other things in between, I kept coming back to it. Test passed.

The third, and most important criterion is that the reader should be motivated to do more than read and think: to ACT, to DO. On this criterion, the book is excellent.

Even though I already routinely practice many of Gail's recommendations, I found myself doing them while reading. Were they new to me, they would lead me to a sense of wonder and joy, a liberation.

And that's the purpose of the book.

I can recommend it.

Dr. Bob Rich, www.anxietyanddepression-help.com