Divided into six sections (chapters) taken one week at a time, the book begins with “Getting Ready,” in which readers must acknowledge their lives are broken and accept that all previous attempts to fix their problems have failed. The next section studies how “The Past Determines Today” or more specifically, how human behavior is learned. Week three examines “What Is Real?” and focuses on discerning between what we believe is real versus what is concrete, true, and actual.

The final three sections focus on “The Higher Power,” “Today Does Not Rely On the Past,” and “Life Should Be Simple and Easy.” These last three chapters ask readers to question deeply held beliefs, and open their minds to different realities. The authors say their only purpose in writing the book is to help readers determine what is physically real (verum) and what merely appears real. According to the book, this one concept is all that’s needed to break away from the “stress box,” a term used for our painful and limiting beliefs.

These ideas may be familiar to anyone who studies psychology or metaphysics, although semantics could be different. What they call “fractus” can also be described as the breaking point, critical mass, or rock bottom from which a call to action is derived. “Verum” is essentially separating reality from illusion (a popular psychological technique). Others may say “awakening” or “enlightenment” to describe the final phase of rebirth, which the authors describe as the De Novo event.

Well organized and clearly presented, this book restates concepts in such a way that readers may grasp information that previously eluded them in other books. However, the book is not without weaknesses. There’s repetition of ideas and sentences, confusion over who’s speaking because the book is written in first person (although it has two authors), and broad generalizations (such as “Everyone thinks they want a better life, but no one has the heart to take a step towards it.”)

In addition, the authors adopt a condescending tone when discussing people who have not discovered their path to a simple and easy life, frequently referring to what “1% think” and “99% think,” implying that these arbitrary percentages are concrete facts, and only 1% of the population (which includes the authors) thinks correctly. Nonetheless, the book’s message is important.

LIFE SHOULD BE SIMPLE AND EASY is a nonfiction self-help book offering the first steps in changing a stressful, disappointing life into a calmer, richer existence.

~Carol Michaels for IndieReader