“What would your life feel like,” asks Yol Swan in her new book, “if you could let go of the past to be completely present and at peace?” Good question. She follows it up with another: “What if you had a method to do this on an ongoing basis to clear the wounded perception that hampers your spiritual potential?” The answers to these two questions form the basis of YOU ARE YOUR HEALER (The Ultimate Guide to Heal Your Past, Transform Your Life & Awaken to Your True Self), a self-help book–Swan calls it a “spiritual guide”–meant to help readers awaken their minds, strengthen their self-awareness, and clear a path toward self-actualization.
After a number of difficult relationships with family (religious mother, angry atheist father), partners, and friends led her to several years of psychoanalysis, Swan felt compelled to withdraw, cutting herself off from the world. Her goal was to get to the root of her discontent and force a period of healing. Her idea of a Higher Power was confused until she began meditating and reading about Far East religions (Buddhism, Taoism). Finally, after a series of enlightenment retreats–including one where she was initiated as a Buddhist nun, complete with white robe and shaved head–she found a path that worked for her.
Swan has written two other books, The Indigo Journals and Songs of Light and Dark. The latter book is a collection of poetry, and her poetic sensibility shows in YOU ARE YOUR HEALER. “You don’t have to prove your own existence,” she writes, adding that “you simply know that you are.” Unlike lesser self-help authors, however, she doesn’t drop such maxims and run. She sticks around to explain what this “I-am-ness” (great word!) means. Interspersed with the discussion are exercises such as “developing stillness,” which sounds obvious but requires a level of discipline that most people don’t have. Instilling this discipline is Swan’s goal, and she models it with her careful, logical, graceful prose. Too many self-help books veer off into absurdity; Swan sticks to her thesis, revealing along the way her immersive knowledge of those Far East religions. Readers will be drawn to her wisdom, humor, and strength.
Yol Swan’s graceful prose, wise counsel, and palpable strength make YOU ARE YOUR HEALER (The Ultimate Guide to Heal Your Past, Transform Your Life & Awaken to Your True Self) a must-read for individuals seeking inner peace.
~Anthony Aycock for IndieReader