this is not the type of book i read. i sort of told myself that before i got into it, but it was lent to me, and i have no reason not to follow the advice or recommendation of anyone that i keep in my life. yes. it's a self help, self realization, self actualization book. the first of its kind that i read. and i actually enjoyed it. not so much the language, or the flourish. not so much the very familiar colloquialisms that many of these inspirational texts tend to cloak itself in. but rather, when stripped down, the message that debbie ford is reminding you of. something that i've grown a little numb to, something i think we all have. the ability to recognize yourself as a sum of parts and experiences, both incredible and flawed. the fact that we are powerful and built with a massive self-defense protocol that forces us to blind ourselves to the things we find most terrifying about ourselves, and that those traits are the ones we can pull from to make us stronger people, and to hone in on for daily improvement. also, something i didn't see coming from the book, she reminds us to embrace the things that we love about ourselves and to almost boast about them. love that you're great at things, love yourself, love things that no one has noticed about you and bring it to their attention. there are only a fraction of us who are focusing on the self as deliberately as we can be. i am absolutely missing it. i'm not even sure what the hell i'm doing. but i now understand the potential corrections and adjustments i can make in my life based on some of the points and exercises in this book, and i will now attempt to let go a lot of the guilt that i've built up for genuinely enjoying parts of myself, and stop considering myself conceited, arrogant or overly egotistical. obviously, there's always a balance that you have to reach, but when i reach the truth of it, i'm sure it will find me in a concentrated hum.