Six of the best

My friend Carla laughed at me when I mentioned Simpleology.

Not that there’s anything inherently funny about Simpleology, but because, as she said, I’m the only person she knows who is always doing some new course or other, and every time she meets me I’m full of my latest enthusiasm .

She’s right. Just as there are DIY maniacs, always putting up bookshelves and painting the walls, I’m a self-improvement maniac; actually there are quite a few of us out there, although our activities are quieter and less visible…

So here is it: my list of ‘six of the best’ self-help courses. For no good reason that comes to mind, I’ll present them in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent and working backwards:

Simpleology

ACIM

Tom Butler-Bowden’s reading lists

Spring Forest Qigong

Holosync

The Artist’s Way

   
 

Simpleology.

… is a cute, free programme – or at least the entry-level 101 course is free – for taking yourself in hand. A series of twenty short talks on goal-setting lead you into the nicely designed ‘Daily Target Praxis’, a 15 minute daily time-management routine. Not only are you encouraged to dream your dream and list your goals, but you are also expected to analyse your habits to see which ones weaken or strengthen your progress. Of course, you may be thinking you’ve seen this all before, and sure, the ideas are hardly new, but the site is slick and fun to use, the presentation is a joy, and the reinforcement through checklists, quizzes and MP3 files ensure that this time round, these familar counsels of perfection soon become engrained habits. Further courses (102 and 103) deal with financial management and health and fitness. Me, I’ve already signed up for them… You can try Simpleology for yourself at www.simpleology.com 

A Course in Miracles.

You can’t get far in the self-help world without reading, or overhearing, someone dropping a quotation that begins “As A Course in Miracles says...”. So ten years ago, when I came across a copy in a bookshop in Bath, I bought it. The owner (yes -it was one of those bookshops!) assured me that although he’d never been able to get into it himself, those that did claimed it was the ultimate guide to self-development. It’s been on my bookshelf ever since. I did try the daily lessons (the workbook is a year-long course; the text itself is impenetrable) but gave up after a month, put off by the pseudo-Christian terminology, and the over-elaborate mental exercises. Here’s an example of the latter, from Lesson 12: “These exercises are done with eyes open. Look around you, this time quite slowly. Try to pace yourself so that the slow shifting of your glance from one thing to another involves a fairly constant time interval. Do not allow the time of the shift to become markedly longer or shorter, but try, instead, to keep a measured, even tempo throughout. What you see does not matter... As you look about you, say to yourself: I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world, a sad world, a wicked world, a crazy world, and so on, using whatever descriptive terms happen to occur to you...”.

However, last autumn I read a book that explained what it was all about – a way of getting past the ego – (the book was Take Me to the Truth by Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Vieira) and it all began to make sense. Now I’m reading A Course in Miracles a second time, and I’m hooked: with its emphasis on dropping our grievances, joyous acceptance, and forgiveness, it really does lead you out of the trap of the small-minded way most of us have come to see the world. Oh, and there’s no need to buy it; this too is on the web: www.acim.org

Tom Butler-Bowdon’s '50 Classic ...' series.

I love these books! I started with '50 Psychology Classics', went on to '50 Spirituality Classics' and have now devoured the lot. By presenting elegant and intelligent summaries of fifty books in each area (his other titles are 'Self-Help', 'Prosperity' and 'Success'), Butler-Bowdon not only gives an overview of these fields, but provides a useful starting off-point for further exploration.

Strictly speaking, they are not a 'course' at all, but I've used several of them as the basis for my own reading programmes, and have been immeasurably enriched as a result. Actually, I listened to these titles rather than read them, and have found that they suit the audio-book format perfectly: the ten to fifteen minutes/three or four pages devoted to each book commentary chunk up beautifully for such tasks as washing the dishes or walking the dog. www.butler-bowdon.com

Spring Forest Qigong

I was introduced to Spring Forest Qigong through one of Bill Harris’s many recommendations (see below); indirectly, another of his suggestions led me to a major career change; but that’s a story for another day...

Qigong is an ancient Chinese healing technique, and to give a very rough idea of what it’s about,  I’d describe it in action is as a cross between Tai Chi and yoga, and with much the same goals as Reiki (though with a far longer pedigree). Its purpose is to optimise physical and emotional health in yourself and in others.

I can’t tell you if it works for me yet, but that’s because I’ve only been doing it for a couple of months (even though I’ve known about it for years), and because – grazie al Dio! – I’ve always enjoyed abundant good health.

However, when I first received Bill Harris’s recommendation of Spring Forest Qigong, my intuitions told me to sit up and take note, so about a year later I signed up for the level 1 course.

I’m impressed by its teacher and master: Chunyi Lin. He is quiet, sincere and radiates a gentle benevolence. His motto is to have "a healer in every family and a world without pain." For now, I’m learning the basic exercises and waiting to see where Qigong takes me. If you want to check it out for yourself, take a look at: www.springforestqigong.com

Holosync 

In essence, Holosync is an aid to meditation. Bill Harris, who designed and markets the course, claims that by using these audio tracks 'you can meditate like a zen monk, literally at the touch of a button'. 

I discovered this course, serendipitously,at the beginning of 2007, and in retrospect this was one of the major turning points in my life. 

Here's why:

It works! I have been convinced of the usefulness of regular mediation since my student days, but never made much headway. To start with, I never really had the self-discipline to do it for more than twenty minutes at a time, or for more than a few days at a time, or with enough concentration. In other words, although I was theoretically in favour of meditation, I found it difficult to do, and it wasn’t taking me anywhere. Then as soon as I started using Holosync, I started meditating for an hour a day, and it was pure bliss!

More important have been the changes that the regular use of Holosync have brought: sure it was pleasant, and I  was getting off on it, but it wasn't until about six months in, when I found myself in a a stressful work situation, that I realised that I was coping untypically well, and I had no doubt at all that my new-found resiliance was due to Holosync. Now, three years later, and I’m happy most of the time; I’ve undone most of the knots that used to tie up so much of my emotional energy.

And finally, Bill Harris's support material - his writing, his blogs and recordings, the free gifts, and the introductions to so many other useful sources on the web - is astounding.  

Holosync isn’t cheap, but it has been one of the best investments, both in time and money, that I’ve ever made. www.centerpointe.com

The Artist’s Way

Julia Cameron’s ‘The Artist’s Way’ is something of a classic: it’s a twelve week course in recovering your creativity. If you’ve ever had thwarted dreams of being a painter, a musician, a poet or a novelist, then ‘The Artist’s Way’ will take you gently in hand and encourage you to nurture those dreams. This is a book that I turn to time and again, because for all the skills and technical information that the incipient artist needs, it is the succour and support that motivates us over the long haul that really makes a difference – and you’ll find it here. But be warned: if you follow Cameron’s exercises and advice this book can change your life upside-down. It did mine. www.theartistsway.com

Oh, and why the title?

‘Six of the best’ was, when I was at prep school back in the 60s, still the pinnacle of pedagogical punishments. It referred to six strokes of the cane, and, along with my mate Simon Wilson, I had a certain enduring notoriety for holding the school record as the most frequently caned boy: 17 times in one term, mostly, for the not overly heinous offence of talking after lights out. Maybe all my efforts with self-improvement are motivated by a desire to be remembered somewhere, by somebody, for something other than my record for ‘six of the best’!