A New Earth

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle is one of the first new age type books that I really connected with. And it would have not been as enlightening without the discussions that you can watch or listen to on Oprah's website or iTunes. The ideas that I learned in the book that at least partly influence my life now are:

1. I am less irritated by people. I now know why people complain or get upset about things that are not in their/my control. Most of the time I can step back and see that reacting to things only fuels the fire.

2. I have a better vision about what I want to do with my life. I have been doing the same exact job for over 9 years (home health physical therapist) and I love it. But to advance means that I have to do less patient care, so I have declined all "job" opportunities to advance. I now know that I will need to make my own parallel opportunities instead of moving up. I started this when I decided to write a book and I didn't put it together with this concept until I read this book.

3. I appreciate and look for more "stillness" in my life. Not so much the running around and to do lists where every moment is planned. Now it's okay if things don't get done when I planned. (Do they ever work out that way anyways?)

There has been an overwhelming amount of controversy about this book online that mostly comes from fundamentalist Christian's and I suspect very few of them have actually read the entire book. There are a few parts (very few) that discuss religion, Jesus, and the existence of other religions and their parallels with Christianity. Of course you can't please everyone all the time no matter what your opinion. But like with any instructional, self-help book, you have to take the parts that apply to you and leave the rest. The three big influences that I listed above can be applied to anyone and have nothing to do with religion.

I recommend this book to anyone wanting to make more peace in their life.