book review for the secret

The Secret #1

Rhonda byrne.

199 pages, Hardcover

First published November 28, 2006

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"What quantum physicists and Einstein tell us is that everything is happening simultaneously. If you can understand that there is no time, and accept that concept, then you will see that whatever you want in the future already exists."

"Everything that surrounds you right now in your life, including the things you're complaining about, you've attracted"... Often when people first hear this part of the Secret they recall events in history where masses of lives were lost, and they find it incomprehensible that so many people could have attracted themselves to the event if there is a Hebrew edition published in Israel is this sentence removed? The idea doesn't strike me as incomprehensible so much as repulsive but I do appreciate that she wasn't coy about her opinion and just came straight out with it . . By the law of attraction, they had to be on the same frequency as the event. It doesn't necessarily mean they thought of that exact event, but the frequency of their thoughts matched the frequency of the event. If people believe they can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they have no control over outside circumstances, those thoughts of fear, separation, and powerlessness, if persistent, can attract them to being in the wrong place at the wrong time ...You have a choice, and whatever you choose to think will become your life experience. Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it though persistent thoughts. pp27-28 If you are complaining, the law of attraction will powerfully bring into your life more situations for you to complain about. If you are listening to some one else complain and focusing on that, sympathizing with them, agreeing with them, in that moment, you are attracting more situations to yourself to complain about p17

The law of attraction states that what you focus on you will get, so I got a bank statement, I whited out the total, and I put a new total in there. I put exactly how much I wanted to see in the bank (p104) A game I created that help shift my feelings about my pile of bills was to pretend that the bills were actually checks. I would jump for joy as I opened them and say, "more money for me! Thank you. Thank you." I took each bill, imagined it was a check, and then I added a zero to it in my mind to make it even more. I got a notepad and wrote at the top of each page "I have received," and then I would list all the amounts of the bills with an added zero. Next to each amount I would write "Thank you," and feel the feelings of gratitude for receiving it - to the point where I had tears in my eyes. Then I would take each bill, which looked very small compared to what I had received, and I would pay it with gratitude! (p105)

The true story of a Belize oil team is an inspiring example of the power of the human mind to bring forth resources What quantum physicists and Einstein tell us is that everything is happening simultaneously...whatever you want in the future already exists (p62) it seems that Byrne believes this applies to the past too - that through positive thinking the team altered the geological processes that occurred in the region. This probably also explains why Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's burial to be so rich The directors of Belize Natural Energy Limited were trained by the eminent Dr. Tony Quinn, who specialises in Humanistic Physiology training. With Dr. Quinn's mind power training, the directors were confident that their mental picture of Belize being a successful oil producing country would be achieved...and in one short year their dream and vision became a reality. Belize Natural Energy Limited discovered oil of the highest quality, in abundant flows...Belize has become an oil-producing country because an extraordinary team of people believed in the unlimited power of their mind. Nothing is unlimited-not resources or anything else. It is only limited in the human mind... (pp148-9)

ليكن المظهر كالجوهر. وليكن الظاهر كالباطن.

"إيماناً لا يتزحزح, آمن بالغيب."

"فالدجلنة تخاطب الحاجات العاطفية القوية التي غالباً ما يدعها العلم دون إشباع, وفي صميم بعض أنماط الدجلنة تكمن فكرة أن تمنى الشيء يحققه, فكم يكون مقدار ما يمكن أن نشعر به من الرضى, إذا حققنا الرغبات التي نتمناها من صميم فؤادنا بمجرد التمني, يا لها من فكرة تغوي النفوس, خاصة إذا ما قورنت بالعمل الشاق وحسن الحظ الذي نحتاج إليه عادة كي نحقق آمالنا."

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me. – Blaise Pascal, Pensées

The law of attraction is a law of nature. It is as impartial and impersonal as the law of gravity is. It is precise, and it is exact.

“There is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Every single circumstances of your life can change!”

“Your power is in your thoughts, so stay awake. In other words, remember to remember.”

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Book Review – The Secret

The Secret is a phenomenon. Since the book debuted late in 2006 it has sold over four million copies with some thirty other translations now available or underway. It is likely to become one of the best-selling self-help books of all time and is being constantly praised and endorsed by celebrities. Venture into your local bookstore or look around you while waiting at an airport, and you’re bound to see people reading it and absorbing it. They will not just be people who consult astrologers and who listen to Tony Robbins tapes, but normal, average people like the ones who live next door to you. There are almost 1400 reviews of the book printed at Amazon with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5. The breakdown of those scores is interesting: fifty-two percent of them are 5-star, thirteen percent are 4-star and twenty-one percent are 1-star (Amazon does not allow a 0 rating). This means that the majority of people, the great majority even, believe in at least some aspects of the book’s premise and teaching. They believe in the law of attraction.

The Secret began as a DVD. Rhonda Byrne had faced a particularly difficult time in life and came out of it only after she learned The Secret, which is her term for what is commonly known as the law of attraction. In gratitude she created a DVD presentation to share this knowledge and, having seen the remarkable success of this DVD (which has sold in excess of 1.5 million copies), she created a book by the same name. The claims are lofty: “There isn’t a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, The Secret can give you whatever you want.” Imagine that: the power to get absolutely anything. Who can resist that claim?

The law of attraction, which Byrne says is the most powerful law in the universe, states that people experience the logical manifestations of their predominant thoughts, feelings, and words. This gives people direct control over their lives. A person’s thoughts (whether conscious or unconscious) and feelings bring about corresponding positive or negative manifestations. Positive thoughts bring about positive manifestations while negative thoughts bring about negative manifestations. The theory is very simple. Because it is an absolute law, the law of attraction will always respond to your thoughts no matter what they are. Thus your thoughts become things. You are the most powerful power in the universe simply because whatever you think about will come to be. You shape the world that exists around you. You shape your own life and destiny through the power of your mind.

The steps to utilizing this law in life are simple and supposedly founded upon the wisdom of Jesus as we read it in Matthew 21:22. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” The law of attraction demands only this:

• Know what you want and ask the universe for it.
• Feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way.
• Be open to receiving it.

There are aspects of this law that are clearly attractive to the human heart. We all like to think that we have ultimate control over our lives and that we can have anything we want. We all want to control our destinies and to feel that the universe is at our beck and call–that it is a friendly force working with and not against us. This is, I am convinced, what draws people to the law of attraction.

But there are many areas in which The Secret has nothing to offer–in which the law of attraction as the most powerful law in the universe is simply an incomplete, irrational and even depressing answer. Allow me to suggest a few.

First, The Secret has no real ability to respond to the problem of human evil–surely the greatest problem anyone can face.

First, The Secret has no real ability to respond to the problem of human evil–surely the greatest problem anyone can face. Byrne admits that people’s first thoughts, when they hear of the law, is to think of times where masses of people lost their lives. According to the law of attraction, these people were necessarily on the same frequency as the event that took their lives. They may not have had thoughts of the event, but somehow their negative thoughts drew them into it. But this simply does not prove a satisfying answer to the world’s problems. Does this not mean that the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust were ultimately responsible for thinking negative thoughts that summoned this even to them? Does it not force us to believe that the people who died when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11 were responsible for calling this negative situation to themselves? Does it not mean that a young girl is ultimately responsible for the years of sexual abuse her father imposed upon her? The Secret offers nothing to these people but the understanding that their suffering is somehow their own fault. When we look at The Secret as the law that can bring you anything you want it has a clear attraction; when we look at it from the perspective of one who has suffered, it is clearly flawed.

The law of attraction continues in logical progression until it arrives at the inevitable end result of ascribing divinity to humanity.

Second, the law works itself out in ways that are breathtaking for their selfishness. For example, Byrne warns against listening to people speak about their illnesses or problems lest you begin to think negative thoughts and begin to manifest the negative consequences in your own life. She warns against sacrifice, either financial or personal, saying that sacrifice makes you prove your belief in lack rather than in abundance. She tells you to always place yourself first and to always look out for your own interests ahead of anyone else’s. She puts you in the place of God, as the one who stands at the center of the universe. The law of attraction continues in logical progression until it arrives at the inevitable end result of ascribing divinity to humanity.

The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there, for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret.

She goes on: “You are God in physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet.” The law offers no higher power than yourself. This makes me wonder: what would the world look like if everyone followed The Secret and devoted themselves primarily to their own interests, forsaking compassion and sacrifice and other “negative” elements of life?

Third, the law, at least insofar as it is described in this book, makes no allowance for what happens when desires clash. What happens when two people set their thoughts on the same thing? While I understand that the universe offers infinite opportunities, can two people equally have the same thing? What happens when what one person wants is harmful to another person? What if one person’s pleasure is another person’s pain? If the law of attraction is the highest law in the universe, it must be that there is nothing to govern such cases.

Finally, the law also works in ways that defy both common sense and human experience. For example, when considering weight loss Byrne makes the unbelievable claim that food can only make you fat if you think it can make you fat. If you determine that food is unable to make you gain weight, you can eat as much as you want and never gain wait or suffer any ill effects. When considering health she suggests that we can heal ourselves of any affliction simply through the power of our minds. Interestingly, The Secret has been championed by Oprah Winfrey who offers her own life as testimony to the power of the law of attraction. The week after Oprah’s endorsement sales of The Secret jumped from 18,000 to 101,000. The week after a second endorsement sales rose to 190,000. Winfrey has since had to soften her enthusiasm as people were following the book’s advice to the extent that they were forgoing medical treatment, believing in the power of their thoughts to heal themselves. Doctors were unimpressed, as were the diseases and disorders which did not respond to the mind’s attempts to destroy them. Byrne even says that the law of attraction can grant immortality. Yet the people who teach this law seem to be aging at the same rate as the rest of us.

As I read The Secret it occurred to me that if the Bible were a product of human minds it would undoubtedly resemble something like this: a celebration of humanity, a portrayal of humans as divine, and probably the most idolatrous thing I’ve ever read. Within the Bible, in the first chapter of the book of Romans, God addresses this desperate desire to rid ourselves of God’s claim to our lives. “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” And amen. The Secret claims to be able to give us everything we could ever want. Yet it can’t even address the fundamental problems of human nature. It represents only the latest in a long line of attempts to revoke God that has continued since the first man turned his back on His Creator. There’s nothing new here but the fancy, twenty-first century packaging.

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• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

by Lee Child & Andrew Child ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 2023

An enjoyable, fast-moving yarn.

Trouble could be Jack Reacher’s middle name in this 28th adventure in the series.

In Chicago in 1992, Roberta and Veronica Sanson throw a recovering heart-attack patient out a hospital window. Thus begins a series of murders the women commit as they try to get someone to answer an important question about an event that happened in December 1969. On the team investigating the murders is Capt. Jack Reacher of the military police. Previously, he had been demoted from the rank of major, but that is literally another story. Reacher is a strange man, “naturally suited to two states of existence. Instant, explosive action. And near-catatonic stasis. It was the in-between he struggled with.” Faster and smarter than any four bad guys, he’s a superhero who deserves to have an action figure in his likeness if one doesn't exist already. But he and his team have their hands full with the Sanson sisters, who are killers on a mission. Back in 1969, there had been a team of scientists working on a secret project, and the sisters demand to know the name of the eighth team member, who all the victims insist to their death does not exist. The investigative team is puzzled as they realize someone is picking off retired scientists one by one, and “former CIA assets start dropping like flies.” There are some interesting lines: When a high-ranking government official comes under suspicion, Reacher says, “This is America. The law applies to him the same as everyone else.” Readers who follow current events may find the statement pointed. And Roberta chastises a victim: “There you go. Underestimating a woman, again. Will you never learn?” The plot gets a bit complicated, and readers will find a few nice twists. But mainly, Reacher provides the entertainment with his not quite believable fighting skills.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023

ISBN: 9781984818584

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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by Lee Child & Andrew Child

edited by Lee Child

CITY IN RUINS

by Don Winslow ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2024

If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.

The dramatic conclusion to the trilogy about two New England crime families begun in City on Fire (2022) and City of Dreams (2023).

Near the end of his journey, multimillionaire Danny Ryan watches a casino implode in a mushroom cloud of dust and muses about his life’s implosions: “The cancer that killed his wife, the depression that destroyed his love, the moral rot that took his soul.” Danny is from Providence, Rhode Island, and desperately tried to leave his criminal life behind him. But using a ton of ill-gotten gains, he invests heavily in Las Vegas properties. Congress is conducting an investigation into gambling that could destroy his casino business and even land him in jail. An FBI agent plans to take Danny down for major sins he’d like to repent for. Meanwhile, can he make peace with his enemies? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Even if the parties involved want to put the past behind them, the trouble is that they don’t trust each other. Is Vern Winegard setting Dan up? Is Dan setting Vern up? “Trust? Trust is children waiting for Santa Claus.” So what could have been a “Kumbaya,” nobody-wants-to-read-this story turns into a grisly bloodletting filled with language that would set Sister Mary Margaret’s wimple on fire—figuratively speaking, as she’s not in the book. But the Catholic reference is appropriate: Two of the many colorful characters of ill repute are known as the Altar Boys, serving “Last Communion” to their victims. On the law-abiding side and out of the line of fire is an ex-nun-turned-prosecutor nicknamed Attila the Nun, who’s determined to bring justice for a gory matricide. (Rhode Island really had such a person, by the way.) Finally, the prose is just fun: A friend warns Dan about Allie Licata: “In a world of sick fucks, even the sick fucks think Licata’s a sick fuck.” A couple of things to note: This not only ends the trilogy, but it also closes out the author’s career, as he has said he’ll write no more novels.

Pub Date: April 2, 2024

ISBN: 9780063079472

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | THRILLER | POLICE PROCEDURALS | CRIME & LEGAL THRILLER | GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEVLINS

by Lisa Scottoline ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2024

As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.

The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.

The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.

Pub Date: March 26, 2024

ISBN: 9780525539704

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | CRIME & LEGAL THRILLER | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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by Lisa Scottoline

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The Secret| Book Review| Rhonda Byrne

Author: Rhonda Byrne

Writing: 4.5/5

Presentation: 4/5

Overall: 4.5/5

Genre: Spirituality/Self help.

“ Here’s the problem. Most people are thinking about what they don’t want, and they’re wondering why it shows up over and over again ”- John Assaraf

From time immemorial, the knowledge of how to create your destiny has been passed down. It has been learned and used by a lot of inventors and great thinkers. This ‘secret’ that holds the power to change the face of humanity as well as our individual lives has now been unveiled in this magical book.

The author Rhonda Byrne describes the Law of Attraction as a Universal power that is as true as the laws of physics. Something that can be harnessed to attract abundance. To create a life that you will love to live. The only investment that it will need is your thoughts. Think positive and abundant thoughts and the same will come back to you. In this law of the Universe, like attracts like. A great emphasis has also been placed on gratitude and visualization. You cannot receive more of something unless you are thankful for what you already have.

“I always say, when the voice and the vision on the inside become more profound, clear and loud than the opinions on the outside, you’ve mastered your life.” – Dr. John Demartini

My opinion on The Secret

When I had initially picked up this book to read in my college days, I found the concepts slightly difficult to wrap my head around. As I progressed through the book, I realized every little thought and idea was explained in great detail. The main idea is explained in a variety of different ways so that every reader will understand the gist of it. Initially, some parts might seem a bit repetitive but it seems like the secret does not only have to be taught but ingrained in your mind and hence the repetition makes sense.

One particular metaphor that I liked was that of Aladdin and the lamp from which a Genie appears. The Genie always says one thing, ‘Your wish is my command’. So, whatever you think, say or act upon is assumed to be what you want by the Genie. He will fulfil your wish no matter what. That is exactly how the Universe works. Once it knows what you want, it will rearrange circumstances to make your wish come true.  

This book is filled with quotes by great thinkers and success stories of the law of attraction. Tales of how people have been successful in manifesting love, relationships, money and desired careers have been described in detail. It has dedicated chapters for each aspect of life. Some exercises are also included that you can practice to invite abundance. All in all, it’s a lovely introduction to this Universal power.

The Law of attraction has been very helpful in my journey as well. Everyone should give this book a try, regardless of whether they believe in the law of attraction or not. I would recommend it. However, it’s essential to keep an open mind about it.

There is also a movie with the same name. It is the knowledge from that movie that has been compiled into this book. This book is also part of a series of books by Rhonda Byrne written about the Law of attraction. Some of the people who know about this book say that they enjoyed the audiobook version more than the written one as it inspires them more. I have personally enjoyed both.

So, do you believe in the law of attraction? Have you ever used it? I would love to hear your stories in the comments.

If you like this book, you would also love to read the other books from this series: The Power, The Magic, The Greatest Secret, Hero, How the Secret changed my life: Real People.

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The Secret Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   The Secret is a self-help book by Rhonda Byrne that explains how the law of attraction, which states that positive energy attracts positive things into your life, governs your thinking and actions, and how you can use the power of positive thinking to achieve anything you can imagine.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

Video Summary

The secret review, audio summary, who would i recommend the secret book summary to.

Have you ever set an outrageous goal, never looked at it again, and later realized you’ve already accomplished it?

This once happened to famous talk show host Oprah Winfrey . She read a book called The Color Purple and immediately recognized herself as destined to portray one of its characters in a big Hollywood movie. Miraculously, she got a random call to audition for a secret movie, which turned out to be… The Color Purple . However, when she didn’t hear back for months, she let go of the idea. Right then, she received the call from Steven Spielberg .

That was in 1984. For the next 20 years, Oprah couldn’t quite explain how she’d managed to turn this fantasy into reality – until author Rhonda Byrne told her about The Secret . This global bestseller has sold almost 30 million copies. Millions of people consider it the perfect blueprint for achieving your goals. Today, we’ll analyze it.

Here’s the essence of  The Secret book in 3 lessons:

• The law of attraction is one of the most prevalent principles in the world.
• To use the law of attraction, you must think about what you want, not what you want to avoid.
• The three steps of the law of attraction are asking, believing, and receiving.

Do you have a big, crazy vision? Here’s how to prime yourself for achieving it.

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: One of the strongest rules in life is the law of attraction.

While Byrne packaged the idea in a new way, which appealed to the masses, the law of attraction itself is as old as we are: like attracts like. In Germany, we have a saying: “As you shout into the woods, so they echo back.” In essence, the law of attraction states that what you think and feel determines what you’ll attract into your life .

The concept has been written about as long as self-help books are a thing. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, for example. Rhonda herself first found it in  The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. They all describe the same thing in different forms. Let’s say you focus on all the negative feedback you get as an artist. In doing so, you’ll encourage more criticism. Similarly, a person who hates money will never become wealthy, and so on.

What the book is often criticized for is its overemphasis on the power of the law. While there is a concept in psychology called priming , that shows we intuitively act based on influences, you can’t live your entire life this way. So yes, it’s important to put yourself in the right state of mind to achieve your goals, but that alone won’t cut it.

Lesson 2: The law of attraction only works when you think in positives, not negatives.

Another case study of the law of attraction is Jim Carrey, who, funnily enough, discussed his experience with Oprah in 1997 , also before she knew about  The Secret . As an aspiring actor, Carrey would stop on his drive home every night, think about his future accomplishments and visualize them. He took comfort in the fact that he “[did] have these things, I just don’t have a hold of them yet, but they’re out there.”

He even wrote himself a check for ten million dollars and post-dated it 5 years . Lo and behold, he did end up making the sum from Dumb and Dumber , just around the deadline. What’s remarkable about the way Carrey did it is that he always envisioned the positives that would come into his life, rather than the negatives he was trying to avoid.

When it comes to our internal monologue, loss aversion is a powerful driving force. We’re a lot more worried about losing what we have, rather than getting what we want. That’s why most of us subconsciously play not to lose, instead of playing to win. In part, this is why people who take more risks have less competition. Fewer people shoot for great than for average.

Plus, if you’re trying to convince yourself, framing something as a win sounds more inspiring than driving yourself with fear.

Lesson 3: To manifest your dreams, you must ask, believe, and then receive.

Besides regularly thinking about your goals, visualizing them, and framing them positively, Rhonda suggests an actual, three-step process you can use to make the law of attraction work for you:

• Ask . This is about being specific in what you want out of life. Vague questions get vague answers . Use a present tense structure and write down what you want from a perspective of gratitude: “I’m grateful to have [INSERT DESIRE].”
• Believe . If you don’t have unwavering faith in your goal, why should others? This is about radiating confidence, so that the people you meet along the way will support you. Don’t be blindly optimistic, but in a go-getter spirit.
• Receive . Imagine how you’ll feel once you accomplish your goal. What would life be like? Visualize. This’ll prime your actions in the right direction.

Again, I’m all for planning, being motivated, and believing in yourself. However, the one big caveat to all this is that your actions have to back up your state of mind. As Gary Vee says “the law of attraction only works if you do.” So think positive thoughts, prep for success, pay attention, and then work like a madman to get what you want.

They say the best books split the audience, and this one definitely does. Some people swear on it like gospel, others dismiss it as feel-good mumbo jumbo. I think the truth is, as so often, somewhere in the middle. Yes, the power of positive thinking works, but only to an extent, and it’s not the be-all, end-all. Read The Secret , but take it with a grain of salt. Reflect on it, and then come to your own conclusions about it .

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The Secret by Rhonda Byrne Book Summary

After suddenly losing her father in 2004, Rhonda Byrne’s life fell into turmoil. Her relationships with colleagues and loved ones frayed, and she became increasingly despondent. However, during this period of soul-searching and self-inquiry, she discovered what she refers to as “The Secret” to life. By tracing its origins throughout history, she realized that the world’s greatest thinkers, from Plato and Shakespeare, to Edison and Einstein, all knew The Secret, and it was the key to their success. 

Post Contents

What Is The Secret About?

The secret revealed, the secret made simple, how to use the secret, powerful processes, the secret to money, the secret to relationships, the secret to health, the secret to the world, the secret to you, the secret to life.

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Believing wholeheartedly in the power of The Secret, Byrne decided the next step was to write a book. The Secret includes the wisdom of the 24 different teachers featured in the film, in addition to Byrne’s tips to help you live a life you’ve only dreamed of. With The Secret , Byrne states that you can be, have, or do anything you want and get to know who you really are.

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Across nearly all religious thought and as testified by some of the greatest thinkers of our time, the law of attraction is said to be the most powerful law in the universe. It’s a law that began at the beginning of time and that determines the order of things within the universe. It forms your life experience – and it does so, Byrne believes, through your thoughts.

Byrne argues that all those who become wealthy have done so by using The Secret, either consciously or unconsciously. As they think predominantly about wealth and don’t let contradictory thoughts enter their mind, wealth comes to them. This, according to Byrne, is the law of attraction in action. Similar arguments can be found in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich . Like Byrne, Hill believed that by repeating a set of daily mantras and reprogramming your thoughts, you can manifest great riches.

Consequently, Byrne believes that your current life is a reflection of your past thoughts. You attract what you think about the most. To change your life, you must change your thoughts. You literally think your life into existence. What you’re thinking now will create your future life. One way to master your mind is to learn how to quieten it. Each teacher who contributed to The Secret practices daily meditation. By quieting your mind, you become aware of your thoughts and, thus, learn that you can control both your thoughts and your life.

Building on this, Byrne believes that your feelings are your greatest tool. Because they are caused directly by your thoughts, they let you know what you are thinking. By becoming aware of what you are feeling, you can uncover what you’re thinking. Byrne believes it’s impossible to simultaneously feel bad while having good thoughts.

By shifting your thoughts to focus on what you want, your feelings will eventually confirm that your frequency has changed as you will start to feel good. From here, the law of attraction will take over and manifest these thoughts as reality.

• Ask: To get what you want, you must first ask for it. However, you must be clear about what you want before you ask for it.
• Believe: Here, you must believe that what you want is already yours. Understand that the moment you ask for it, you will have received it. Once you ask, the universe shifts to accommodate for your want. You must have faith in the law.
• Receive: The final step in the process is simply receiving what you’ve asked for and relishing in it.

Now that you know the steps of how to put The Secret into action, Byrne suggests starting small. This means thinking about your day in advance. At the start of each day, you should think about the tasks you have to do, but visualize them going the best possible way they could. This sends out positive frequencies to the universe and, due to the law of attraction, will manifest in reality. This helps you live a life of intention.

As you begin to change your thought patterns, powerful changes will take place in your life. One of the most beneficial steps to begin changing the way you think is to practice gratitude. Start by making a list of all the things you are grateful for. This will shift your energy and, thus, your thoughts. Make gratitude part of your daily routine, and you will see dramatic, positive changes in your life. By feeling more grateful for the things you already have, you start to attract more of the good things.

In addition to gratitude, practicing visualization is also an excellent technique for using the law of attraction. By visualizing what you want, you generate thoughts and feelings as if you already had what you desire. This demonstrates a deep trust in the universe. Creating vision boards can be particularly helpful when visualizing, especially if you put the board in a place that you’ll look at frequently each day.

The law of attraction can be applied to every area of life. Money is no exception. However, to invite more money into your life, you must focus on your future wealth, not on any thoughts that say you don’t currently have enough. By focusing on the latter, you will only create more circumstances in which you won’t have enough. Yet, by visualizing and believing that you already have more than enough money, you will manifest it as a reality.

By doing so, you will instantly see your relationship to money change. You will feel more at ease with your finances, and then money will begin to flow into your life. By feeling happy in the present, you will get everything you could want. By radiating feelings of joy, the universe will reflect that back to you in abundance. Byrne argues that this is the fastest way to accumulate money. Wealth is a mindset.

Any action that we take is first preceded by a thought. Therefore, by looking at our actions, we can see the physical manifestation of our thoughts. If you want to cultivate something in your life, you must ensure that your actions don’t contradict your wants. You must act as if you’ve already received your deepest desires. 

This is also true for relationships. If you don’t treat yourself the way you want others to treat you, your actions contradict your desires for a happy, healthy relationship. First, you must start with yourself. You are responsible for your own joy. When you independently create joy in your life, you’ll naturally be more loving to those that surround you. This will attract more people to you.

By treating yourself with love and respect, the law of attraction will bring people into your life who love and respect you. However, if you don’t love yourself, you will block all of the gifts the universe has to offer. Instead, you will only attract more people, situations, and circumstances that strengthen your belief that you’re unlovable or a bad person. By starting to focus on the positive parts of your character and what you like about yourself, you’ll begin to change your frequency and attract better partners.

In the healing arts, the power of the placebo effect is well-known. It’s a powerful phenomenon in which patients are cured even when they’ve been given, for example, a sugar pill as opposed to a pharmaceutical drug. According to Byrne, this proves that by simply thinking and believing that you’ve been cured, you manifest it as a reality. She controversially believes that if you bring an abundance of positivity and love into your life, you can cure yourself of disease.

Byrne suggests visualizing thoughts of perfection, as she argues that illness cannot reside in a body that has harmonious thoughts. Likewise, if you feel unwell, don’t reinforce any negative thought patterns by talking about how unwell you feel. Instead, do the opposite and talk about how great you feel. According to Byrne’s logic, you can think yourself to a state of perfect health. 

Byrne argues that if you resist your feelings, you prevent yourself from changing your reality. To change your reality, you must go within yourself and create a new frequency with your thoughts and feelings. By resisting something, you give more energy and power to it. The universe, therefore, sends you more of what you resist. 

Consequently, Byrne argues that you cannot help the world by focusing on the negative aspects of it. By absorbing yourself in negative events, you add to them, and you bring more negativity into your life. While you may feel helpless to big world events, you have the power to help change them. By focusing on abundance and love, and transmitting these thoughts out into the universe, you can change the course of events.

Byrne believes that humans are the most powerful transmission receptors for energy. Every individual vibrates at their own frequency dependent on their thoughts and feelings. The same is said of all the things that you desire. These things are composed of energy and, thus, when you think about what you want, you cause that thing to vibrate at your frequency so that it comes to you. This is because the law of attraction states that like attracts like.

As you are energy, and energy can neither be created or destroyed, the energy of your being will always be. Your energy will always exist. Further, Byrne states that what exists does so within one universal mind and, thus, we are all one. Therefore, when you have negative thoughts, you separate yourself from the one mind and all that is good. Consequently, you should let go of past hurts and negative thoughts.

By becoming aware of your true power, you realize that you are the master of your world. It’s the awareness that is key. By bringing awareness to your thoughts and feelings, by asking yourself what you are thinking and feeling throughout the day, you bring awareness to the present. By doing so, you bring awareness to any negative thoughts and feelings, and you are in a position to transform them into positive frequencies.

You get to fill your life with whatever you want. With The Secret, you get to have a fresh start. Start doing more of what brings you joy and commit yourself to happiness, and the law of attraction will bring you more joyful things in abundance. As The Secret lives within you, the more you use its power, and the more you will draw it to you. Byrne believes that the world turns, the birds sing, and the sun rises and sets all for you. You are the perfection of life, and that is the truest form of The Secret.

You can buy The Secret by Rhonda Byrne on Amazon .

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Fight ‘The Power’

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By Christopher F. Chabris and Daniel J. Simons

• Sept. 24, 2010

Maybe it’s happened to you too. You’re reminiscing about a friend who moved away years ago, and then she arrives unexpectedly at your door. You can’t stop thinking about getting the phone call with the job offer, and it comes the next week. Or you have a vision of a family member becoming sick, and then you hear that he has been taken to the hospital.

According to Rhonda Byrne, these experiences are much more than mere coincidences. Byrne’s new book, THE POWER (Atria, $23.95), is the sequel to “The Secret,” which has sold more than 19 million copies in more than 40 languages and created an entire industry of spinoff products. Both books offer a self-help philosophy based on the “law of attraction,” which Byrne describes as a fundamental universal law akin to gravity. This was the “secret” of the first volume. In the second book — currently No. 1 on the New York Times how-to and advice best-seller list — it has been supplemented with talk of the “power of love.”

The law of attraction states that whatever you experience in life is a direct result of your thoughts. It really is that simple. If you think about being fat, you will get fatter. If you think about thin people, you will become thin yourself. If you think about your bills, you will get more bills, but if you think about checks instead, your mailbox will overflow with them. According to “The Secret” and “The Power,” your thoughts and feelings have magnetic properties and “frequencies.” They “vibrate” and resonate with the “universe,” somehow attracting events that share those frequencies back to their thinker.

“The Secret” and “The Power” deliver their wisdom in an ex cathedra voice reminiscent of the “Saturday Night Live” segment “Deep Thoughts.” And Byrne offers no scientific evidence for the absurd physics behind the law of attraction. But that doesn’t mean her books don’t take advantage of up-to-the-minute science. The problem is, it’s not the science she thinks it is.

The law of attraction has been around for millenniums; Byrne cites Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie, Einstein and even Jesus himself as adepts. Just in the past century, it has been repeatedly expressed in essentially the same form as Byrne’s version by Wallace Wattles (“The Science of Getting Rich”), Napoleon Hill (“Think and Grow Rich”) and many other writers. Byrne’s idea of “the universe” plays the same role as Wattles’s “intelligent substance” or Hill’s “infinite intelligence” — a godlike agent that provides whatever we desire. Why is this particular pseudoscientific concept so persistent?

The message of “The Power” and “The Secret” might best be understood as an advanced meme — a sort of intellectual virus — whose structure has evolved throughout history to optimally exploit a suite of weaknesses in the design of the human mind. Had Byrne and the other purveyors of “The Secret” (including Oprah Winfrey, who repeatedly plugged it on her show) set out to reap huge profits by manipulating cognitive biases wired into the brain, they could hardly have done a better job. More likely, they caught the virus themselves and are unwittingly spreading it as far as they can.

The first trick they use is what psychologists call “social proof.” People like to do things other people are doing because it seems to prove the value of their own actions. That is why QVC displays a running count of how many viewers have bought each item for sale, and why advice seems more credible if it appears to come from many different people rather than one. “The Secret” is peppered with quotations from a group of about 20 “teachers” or “avatars,” many of whom are themselves popular self-help gurus. In “The Power,” Byrne also quotes sages like Thoreau, Gandhi and St. Augustine. This ploy, an example of a related logical fallacy called the argument from authority, taps our intuitive beliefs so forcefully that we psychology professors spend time training our introductory students to actively resist it.

Byrne also activates what might be called the illusion of potential, our readiness to believe that we have a vast reservoir of untapped abilities just waiting to be released. This illusion helps explain the popularity of products like “Baby Mozart” and video games that “train your brain” and entertain you at the same time. Unfortunately, rigorous empirical studies have repeatedly shown that none of these things bring about any meaningful improvement in intelligence.

“The Power” and “The Secret” are larded with references to magnets, energy and quantum mechanics. This last is a dead giveaway: whenever you hear someone appeal to impenetrable physics to explain the workings of the mind, run away — we already have disciplines called “psychology” and “neuroscience” to deal with those questions. Byrne’s onslaught of pseudoscientific jargon serves mostly to establish an “illusion of knowledge,” as social scientists call our tendency to believe we understand something much better than we really do. In one clever experiment by the psychologist Rebecca Lawson, people who claimed to have a good understanding of how bicycles work (and who ride them every day) proved unable to draw the chain and pedals in the correct location.

But ersatz theoretical physics has only so much persuasive power. Byrne also provides several bits of empirical evidence for her claims. For example, in “The Power,” we hear about an anonymous woman who left a long, abusive relationship and “never talked negatively about her ex-husband but instead gave only positive thoughts and words about a new, perfect, beautiful husband.” Sure enough, we are told, she soon met her “perfect and beautiful” new husband, and they now live happily ever after in Spain — which happens to be in Europe, the very continent the woman  had dreamed of visiting!

The intuitive appeal of such stories illustrates the human tendency to see things that happen in sequence — first the positive thinking, then the positive results — as forming a chain of cause and effect. This is even more likely to happen when all the stories we hear fit an expected pattern, a phenomenon psychologists call “illusory correlation.” If we hear only about the crazy coincidences (“I was thinking about getting the job offer, and right then I got the call!”), not the unconnected events (“I thought about getting the offer, but it never came” or “I wasn’t thinking about the offer, then I got it”) or even the nonevents (“I didn’t think I would get the offer, and indeed I didn’t get it”), then we get a distorted picture. Even worse, we can misremember two things as happening in close succession when in fact they happened much farther apart in time, or even in the reverse order. When Byrne tells her readers to “make a connection” between the good things they do and the good things that come to them, she is focusing their attention on positive examples of the law of attraction, thereby reinforcing the illusion that it actually works.

The powerful psychology behind these rhetorical tricks can distract readers from the larger illogic of ­Byrne’s books. What if a thousand people started sincerely visualizing winning the entire $200 million prize in this week’s Lotto? How would the universe sort out that mess? But it’s useless to argue with books like “The Secret” and “The Power.” They demonstrate an exquisite grasp of the reality of human nature. After all, the only other force that could explain how Rhonda Byrne put two books on top of the best-seller list is the law of attraction itself.

Christopher Chabris is a psychology professor at Union College. Daniel Simons is a psychology professor at the University of Illinois. They are the authors of “The Invisible Gorilla, and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us.”

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The Secret review

Table of Contents

The Secret is a popular and controversial book by Rhonda Byrne. Read on to learn more about the main message behind it.

The Secret documentary and book by Rhonda Byrne have touched the hearts and minds of many people worldwide. This self-help book based on the film of the same name shows people that their thoughts can change their lives.

Here we’ll discuss the main themes and philosophy behind the book.

What is The Secret about?

The Secret began as a documentary. The author Rhonda Byrne faced a particularly rough period and managed to get through it thanks to “the secret.”

Interestingly, Plato, Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Einstein are said to have known and used the secret to achieve what they wanted. To share the idea with the rest of the world, Byrne made the documentary.

According to the author, it can change your life and help you get everything you want. The documentary features experts like Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Jack Canfield, etc.

Some of these experts specialize in quantum physics and metaphysics, while others are motivational speakers or psychologists .

Due to the success of the documentary, Rhonda Byrne wrote a book covering the same subject. One of the inspirations for the book was The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles.

The Secret covers the law of attraction and states that the power of positive thinking can help you do anything you want. According to the author, positive thoughts can bring good things your way, and this bestselling book explains the secret to a joyful life.

The book was also an instant success and bestseller. The author Rhonda Byrne was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, after which the sales skyrocketed. There wasn’t a person who didn’t at least hear about the book.

After the success of her first book, Rhonda Byrne wrote five more personal development and self-help books, which form The Secret series. All the books from the series made the New York Times bestseller list, including:

How The Secret Changed My Life

The Greatest Secret

The Secret was adapted into a movie named The Secret: Dare to Dream, starring Katie Holmes and Josh Lucas.

The controversy – Explaining the pros and cons of The Secret

According to Rhonda Byrne, the law of attraction (New Thought law) is the most powerful law in the universe. She states that our thoughts shape and guide our life. In other words, our life is the manifestation of our predominant thoughts, emotions, and words.

It’s up to us to choose the thoughts that directly control our life. Positive thoughts will bring good things to us. Likewise, negative thoughts can attract bad things. Besides this, Byrne emphasizes the importance of visualization and affirmative thoughts.

For example, saying “I am smart” or “I can do it” is much more enforcing and positive than saying “I will fail” or “I’m not strong enough.”

The Secret is still a popular book. Regardless, it divides opinion. Some claim that the book offers fresh insight into the human psyche and helps us embrace a new mindset, while others say it’s just a bunch of superstitious nonsense and silly quotes.

The pros of The Secret

People who like and support the book often say that it changed their life. After reading the book for the first time, they became aware of their thoughts, tried to be more positive, and enjoyed the results, whether in the professional or personal sphere.

The book made them question their thoughts and behaviors and change for the better. Some of the main advantages people experienced were motivation, empowerment, and visualizing goals.

Plus, many recognized the power of love. According to the book, love is the highest frequency one can emit and has many positive aspects.

The cons of The Secret

But is this book really the secret to a happy and fulfilled life? Many argue that it’s not.

According to critics, the book focuses on narcissism and depicting ourselves as the center of the universe, which isn’t right. It extols the virtues of entitlement and self-absorption that can only lead to one feeling worse instead of better in the long run.

Another flaw many people point out is that the book focuses on thoughts instead of actions. You can’t just think about having an expensive car, a great job, or lots of friends and think it will happen; you need to act on it.

Some critics expressed reservations regarding people who lost their lives in horrible tragedies. Did these people have such negative thoughts that they deserved to die? Were their thoughts responsible for the tragedies?

As you can see, the book has its pros and cons, and it’s no surprise it’s considered controversial. Whether you like it or not depends solely on your interpretation.

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Speechify Audiobooks offers convenient options like adjusting the playback speed and setting the sleep timer. Since it automatically syncs your progress between devices, you can always pick up right where you left off.

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What is the main message of The Secret ?

The main message is that positive thoughts can attract positive things in your life.

Is the movie The Secret a true story?

No, it’s not based on a true story.

What is the secret to success?

Depends on whom you ask. Some say it’s positive thinking; others say it’s luck, intelligence, or hard work. Ultimately, there’s no universal secret to success. If there were, we would all be successful.

How true is The Secret book?

Again, it depends on whom you ask. Some claim the book is phenomenal and offers a unique insight into the human mind, while others say it’s narcissistic and irrelevant.

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Description

This is the secret to life..

Author Rhonda Byrne, like each of us, has been on her own journey of discovery. In The Secret, she explains with simplicity the law that is governing all lives, and offers the knowledge of how to create – intentionally and effortlessly – a joyful life.

Now for the first time in history, all the pieces of The Secret come together in a revelation that is life transforming for all who experience it.

WATCH THE SECRET TRAILER

Change your life by changing your thoughts. It is as simple and as complicated as that.

I was changed to believing in myself and fulfilled. I feel ready to take the world on!

A must read for anyone seeking spiritual enlightenment or feeling down about life.

Amazing. It’s a book that could turn your life upside down in a good way.

All my life I’ve felt there is more. Now I understand ‘I AM’ and ‘no idea is original.’

This is an awesome book. Life changing content. Thank you.

If you haven’t read this, I suggest you do. This book has changed my life.

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the secret: a jack reacher novel.

There is nothing quite like a Jack Reacher novel. Lee Child has been penning thrillers featuring his favorite protagonist for decades. Now he has released his fourth Reacher story written with his brother, Andrew Child.

In many of these books, Reacher is a large figure with an eagle’s sense of justice who roams the country and gets into situations that require a hero. There are others, like THE SECRET, in which Reacher is called upon by his own government to help clean up a potentially deadly mess. This latest effort is set in 1992, which makes some of the post-Cold War rumblings more significant than they would be in the present day.

"THE SECRET is just what you would expect from a Jack Reacher novel --- fast-paced, no-nonsense and extremely hard-hitting."

Keith Bridgeman, who is in his early 60s, wakes up in his hospital bed where he is recovering from a cardiac arrest to find two strange women standing there. They identify themselves as Veronica and Roberta Sanson, and they are interested in a top-secret bioweapons project in India that he was a part of in 1969. Before they end his life by throwing him out of his hospital window, they inform him that they are the daughters of Morgan Sanson. This allows Bridgeman to go over in his head who he wronged during that mission as his body races towards the pavement.

It turns out that Bridgeman is just the start. Two other apparently innocent U.S. citizens, Owen Buck and Varinder Singh, die mysteriously. The response is swift from Secretary of Defense Charles Stamoran, who puts together a team to look into these deaths and try to find a connection. Among these folks is the one and only Jack Reacher. If Stamoran had done a better job vetting these candidates, he might have had second thoughts about Reacher, who will hunt down the truth like a bulldog no matter where it leads.

Readers are already privy to the fact that Stamoran had something to do with the tragic events that took place in India when thousands of innocent lives were claimed due to the mishandling of chemical weapons. The seven members of that team are now on a hit list kept by Veronica and Roberta, who also insist on learning the name of the notorious eighth individual who was really pulling the strings.

Meanwhile, more murders are being committed at the hands of these ruthless assassins, who sort of remind me of Bambi and Thumper from the James Bond classic DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. When talk of Russian involvement in the 1969 case becomes a thing, Reacher and company get their hands on a former Soviet who provides some much-needed information concerning the identity of that eighth member.

THE SECRET is just what you would expect from a Jack Reacher novel --- fast-paced, no-nonsense and extremely hard-hitting. While fans wait patiently for the second season of “Reacher” to hit Amazon Prime Video, it might be a nice idea to dive into this exciting new book so you can get your Reacher fix right now.

Reviewed by Ray Palen on October 27, 2023

The Secret: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

• Publication Date: April 23, 2024
• Genres: Fiction , Suspense , Thriller
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam
• ISBN-10: 1984818600
• ISBN-13: 9781984818607

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An Honest Review of ‘The Secret’ by Rhondy Byrne

‘ The Secret’ mentioned in this book supposedly leads you in the direction of achieving anything that you put your mind to. This book by Rhondy Byrne was suggested to me by a close friend. And when I was given the opportunity to write the book review, I felt so excited because there is so much that I want to say about this book.

The Secret is a self-help book that discusses the Law of Attraction. From what I have learned so far, the Law of Attraction is based on three strong pillars of Ask, Believe, and Receive. The book emphasizes on directing your thoughts in a direction that leads you to achieve all your goals. The book also urges you to believe in your thoughts and your potential to achieve whatever you aspire for. 

But like most of the other books, it has some pros and cons, some benefits and downsides. 

To keep my review on an optimistic side, I would like to discuss the pros or the benefits of this book first. 

1. Motivation

I personally felt that The Secret gives a generous amount of motivation to those who wish to achieve anything, whether small or big. If you want a dose of motivation, this book next to perfect. In fact, it urges us to maintain a goal-oriented mindset as it revolves around the idea that you attract whatever you focus your energy and thoughts on. 

This book also shares some insights and effectual strategies that can be put to use. The best thing about the book, according to me, is that it is full of examples that make it easy for us to understand. The examples are quite relatable as well. 

2. Empowerment

Why do you think that 1 percent of the population earns around 96 percent of all the money that's being earned? Do you think that's an accident? It's designed that way. They understand something. They understand The Secret, and now you are being introduced to The Secret.

These words by Bob Proctor are quoted from page no 6 of The Secret . These words are stuck in my head and they are very correct, according to me. The author further explained this by stating that wealthy people are wealthy because they think about wealth and abundance all the time. They do not allow controversies, negativity, or self-doubt to creep in their heads. They are clear about what they want and chase it tirelessly.

This particular excerpt from the book was very empowering for me. In fact, it urges you to believe in yourself and to believe in what you want, which is crucial for attaining your aim. They scream, “If they can, you too can.” It delivers the message that you can achieve anything if you really put your mind and soul to it.

You are the most powerful magnet in the Universe! You contain a magnetic power within you that is more powerful than anything in this world, and this unfathomable magnetic power is emitted through your thoughts.

These words from page no 7 also felt empowering as they make us realize our existence, uniqueness, and might in the universe. It also reflects how powerful our thoughts can be if we direct them in a constructive direction. 

3. Like Attracts Like

The Law of Attraction, the principle of this book, states that you attract whatever you focus your energy on (good or bad). This works with every aspect of life like relationships, possessions, goals, and anything else you are able to focus on—even your own health. There are various examples in the book to support this. 

But the most relatable for me was the one that highlighted the fact that our mood and our thoughts are affected by simple things like the type of music we listen to. If we are feeling low, sometimes we prefer slow and rather sad melodies over the happy ones. In turn, we feel even more terrible by the sad lyrics and the slow music. This is because we attract more sadness. 

Know more about the Law of Attraction in this video

4. Visualization of the Goals

The best thing about The Secret , according to me, is how it accentuates us to visualize our goals in order to achieve them. It points out that it's not always a straight line between where you are and where you want to go. Furthermore, we can't always detect when things will turn around, but perseverance and a belief in oneself is the key. 

In fact, some people often struggle with achieving even short term goals. This might be because they unconsciously not clear about what they want. They might be in an elusion that they’re clear about their goals but this isn’t always the case. If you’re clear about what you want and believe in yourself, then no one can stop you from achieving what you wish for. 

Positivity has no meaning without negativity, pros cannot be defined without cons and benefits never come without downsides. 

So, I found some downsides to this book as well. These are as per my understanding and my point of view.

1. More About Thoughts and Less About Action

The major downside of The Secret , according to me, is that it talks more of thoughts and less of action. It states that we can also gain expensive cars, enormous house, and wealth just by putting out minds on it. So according to this argument, we can achieve anything and everything by simply sitting on a couch and thinking hard about all the materialistic things. Gaining these things obviously need actions, hard work to be specific. 

This is another downside of this book. It talks so much about materialistic things and little about the internal rewards of our goals. 

2. Rejection And Loss

This book focuses so much on the power of thoughts and it claims that one can attract whatever he/she wants. But there are some things which he simply can’t attract no matter how hard we think about it.

For example, we lose our loved ones. We grieve deeply and we want them back with us at any cost. But no one returns from the dead and that’s a fact. We simply can’t have them back with us. 

There is another example. Many people get rejected in love. They think about that person 24/7 and they want them so badly. They even imagine their ‘happily ever after’ with them even after getting rejected. But just imagining these stories is of often no use. 

3. No Credit Given to Failures

The author seems to believe that we can build million-dollar businesses just by thinking hard about it. A firm belief is obviously important. But in order for a business to survive, top-notch and clever business strategies are equally important. Innovation is another important factor that determines whether a business can stand the test of time or not. 

The Secret by Rhondy Byrne is an exceptional self-help book for the people who know how to put their thoughts into action. But if someone fails to capture the true essence of this book, this can be as a justification of laziness and lack of action. 

Read about more amazing Non-Fiction Books.

Written By - Neha Kundu

Edited By - Kashish Chadha

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Book Reviews

'the familiar' is a romance, coming-of-age tale, and a story about fighting for more.

Gabino Iglesias

Leigh Bardugo's The Familiar is an entertaining slice of speculative fiction wrapped in historical fiction and delivered with heavy doses of magic and wit.

At once a love story, a coming-of-age tale full of secrets and tension, and a narrative about wanting more and doing anything to get it, The Familiar is a solid entry into Bardugo's already impressive oeuvre.

Luzia Cotado is a scullion with callused hands who sleeps on a grimy floor and constantly dreams of a better life where she has more money, complete freedom, and love. Luiza works for a couple who are struggling to maintain their social status, so she doesn't make much and owns almost nothing. To help her get through her days and take care of menial tasks, Luzia uses a bit of magic, which she keeps secret from everyone.

On Netflix, Leigh Bardugo's 'Shadow And Bone' Celebrates A Diverse Grishaverse

Luzia learned how to perform little miracles from her aunt, a strange woman and the lover of a very powerful man. When Luzia's mistress discovers her servant can perform "milagritos," she sees it as the perfect opportunity to improve her social status and forces Luzia to work her magic for their dinner guests. But what begins as entertainment soon turns into something much more serious when Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king, enters the scene and sees Luzia's magic as an opportunity for himself.

The king is desperate to improve his military prowess, and Pérez thinks Luzia's powers might be the thing that puts him, once again, in the king's good graces. There will be a competition, and if Luzia wins, everyone around her might gain something. But winning won't be easy, and Luzia fears her newfound fame will get her and her Jewish blood in the Inquisition's crosshairs. Surrounded by people with secret agendas, learning to use her magic, caught in a new romance with a mysterious undead man, and an unknown pawn in a plethora of self-serving machinations, Luzia will soon need more than a bit of magic to survive.

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The Familiar drags readers into a world of servitude, magic, power struggles, and intrigue. There isn't a single character in this story that doesn't have a secret agenda or something to win—or lose!—that's directly tied to Luzia. The desires of some clash with those of others, and those battles slowly make the narrative more complex while simultaneously increasing the tension and the sense of doom. Despite the many elements at play and the bafflingly large cast of characters she juggles here, Bardugo delivers every twist and turn with clarity, plenty of humor, and charming wittiness, the latter of which fills the novel with superb, snappy dialogue that shows Luzia lacks everything except a quick intelligence and a sharp tongue. Also, while many of the plot elements here like the magic battle, someone being trapped by a curse, and an impossible love are far from new, Bardugo mixes them well together and manages to make them feel fresh.

Known mostly for her Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, and the King of Scars duology—all of which are part of her Grishaverse universe—Bardugo delivers an entertaining standalone here with a strong female protagonist that's very easy to root for. Through Luzia, we get a critique of religion, a look into the lives of those who have no option but to serve to survive, and a romance that's as full of passion and sensuality as well as lies and treachery. Lastly, the magic system Bardugo created, which is Jewish magic based on phrases sung or spoken in mixed languages, is interesting and allows the author to talk about otherness without straying from the core of her narrative.

While Bardugo accomplishes a lot in this novel, the crowning jewel of The Familiar is Luzia, a memorable character whose most personal aspirations possess an outstanding universality. We watch her suffer, emerge from her cocoon, fall in love, and then receive her ultimatum: "Your life, your aunt's life, your lover's future all hang in the balance. So do your best or I will be forced to do my worst." Through every single one of those steps, we want her to triumph and to learn to hone her powers, and that connection keeps the pages turning.

At times the endless descriptions of clothing and the increasing number of characters and subplots—some with a satisfying arc and some that just fizzle out—seem a bit excessive and threaten the pacing of the story. But Bardugo is always in control and her masterful use of tension — and that, along with her talent for great dialogue, more than overpower the novel's small shortcomings.

The Familiar is full of "milagritos" and pain, of betrayal and resentment, of fear and desire. However, the novel's most powerful element is hope; Luzia is all about it, and her feelings are so powerful they're contagious. That connections makes this a book that's hard to put down.

Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas. Find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @Gabino_Iglesias .

Ask the Builder: Secret hiding places aplenty in your home

I’m in the final stages of writing a book that contains hundreds of hacks that you might want to incorporate into your home. I got lots of help from many of my newsletter subscribers, who shared some of their best ideas. It’s been a fun project.

The two categories that received the most response were electrical and secret storage. Thousands of homeowners need help with electrical outlets and switches they feel are in the wrong place. The original electrician didn’t consider the best locations for outlets and switches. You, or a more clever electrician, can rectify some mistakes.

You may be a homeowner who desires to hide small and large things in your home. You may even take it to another level altogether and be like me. I dream of having at least one secret staircase and any number of hidden passages in the next home I build. Think of the game Clue. If you’re in the kitchen, you can magically be across the board in the study. Yes, it’s possible to incorporate secret passages in houses, but that’s a column for another day.

I’ll share with you a few of the ideas that my subscribers sent to me. The best ideas, of course, will be in the pages of my book. I think you’ll enjoy what I’m about to reveal. It’s important to note that you need to get in the mindset of a magician to conjure up the most creative secret places.

One of the easiest ways to create a small hidden space is to create a void between two walls. This needs to be done so that when you’re in each room, you think the wall you’re looking at is a common wall with the room next door. I have this situation in my own home now, where two large metal chimneys pass through the second floor up to the roof.

One of the walls is the back wall of the second-floor bathroom. The other wall is inside a closet in the bedroom next to the bathroom. You automatically think the two rooms share a wall. But there’s actually a space about 24 inches wide between the two walls! The builder could have created a cutout in the hallway to this space. You could cover this opening with a large wall hanging or picture. A French cleat is best for holding the artwork against the wall.

Window seats are an ingenious way to conceal long items that might only be 3 inches tall lying on their side. You can create a false bottom in the seat. Imagine flipping up the hinged window seat and seeing the bottom. Who’s to say there’s not another six or eight inches of space under this bottom? There are many ways to hinge the false bottom so it flips up when you need access.

Do you need to hide some cash, jewelry or other bibelots that have sentimental value? You can store them in your refrigerator. Did you know you can get a small can of latex paint the same color as mayonnaise? Carefully clean an empty jar. Be sure you don’t ruin the label. Let it dry, and then pour some paint into the jar. Roll it around to coat the inside. Let it dry well, and alakazam, you can store valuables in the last place someone might look.

Do you have a workbench in your garage or basement? Is the top supported by a ring of 2-by-6s? If so, transform the front or side piece of lumber into a drawer front. Think of how the drawers work in the metal tool cabinets mechanics use. That same heavy-duty hardware can support the weight of a vast amount of thin, heavy items.

Here’s one of my favorite ways to hide small items of value in plain sight. Purchase a cheap paint roller with a 3/8-inch nap. Get a crappy roller frame and paint pan while you’re at it. Pour some paint into the pan and roll it around as if you had painted a room. Get paint on the roller frame handle. Create the illusion that you used the tools.

Brush out any paint from the pan as you would if you were going to clean it. Remove the roller cover from the frame. Stand it up on end and allow everything to dry for days or a week or two. Start to slide the roller cover back on the frame and look at how you have a tube to hide rings, small jewelry, cash, etc. Just be sure no one throws away the roller and cover that you now place on a shelf and throw other stuff on it to hide it.

Go to library book sales. You can often get thick hardback books for a dollar or less. Do what you’ve seen in the movies. Glue the pages together and cut out the book’s center to create a void space. Complete the illusion by stacking this book with 30 or 40 others you purchased at the sale. I have a stack like this out in my garage on a shelf.

I challenge you to come up with some creative ideas. If you want to share them to help others, I can include your idea in my book and give you credit. Just share it via the Ask Tim page at AsktheBuilder.com website. Happy hiding to you!

From prenatal care to pediatrics, Providence is creating a healthier future for families

Like many expectant mothers, Miranda Kekauoha had a plan.

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Open secret: Some international students in the US are going hungry

Community colleges are an attractive option for international students, in part, because they’re a fraction of the cost of four-year universities. But higher nonresident tuition fees, ineligibility for state or federal aid and limited options for work can still generate sticker shock for people when they arrive in the US.

• By Andrea Gutierrez

Job seeker Johannes Oveida looks over a brochure at a job fair at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. 

When Samantha first left South Africa and came to the United States for community college, money was tight, but she and her family managed to make it work.   Then, COVID-19 happened, and she had to return home to Pretoria.

The economy there stalled, work dried up for her father’s construction business and her parents divorced.

“Unfortunately, COVID really messed up finances for my family altogether,” Samantha said. (The World is not  using her full name because she risks losing her visa by sharing her identity.)

This meant that when campus reopened, Samantha didn’t have the money to return. Like all international students, to get a student visa, she needed to prove up front to school officials that she had $9,000 to pay tuition — about eight times what state residents pay. She also needed living expenses for an entire year, which brought the total to $28,000.

Community colleges are an attractive option for students, in part,  because they’re a fraction of the cost of four-year universities. But with higher nonresident tuition fees, ineligibility for state or federal aid and limited options for work, it can still generate sticker shock when international students arrive in the US.

Samantha’s mother turned to family and friends to raise the money. Some people contributed to tuition, while others offered a bit of spending money to help get her back on her feet. 

“I think a few of my mom’s friends and a few of our family friends contributed,” Samantha recalled. “I don’t know them all, but I’m sure there’s, like, maybe more than 10 people.”

Bank statements are among the paperwork that international students must submit to school officials so that the government can issue an F-1 student visa. Last year, Samantha got her visa and returned to community college in southern California. 

But officials who review funding documentation are aware that bank statements don’t always tell the whole story. 

“We are supposed to see that they have this money to spend,” said Lindsey Ludwig, director of the International Student Program at El Camino College. “However, if you have that money in a bank account, it’s going to be [the] family’s money, it’s not going to necessarily be the student’s money.”

That’s why Ludwig’s office also offers material support. About 1 in 4 college students experience food insecurity , including international students. “We have a little pantry in our office, for free food and coffee,” she said. “So, if international students feel uncomfortable going over to the actual [campus] pantry, they can just pick up stuff in our office.”

Because family support and loans aren’t enough, most international students work while they are in the US.

At Samantha’s college, campus jobs are relatively available. At one point, she had four campus jobs — working at the library, a coffee shop, admissions and records and as a tutor — which mostly covered her living expenses.

But like a lot of international students, Samantha has occasionally had to work under the table to make ends meet.

“I don’t say it with pride. I say it with more [of] a sense of survival,” she said. “As an international student, if you are not somebody who comes from extreme wealth … you can never be above that.”

US institutions have come under fire for their dependence upon international students to balance their budgets.

Stephanie Kim is a higher education scholar at Georgetown University.

Her book , “Constructing Student Mobility: How Universities Recruit Students and Shape Pathways between Berkeley and Seoul,” debunks some of the misconceptions about international students.

“International students who are in the US, they are well-aware of the stereotype that Americans have put onto them,” Kim said. “These rich, wealthy, globetrotters who are coming into campuses and taking away seats. Sometimes they have financial means, but sometimes they don’t.”

According to Kim, colleges need to see international students, not just as income or for how much tuition revenue they bring in, but as individuals with needs, like any other student. “It’s really just reframing the perspective and thinking about how [we can] best serve students on their own terms,” she said.

Still, Samantha feels these difficulties are worth it.

“I have family and friends, I have a village, who are supporting my dreams,” she said.  “Some of us are only here to just better our lives in some way. And education is that key,” she said. “So, just give us some sense of grace when you see us.”

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The vorfreude secret: 30 zero-effort ways to fill your life with joy

How can you change your life for the better today? Learn not just to appreciate happiness – but to anticipate it

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B e honest: there are times when you have felt schadenfreude, or “delight in another’s misfortunes”. But what about v orfreude ? I recently came across this lovely word, which my German-speaking friend translated as “the anticipation of joy”. It struck me as such a hopeful concept – surely we could all do with less schadenfreude and more vorfreude . So what exactly is anticipatory joy, how do we cultivate it and will it make us happier?

“The idea is to find joy in the lead-up to an event,” says Dr Sophie Mort , a clinical psychologist and mental health expert at the meditation and mindfulness app Headspace . “For example, we often feel joy and excitement when planning a trip, thinking about going on a date or anticipating a special meal.” It’s easy to look forward to holidays and special occasions, but a joy-filled life is also about everyday occurrences. Rory Platt, a writer at the personal development company The School of Life , says: “The trick lies in filling our calendar with lots of little moments to look forward to – like tiny baubles that, when seen from a distance, combine to make a more glittering future.”

But vorfreude is not about wishing your life away and thinking you will be happy in an imagined future. “Looking forward to something can trigger joy in the present moment,” says Karen Neil, a health coach and the founder of Mindful Medicine . This can boost your mood, reduce your stress levels and help to avoid burnout. A  2017 study published in Frontiers of Psychology found that anticipating positive events activated the brain’s medial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with a higher level of wellbeing.

Doesn’t getting your hopes up risk disappointment? Perhaps it’s safer to keep expectations low. Emma Mills , a mindfulness expert and the author of Inhale Exhale Repeat, begs to differ. “There is a saying: ‘If you worry, you suffer twice.’ Anticipatory joy is the opposite of that.” Even if an anticipated event turns out to be a letdown, vorfreude helps people bounce back. “ Optimists have improved coping abilities when dealing with unplanned distress and they tend to recover far faster,” says Tania Taylor , a psychotherapist and vorfreude  advocate .

If you are going through a tough time and feel as though you have nothing to look forward to, don’t beat yourself up. “It’s important that positive psychology doesn’t get confused with toxic positivity,” says Taylor. “When I was going through cancer treatment, I spent most days binge‑watching television. It’s OK to sit tight when everything feels overwhelming without feeling guilt that you are not looking for joy.” If feelings of hopelessness persist, she stresses, it’s important to seek help from a GP, a therapist or charities such as  Samaritans or Shout .

If, however, you are ready for vorfreude , it shouldn’t feel like a chore. “Mostly, it will involve exploring what you already have in your life that you look forward to,” says Taylor. Willem Kuyken , a professor of mindfulness at the University of Oxford, has researched the benefits of cultivating joy. In his book Mindfulness for Life, he writes: “It takes only a small step out of habit and into awareness to enjoy the people we love around us, to savour food or to dance to music in our kitchen while cooking. These moments are available to us all the time.”

With that in mind, here are 30 simple ways to get more vorfreude in your life.

Start (really) small

If the concept of vorfreude is completely alien to you, take baby steps. “Try to notice one joyful thing each day,” says Neil. You could frame this as a photo challenge: spend a little time every day looking for one beautiful flower, interesting sight or cute dog to photograph.

Think positive

“Plan a morning affirmation or positive statement and look forward to starting your day with it in your mind,” says Taylor. “Some people create a screensaver with it on their phone so it’s the first thing they see.” An example she gives is: “Today I will look for good moments and remember them.” Mort suggests: “May I be open to joy and have many moments of joy ahead.”

Turn routine into ritual

“A very small thing that I get vorfreude from is anticipating my first coffee of the day,” says Mort. “When I wake up, it’s the first thing I think about: how it will smell, how it will taste and how I will feel while drinking it. It’s a ritual that I love and I really allow myself to focus on it.”

Find joy in the everyday

“At the end of my evening meditation classes, I suggest people consider three things they are looking forward to tomorrow,” says Mills. “It could be their morning walk in the park or listening to a podcast on their commute; maybe sitting down to enjoy their packed lunch at work or looking forward to having a bath at the end of the day.”

Come off autopilot

“Perhaps you have a hobby such as gardening, or a pet to spend time with,” says Karen Atkinson, the CEO of MindfulnessUK . “Coming out of autopilot and consciously looking forward to these moments is an achievable way for anyone to experience vorfreude .”

Avoid mind traps

“To change your mindset to become more joyful, you must first become familiar with your own negative thought patterns,” says Atkinson. These “mind traps” include catastrophising and discounting the positive. “For example, instead of thinking: ‘I’m only going away for one night – it’s hardly a holiday,’ say to yourself: ‘What a treat – a night away, going out to dinner and meeting friends. How lovely.’” The “shoulds” are another trap. “You may think: ‘I should have a more thriving social life, like everyone else.’ Instead, recognise that Fomo [fear of missing out] can add stress. Remember how fortunate you are to go out and have fun once in a while – really cherish the opportunity.”

Savour the moment

“There is a small moment just before you eat your pastry, or the movie begins, or as you get in your bubble bath,” says Mills. “In that moment, the pastry hasn’t been eaten yet – it’s a joy about to be enjoyed. Savour the moment and think how lucky you are.” She likes a Kurt Vonnegut quote: “And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point: ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”

Treat yourself

“Schedule brief excursions and small indulgences,” says Platt. “Perhaps aim to finish work an hour early on Fridays to get dinner with a friend, visit an art gallery or take yourself on a solo cinema trip.” Don’t feel guilty about it. The team at The Mindfulness Project says: “Giving yourself permission to look forward to these pleasures can prepare you to enjoy them.”

Put plans in writing

One of the exercises in I Am Here Now , a book by The Mindfulness Project, is getting into the habit of writing down plans. The authors suggest rating your anticipation levels, but even the simple act of putting pen to paper can make plans feel more real and increase excitement.

Keep a joy journal

“Joy is individual,” says Neil. “There are common themes – we can all appreciate a happy child playing – but it’s about finding what brings you joy.” She advises people to keep a joy journal, noting down what has made you happy that day, week or month. That way, you can plan more of it in the future.

Schedule movement

“I’ll plan 10 minutes of gentle stretching or book an activity session such as a yoga, pilates or a sound bath class ,” says Taylor. If that sounds more like punishment than pleasure, remember exercise is individual, too – so find something you enjoy.

Try meal planning

“Creating a meal plan for the week means you can look forward to what you are going to eat,” says Taylor. She suggests using a slow cooker if you are pushed for time: “This week, I’m looking forward to making rice pudding in mine.”

Make a date with a friend

Kareen Griffiths , a mindful change consultant, likes to plan a big night out. “I relish the moments in the buildup: putting on my outfit, the train journey, the feeling of excitement,” she says. Taylor gets just as much vorfreude out of arranging for a friend to come over to watch a film. The important thing is making time to meet up with someone you care about.

Plan a fantasy holiday …

“The other day, I saw a social media post about a cheap mini-break to Rome. It had me getting excited about a variety of really affordable getaways – even though my passport has expired,” says Taylor. “I must get around to renewing it, but it doesn’t stop me from getting enjoyment out of the anticipation of what might be.”

… and enjoy the buildup to a real one

“Some research shows that planning and anticipating a holiday can make you happier than the holiday itself,” says Mort. “This switched me from being a spontaneous ‘Oh, I’ll leave it till the last minute and book just before I go away’ person to being someone who takes time to mull over where I want to go, why I want to go there and how it might be when I get there.”

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Look for natural wonders

“I’m a huge advocate of finding joy in nature . The research tells us time and again how valuable it can be ,” says Taylor. That doesn’t have to mean going far from home. “The other day I popped out into my very wet garden and touched the daffodils. I noticed how wonderful it was that the daffodil stems were being held together by an old fallen leaf that they had managed to create a hole through.”

Go on a mindful walk

“When I’m out walking the dog, I try to be aware of what’s around me, whether that’s the blossom coming out on the trees or the stars at night,” says Neil. “Thoughts and worries may come: ‘Spring is early – it must be climate change.’ But I try to let go of all that on the walk.”

Hunt for treasure

Taylor loved geocaching with her children when they were younger. “It’s a free app that involves treasure-hunting wherever you are in the world. You find hidden tubs filled with toys to swap,” she says. “I do it without the kids, now that they’re older. I love leaving Christmas-cracker toys and knowing that it will put a smile on a child’s face in the future.”

Do something creative

“Research examining the impact of creativity on mental health is largely positive,” says Taylor. “Try planning some time to let your creative side flare.” You don’t have to be a natural artist. If you can’t paint or draw, her ideas include “cutting out pictures that are meaningful to you in magazines and creating a collage, writing your own poem or story or watching YouTube origami tutorials armed with a piece of plain paper”.

Neil plays the bass clarinet with the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra , “so a lot of my joy comes through music”, she says. “At the first rehearsal after a concert, we get new music to learn for the next performance. I always feel anticipatory joy before new music night.” The less musically experienced could join a (non‑audition) community choir or start learning an instrument. Which leads us to …

Try something new

“Book a new dance class or craft workshop to try something different,” suggests Mort. “The suspense of learning something new can add a spark of excitement to the week.” It could even change your life. Griffiths learned to play decks two years ago, as a tribute to her late brother, and is now a mindful DJ. “It was never part of my plan,” she says. “My music connects me to the here and now, which is where joy can be found.”

Go to the library

“Making a regular trip to your local library is a great way to insert vorfreude into your life,” says Taylor. “Have you ever had that feeling when you are really enjoying the book you are reading, but you’re also excited to start the next one? That’s a perfect example.” Mort suggests setting a reading challenge – it could be reading all the books on the Booker longlist, finally getting round to reading Moby-Dick or rereading your favourite books.

Read a poem a day

“I recommend buying a poetry anthology – then you can look forward to reading the poem of the day over breakfast or lunch or at bedtime,” says Mills. She suggests A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year : “I look forward each evening to seeing which poem it is.”

Throw a party

Taylor loves planning birthday parties. “My daughter has a big birthday coming up this year and I’m so excited about my plans,” she says. But you don’t need a birthday to have a party. “Organise a get-together with friends, whether it’s a games day in the park or a themed party,” says Mort. “Don’t wait for a reason to celebrate – create one.”

Celebrate the seasons

“I look forward to seasonal changes and put them in my diary as ‘occasions’: spring equinox, midsummer, midwinter, full moon, apple season,” says Mills. “If you identify these small joys and appreciate them as they happen, you have many special occasions.”

Do something for others

“‘Sympathetic joy’ is experiencing the joy of others,” says Neil. It doesn’t need to be a grand gesture – planning a little treat for someone else can spark vorfreude . “I got my hands on some small Easter egg packs this year,” says Taylor. “I couldn’t wait to hide the eggs around the house and garden for my adult children to find, and to watch them laugh at the ridiculous things their parents have them doing.”

Find a talisman

Neil enjoys watching her daughter and her friends play the video game  Animal Crossing . “There’s a turtle character who sings a little song. It sounds silly, but watching them ride in the turtle’s boat brings me joy,” she says. “My daughter bought me a little turtle figure and now I look at it if I’m having a hard day.” She suggests displaying your own talisman – a photograph, a holiday trinket, a nature find – to spark happiness.

Create a homecoming ritual

“Anticipate the joy of reuniting with loved ones by creating a special greeting ritual when you come home from work,” says Mort. “It could be a hug, a quick card game or simply taking a moment to connect and unwind together.” What if you live alone? “Try asking yourself: ‘What is one small thing that I would like to do?’” Then do it!

Make time for silence

Vorfreude isn’t just about parties, holidays and hobbies. “Just a few minutes of meditation a day can not only change our perspective, but also physically alter our brains , rewiring them towards more positive thoughts and emotions,” says Mort. “Close the door, light a candle and embrace moments of stillness. Look forward to the peace that comes with each session.” Platt stresses the importance of having a break from the grim news cycle. “We owe it to ourselves to switch off from time to time in order to focus on all that remains good and hopeful in the here and now.”

Get ready for bed

“I must be getting old, because I really look forward to my bed and a good night’s sleep,” says Taylor. “Every night, I look forward to going to sleep listening to hypnotherapy .” Mills, too, gets joy from having a bath, putting on pyjamas and climbing into fresh sheets. Double the pleasure by squeezing in an afternoon nap – vorfreude doesn’t get much easier than that.

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The Best Books On Kindle Unlimited, According To Reviews

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To borrow the words of legendary author Stephen King, "Books are a uniquely portable magic." Indeed, people do love to glimpse into the magic world of books. Cozying up on one's couch, wrapped up in a warm blanket, while it's a winter wonderland outside, and getting lost in the pages of a book is many people's idea of utter bliss.

In fact, Americans appear to love books, and the United States seems to be a "nation of bookworms." A study by the  Happy Guy Writing Services  indicated that 39% of 374 participants had read more than 20 books in 2022 and planned to read even more in the following year.

So, for those who love to read, picking up a new book is always an exciting affair. From  top romance books to snag for your Kindle , to  steamy books that will get your heart racing , people are always on the lookout for the next story plot that will blow them away. But with our daily lives being so busy, we really do want to make sure that we wisely spend our free time reading books that will be worth our while and deeply resonate with us. We get more specific about our methodology later in the article, but we used the best Amazon reviews to help us pick the most "unputdownable" e-books you can get your hands on right now.

Read more: The Four Types Of Extroverts Explained

Thriller With A Twist: The Silent Patient By Alex Michaelides

If you haven't read this already, then you must definitely add it to your TBR list — if for no other reason than to simply have an informed opinion when the topic of this book pops up. And trust us, "The Silent Patient," the first book by the Cypriot Alex Michaelides, is often the talk of book lovers. The 2019 book has over 295,000 reviews so far on  Amazon , with an average rating of 4.5 stars, and has received high accolades around literary circles.

Hailed as "an unforgettable — and Hollywood-bound — new thriller ... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy" by the Entertainment Weekly, "The Silent Patient" follows Alicia Berenson, a famous painter who shoots her husband — a high-end fashion photographer — and refuses to utter a word after her arrest. All the police can find is a painting of Alcestis — a tragic character in one of Evripides' ancient Greek tragedies whose husband had chosen to sacrifice her to save his own life. As Alicia refuses to speak, Theo Faber, a criminal psychotherapist, decides to unravel the mystery behind her actions.

"The story has so many unexpected turns, that it will surprise and delight you. I am a psychotherapist ... I recommend this excellent read," wrote a pleased reviewer, who gave the book five stars. Another one wrote, " ... this book didn't end at all as I expected and I loved it!! I ... never figured all of it out until the big reveal."

The Global Phenomenon: Verity By Coleen Hoover

Coleen Hoover, three-time winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance (2015, 2016, and 2017), did not fail to deliver when she chose to follow a different genre for her 2021 book "Verity." This beautifully written psychological thriller became a TikTok sensation with more than 84.1K posts and left people at a loss for words. "There are no words, Bravo" and "Left me completely speechless" are only a few of the comments of the million reviewers who gave "Verity" five stars on Amazon . The book is hailed as a global phenomenon and not without good reason: It is the winner of The British Book Awards' Pageturner of the Year Award for 2023, making Hoover one of the Kindle authors you need to be reading right now.

The book follows struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh as she moves into the house of renowned author Verity Crawford. Verity, left paralyzed after a car accident, cannot complete the novels left in her series, so her husband, Jeremy, hires Lowen to complete the job. As Lowen searches Verity's library for manuscripts, she stumbles on her personal diary, where Lowen discovers a horrifying truth.

And, truth be told, with so many twists, you will be hard-pressed to put this page-turner down. If you do read it, then know that there is a bonus chapter (not included in all copies of the book) that has Reddit  users both excited and torn.

A Little Bit Of Anthropology: Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind By Yuval Noah Harari

Dr. Yuval Noah Harari gives us a book worthy of "six stars," according to one passionate Amazon reviewer. Hailed by Bill Gates as "a fun, engaging look at early human history," the New York Times Best Seller is a must-read for anthropology enthusiasts. Originally published in 2015, the book has not lost its appeal to readers nearly a decade later. With well over 137,000 ratings on Amazon and over a million on Goodreads, the book received 4.6 and 4.4 stars, respectively.

Available on Kindle Unlimited, Harari's book delves into our evolution as mankind and the prevailing of Homo sapiens over the remaining species that existed 100,000 years ago. What is it that made this particular species the fittest one to survive? And if natural selection is the one that guides the course of history, how much control does it still have on our future, given that we humans have the ability to design our environment and mold ourselves to fit into it?

The book prompts readers to "question loads of beliefs and to ponder how fast and beyond fathoming we are evolving." A recent five-star review puts it best: "Harari's ability to distill complex ideas into an accessible and engaging narrative makes this book a must-read for anyone curious about the forces that have shaped our species and the trajectory of our shared history. Highly recommended for those seeking a transformative exploration of the human story."

Timely Biographies: Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words By Andrew Morton

Unsurprisingly, Princess Diana's biographies have risen in demand and peaked readers' interest, given the wake of the popularity surge driven by the hit series "The Crown" on Netflix. As viewers watched the dramatized account of the British royal family, the desire to explore the real-life narrative of Princess Diana naturally intensified.

Andrew Morton's intimate portrayal, based on the princess's own raw words on her marriage and the royal family, provides readers with a poignant and authentic insight into her life, making it a must-read for those seeking a deeper understanding of one of the most iconic figures in recent history. Originally published in 1992, the biography was published again in 2017 with exclusive raw material. The book received more than 13,000 global ratings, with an average of 4.6 stars on Amazon .

"I feel for Diana and how she was treated throughout her life married to Charles ... She was an amazing woman to overcome all of her trials and tribulations and used that to help others," commented one reviewer who gave the book five stars. Another one admitted that the book is a must-have for all of Princess Diana's fans, while one reviewer described it as the "cruelest love story ever told," with Morton making it clear that the princess indeed was part of one of the greatest love stories ever told, cast "in a supporting role as an unintended voyeur."

Goodreads Choice: The Housemaid's Secret By Frieda McFadden

Winner of the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award in the category "Best Mystery & Thriller," Frieda McFadden's "The Housemaid's Secret" is a page-turner that has readers constantly on edge and keeps them from putting it down, until the very last page. One reader, who gave the book five stars on Amazon , very aptly said, "I could not put down 'The Housemaid's Secret.' What a thriller! ... This story has it all — suspense, toxic love, a character you root for, characters you love to hate ... crazy twisting and turning storyline. Guaranteed to keep you up way past your bedtime."

The book is actually the second part in the series of addictive thrillers Kindle readers are obsessing over , and follows Millie Calloway to New York, where she works as a housemaid for wealthy Manhattan clients. Millie has her own secrets, but it seems that her new employers, Douglas and Wendy Garrick, have a few sinister secrets of their own. Douglas surely keeps some skeletons locked in his closet, but he also seems to keep his wife locked up in the guest room, too. Millie is sure she hears her crying and spots blood droplets on Wendy's nightgown. Douglas is the controlling type, and Millie suspects that he is abusing his wife. Once she opens the door to the guestroom, she is convinced that her suspicions are valid. And she vows to make her employer pay for it. After all, it's something she's done before.

Editor's Pick: Things We Left Behind By Lucy Score

The much anticipated third book of the "Knockemout" series by Lucy Score was published in September 2023. The previous two books, "Things We Never Got Over" and "Things We Hide From The Light" became TikTok sensations, and "Things We Left Behind" did not fail to rise to the occasion and please fans everywhere. With an average rating of 4.6 stars on Amazon , the book's emotionally charged narrative wooed readers.

The story plot follows Lucian, a revenge-driven mogul who wants to eradicate his father's memory, as he gets tangled up with Sloane, the town's feisty librarian. Despite their shared secrets and initial dislike, a spontaneous one-night stand changes everything, and the enemies soon turn into lovers. Yet, their growing passion leads to a dilemma as Lucian, haunted by past beliefs, hesitates to commit. If you are looking for a love story, then this book is for you.

And if you are looking for some steamy elements as well, you will not be disappointed. One reviewer who gave the book five stars said, "Emotional, laughter, joy, anger, back to laughing out loud ... sensual heat that could ignite [forest] fires." Or, as another more explicitly admitted, "You know how you say someone is so hot you can't even directly look at them? Well, I've just found a new level of hot. Lucian freaking Rollins is so hot I couldn't even read about him without closing my iPad every so often to gather myself."

Charming And Uplifting: The Lost Bookshop By Evie Woods

"Fascinating, captivating and special all in one ... It takes you on a journey like most books do, but this one, I ... hope that it becomes a part of me so that I can carry it with me always," commented a riveted Amazon reviewer who gave "The Lost Bookshop" book five stars.

This feel-good book is an Amazon Kindle bestseller and ranked number one by the Wall Street Journal and Sunday Times. An enchanting tale of self-discovery, "The Lost Bookshop" is more than meets the eye and carries so many beautiful, heart-warming lessons for the reader. The story revolves around three characters living in different timelines: Opaline, Martha, and Henry. In 1921, Opaline opened up a rare bookshop in Paris after fleeing London to avoid a forced marriage. In modern times, Martha — fleeing her abusive husband — meets Henry, a Ph.D. student on a mission to discover Emily Brontë's lost manuscript, after reading about it in one of Opaline's letters. Past and present story plots intertwine in this "beautiful story that begs to be read in one sitting ... a magical story filled with beautiful prose and many surprises that readers will not soon forget," wrote another reviewer.

Measuring over 41,000 ratings so far with an average 4.4 stars, "This novel has it all: wit, a dash of magic, and a large heart." If you are looking for a captivating, spellbinding story that will give you the fuzzy nostalgic vibe of the classic novels of the Brontë sisters, then this is it.

How We Chose The Books

With an abundance of books available, it's easy to get lost while browsing Kindle options. And due to Amazon's algorithms, suggestions will pop up on your page based on your latest reads. So if you've been enjoying a good thriller or two, it's easy to go down the rabbit hole and keep up with the specific type of books. While this is not by any means wrong, we figured you might be missing out on other genres that you could ultimately end up finding enjoyable (or interesting in the case of biographies and informative in the case of history books). So, before making our final suggestions list, we first compiled an inventory of different genres we wanted to include in our roundup to offer a diverse selection that might spark your interest.

As such, we decided to include a thriller for avid page-turner enthusiasts, a sultry romance novel that deviates from the ordinary, a timely and insightful biography, a heartwarming, feel-good read, and a captivating history/anthropology book to expand your horizons and make you fall in love with diverse genres. Next, we went onto Amazon's Kindle Unlimited and browsed the Best Sellers. Books that fit into our categories were selected for round two of the ultimate countdown. From this list, we eventually chose books that measured over 10,000 reviews with an average rating of 4.4 stars and above. Of course, books that won an award or were written by nationally acclaimed authors earned a bonus point. Books that earned a Goodreads Choice award or became a global phenomenon were indeed no-brainers and had to be included.

So, if you are dealing with a book hangover and lamenting the end of a reading era, we hope this list will help you pick up your next "portable magic" to cozy up and get lost in its pages.

Read the original article on Glam .