A SELF-HELP BOOK FOR EMPOWERING THE INNER SELF

Book Review: "It's up to You" by Anju Dhawan

There are many self-help books nowadays which describe how to transform our inner selves, surround ourselves with happiness and achieve work-life balance. However, very few of the self-help books deal with problems of the teenagers and youngsters, and their solutions. The author Anju Dhawan comes up with the book “It’s up to You”, which is a book to empower youngsters and teenagers, and will help them in their journey of transformation, self-reflection and self-discovery.

In this book, the author’s objective is to make the current generation understand the most important lesson of life: How you live your life is up to you. As she states, “It’s up to you to write the story of your life. It’s up to you to become the director and master of your life. It’s up to you to make or break your life. It’s up to you and only you to create the life you want”.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part contains chapters on ‘Mind, Thoughts and Beliefs’, ‘Positivity’ and ‘Awareness’. The author describes how to replace one’s old disempowering beliefs with new empowering beliefs and the importance of gratitude. She also reiterates the youngsters to develop hobbies and the habit of journaling. The author has also included many inspirational real-life examples in the book.

The second part of the book contains chapters on ‘Find the purpose of your Life’, ‘Set your goals’, ‘Work on yourself’ and ‘Action is the master key’. The themes of cherishing relationships, not succumbing to pressure, changing the culture of hate, choosing good role models, and importance of meditation, planning and persistence have also been delved into. The third part contains chapters on ‘Fear of failure’, ‘Fear of missing out’, ‘Procrastination’ and ‘Cyber Addiction’. Techniques, with easy steps have also been described in the book to overcome any kind of adversity. The emphasis of the book is also more on “How” and implementation.

The book contains easy to follow takeaway points, case studies and infographics. There are also activities which can be done by the youngsters and this will make them get more involved with the information detailed in the book, and they can more easily implement the solutions put forward by the author by doing these tasks. Motivational quotes by eminent personalities adorn the book. There are revision points also at the end of each chapter.

This is a book which should be read for the effective, plausible and practical solutions that it provides to solve teenage problems. The information has been provided in an organized and structured way. This book should also be present in libraries of schools and colleges for the students’ benefit, and will be a valuable addition in the course work of the school curriculum.