How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat disappointing.
Review: Having previously read five of Cheri's books, I expected yet another paradigm shift. This one didn't quite rock my world in the same way. Unfortunately "How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be" reads more like a self-help book than any of the others. I much prefer the 'hand-written', easy style of her other books -- as she says, they are to be "read slowly with the heart instead of quickly with the head". This one tends to speak more to the head than the heart.

If you are wanting to get away from self-help and psycho-babble -- wanting to get past ego and personality -- and you are willing to try a more spiritual approach to understanding and accepting your Self (and by extension, others), I would recommend starting with 'There is Nothing Wrong With You' and 'Be The Person You Want to Find'. After reading those about five times each and devouring the concepts, I moved on to 'The Key and the Name of the Key is Willingness', 'That Which You Are Seeking is Causing You to Seek' and 'The Fear Book'. (During the same period I was also reading Marianne Williamson's "A Return to Love". Excellent!) Before I knew it, I was knee deep in Zen Buddhism and finding my way back to my Self. I wasn't aware of how far away from myself I had gone... Ever swim in the ocean and turn around to look back at the beach and think "Yikes! How did I get so far away?!" I think life without conscious awareness has an undercurrent of its own that tends to do that to us as well. It takes us away from our essence. As traditional self-help and personal growth books focus on ego and personality, they may hinder us in rediscovering our essence -- keeping us going in circles rather than hitting the target. Cheri Huber's books have reminded me that the target is "in here" rather than "out there".

Rating:
Summary: A great marriage of Zen and psychology
Review: I have spent the last 6 months reading books about Zen, Insight Meditation, Loving Kindness and other Buddhist concepts. I found the ideas to be powerful, but difficult to integrate into my life. Cheri Huber does not expect you to give up your life and enter a monastery. She does not tell you about Insight meditation or Buddhism, then warn you about the possible traps along the way to enlightenment.
Cheri gives you ideas and tools to improve your life now, while still opening you up to the power of Insight meditation and helping you to step outside of your conditioning.
I have recommended this book to many of my friends, and have found it to be one of the most life changing/enhancing ones I have read.

Rating:
Summary: Life changing - no more "shoulds"
Review: I participated in one of the online courses on which Cheri drew for this book, and it was a wonderful learning experience. This book distills the essence of the course. So many of us spend time going around in circles trying to solve problems that, in fact, do not exist - except in our conditioned views of life! Cheri skilfully directs us to probe these conditioned beliefs carefully. If you are willing to apply this information to your own life using specific examples from your experience, you can only walk away from the experience stronger, wiser, and more in touch with yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Life changing - no more "shoulds"
Review: I went through a very difficult time a couple of years ago and stumbled across this book. It was nothing short of life changing for me. It taught me to really listen to myself, to better trust my intuition, to accept what *IS* and shed so many of the "how life *should* be" attitudes.

For example: "Gee, I'm a horrible parent because I want to work outside the home." Well, no, I'm not a horrible parent because I want to work outside the home. I'm simply a parent who wants to work outside the home. Some people in society have labeled it "horrible", but do *I* deem it "horrible"? No, I don't. So I don't let it bother me any more.

Use your own standards to judge yourself, not "society's", because different societies have different standards. The Zen approach in the book is interesting, but fundamentally for me, the book is about how to love and accept yourself as you are and to stop putting societial labels on every thing you do.