I devote my review to the Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
Right up, I’m not a huge fan of all these psychological books and mindfulness techniques, etc. I read them from time to time and filter them through my ‘critical thinking…’
But ‘The Power of Now’ is a must-read even if you’re a rationalist and materialist to your fingertips or a person who doesn’t recognize the spiritual sphere…
I’m going to post pictures of the sea here, because I think that a decent book deserves decent pictures.
How did I find the Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now?
I learned about this book after reading the title that sounded something like: ‘10 books somebody recommends.’
The good about this book:
So, I’d like to list the best things about this book:
Mr. Tolle talks about the spirituality, energy, mental processes and the contact with your true self in VERY PLAIN LANGUAGE that everyone will understand. So, the book reads very easily and after reading you see everything clearly.
After reading I realized and summed up all my life attitudes which were always working for me. For instance:
‘Think positively, i.e. do not consider the negative scenarios and a tricky situation turns into something positive.’
‘When you are in a desperate situation, relax as much as you can and let it go. The solution will come to you easily.’ And so on and so forth...
Why I appreciate this book:
Now I’d like to go through 3 main Tolle’s ideas that I gained from this book. I consider them to be quite a revelation for me.
‘You are not your mind’
Identification with your mind, which causes thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal.
Well, by that the old sport Eckart delivers quite an interesting idea that our mind which is given to us in the evolution process is kind of a tool or ‘software’ to solve our problems successfully, but we started considering it to be our true selves. And he says that the results of our brain's work are not our true selves and our true personality or whatever you call it, but it’s only our ‘background software process’ that we take seriously and forget to turn it off sometimes. This is the explanation of his idea in simple terms.
2) The Power of Now.
‘Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation.’
Here, monsieur Tolle is talking about a very useful trick: return to your present moment and focus on it, because it’s the only moment that is real. In my opinion, this statement is so true, ‘cause... look… we always think about our previous relationship, earlier conflicts and mistakes. It’s all about our memories, recollections or something we haven’t said or done…
Or we simply suffer thinking about something we can do now to have a better future like ‘well, I have to work right now and survive it somehow to make it better in the future. The main thing is to wait and believe in the best.’
Holy crap! THE ONLY MOMENT THAT IS REAL IS NOW. This thought is mind-blowing. Thank you, Mr. Tolle.
3) Pay attention to your feelings and your body.
Focus your attention within. Feel the energy of the emotion. If there is no emotion present, take your attention more deeply into the inner energy field of your body. It is the doorway into Being.
Mr. Tolle wisely recommends us to pay attention to our own body and state of our mind. We all know these absurd situations when we come home in the evening and don’t even notice that our underwear is so tight that it irritates our skin. The uncomfortable feeling had been with us all day, but we paid no attention to it. Another example is when we try hard to remember a word in a foreign language and our brain is searching for an appropriate word striving hard, but as soon as we let it go and calm down, this word comes to us in no time.
‘Yes. Make it a habit to ask yourself: What's going on inside me at this moment? That question will point you in the right direction’
A few peculiarities of this book, which I can’t call the bad:
Well yes, this book is full of such pompous terms like enlightenment, recognition etc.
The author has even dared to describe the states of a menstrual cycle. It was fun really 
There were plenty of far-fetched ideas and references from various religious resources. In general, it was alright to prove his point, but I still have a feeling that all these references are really far-fetched and I don’t buy it!
To tell you the truth, the first part of this book was sooo good, but the second one was harder to perceive and understand.
Final thoughts:
Dear friends, it’s a must-read book!
I especially recommend it to those who have lost their true self and occasionally have some panic attacks, for those who are working hard and have to make difficult decisions and then reap the consequences of these decisions. This book is for those who always contemplate the past. You’ll find peace of mind after reading it.
‘All problems are illusions of the mind’, says Eckhart Tolle.
