Comments on: How Self-Help Almost Killed Me and is a Money-Sucking Scheme Hurting You

By: Lex

Lex — Sat, 14 May 2016 22:31:32 +0000

Personal development is ruining my life. I was fine before I started going to seminars..on a great path…building my businesses. I went to one because of a book I read and bought into it..huge mistake..8 months later and im depressed, lost 20 pounds, stopped taking action. So confused. All of the mental hypnosis techniques stirred up false fears inside of me. I literally became someone I’m not…. I am scared for my life. It works for a lot of people, but it had reverse effects for me. I don’t know how to get back to the person I was before I started all of this crap.

By: Joshua Uebergang aka "Tower of Power"

Joshua Uebergang aka "Tower of Power" — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:33:03 +0000

In reply to Kanit. Glad you're getting a lot of them Kanit.

By: Kanit

Kanit — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 01:28:06 +0000

Hi Joshual

Thank you very much for your thought-provoking articles. They are a lot of paradigm shift things for me in your teaching. I trully enjoy reading and listening to them

By: Self-Help or Self-Harm? | LyonEditing

Self-Help or Self-Harm? | LyonEditing — Sat, 02 Aug 2014 22:19:26 +0000

[…] https://www.towerofpower.com.au/myths-and-dangers-of-self-help […]

By: Sonia

Sonia — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 02:45:53 +0000

Hi Joshua,
You’re really making me think. I read constantly for research purposes and for self-help. I dont accept or practice everything I read. I’m very real but a close friend mentioned that I was in denial about an issue. You mention denial in your video too. It was very helpful, there is definitely more than one way to look at things! 😀

By: Jerold

Jerold — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 17:28:01 +0000

To continue my earlier comment, don’t we change our thinking for the better as well when, instead of intellectualizing, we let ourselves feel our emotions and thus release them and integrate their messages?

By: Jerold

Jerold — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 18:55:14 +0000

Refering back to two points Joshua brought up: “1) What emotions are you trying to change with your thoughts and why? 2) What emotions are you avoiding with your thoughts?”

How we think does affect what kind of thoughts and feelings are easier for us to run into.

Of course, we can see the matter to be that integrating the messages our messages is a part of constructing and reconstructing ourselves.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:39:34 +0000

I think maybe Joshua’s approach is a bit like Dr Paul’s Inner Bonding. It’s more about feeling than thinking. It’s about being in the moment rather than analysing things too much. You have to access your feelings and “fill yourself up with love” so that you can give love to others. You give yourself approval so you don’t need it from others. Trouble is her approach encourages exploring your feelings a lot to find out what went wrong in your childhood. That can make you feel worse, if you can even remember your childhood! I’m currently interested in “reboot your brain dot com dot au”. There are videos and audios to change the vibrations of your brain. I don’t think there is much point in diving in to social situations if you are radiating the wrong message from your sub-conscious. If you’re just shy it might work. There is something endearing about shyness – it’s just heightened sensitivity. Don’t you just hate the loud insensitive types who barge into conversations and take over.

By: Glub

Glub — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:01:30 +0000

Hi Ludita,

I would say, that coming from such an extremism as communism, that self-help books are helping you, because they are basically the complete opposite of the communism you came from.
While I don’t want to say that self-help is also a form of extremism (though in some cases it is), I would say that, if you think of a pendulum, then communism is an extreme swing of the pendulum to one side, and self-help has to to swing that pendulum far enough to the opposite side (at first), to help bring you into balance.

I bet as you heal from communism, and become a more whole person, emotionally and mentally (and socially and spiritually and whatever else), you will become more balanced, and will not rely on self-help as much as you once did.

Communism can be thought of as a very deep hole that you’ve been climbing out of for many years, and if the self-help books are helping you climb out, then that’s good.
Just be aware enough that when you reach a point of being a more balanced person, that you may not need the self-help material as much anymore.

I speak from my own experiences, as I relied on self-help books and teachers for well over a decade or more, to help me climb out of my own emotional/psychical/mental pits of despair.

I too was in an extreme situation, and needed huge doses of self-help to get me out of it.
Today, I have lots of respect for what self-help did to help me, but I find I don’t read the books etc. as much as I used to, and I certainly don’t attend self-help groups at all anymore, because perhaps the books etc. helped me to achieve the healing I was trying to achieve.

The problem comes when you become too addicted to self-help, and don’t do any thinking/feeling of your own. The problem comes when you can’t have an independent thought without consulting a self-help book/guru/teacher for approval to find out if your independent thought is “alright”.

Hope this helps.
On the other hand self-help has caused me to see so many faults in others, that it’s easy to become intolerant of others. I know I felt a resentment in the form of “well, I’ve invested all this time and energy in improving and bettering myself, why the hell can’t you?”
This happens with people who are too dogmatic in their beliefs, whether religious beliefs, or political or philosophical or whatever.

By: Iudita

Iudita — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:23:37 +0000

I don’t understand all the concept you says. I agree we cannot control all our emotion with the thoughts but I found the books – of self help – inestimable for me. I was in communism for many years and can not say how much this writings have improved my life.

God bless all of them because they helped me so much!