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Firestarter Sessions (2000)

by Danielle LaPorte(Favorite Author)

4.19 of 5 Votes: 5

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English

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review 1: I'll start this review with the disclaimer that I did very few of the sessions that Laporte suggested in the book so I can't speak as to their effectiveness overall, though my sister spoke of them positively. This book is part self-help, part affirmation, and part guide to personal soul searching. There are definitely some valuable ideas and questions to be found within it. My personal favourite was "How do you want to feel?" which is posed to be a alternative to setting specific goals. Rather than just guess what we want, if we know what we want to feel then we can figure out what to do to make us feel that way. A great question, and one that I think I'll spend more time with. I did find the style of the book a little bit annoying, kinda like reading sentence after ... moresentence of feel good mantras, the kind that get printed on Lulu Lemon Bags. Certain sentences that were deemed of extra importance were printed in giant font so that they would fill an entire page. I suppose this is all personal preference, but to me it read like slick marketing rather than useful ideas and advice.A common method Laporte uses is to state a commonly held belief or maxim and then advise the contrary. Occasionally this lead to interesting insights, however, I found that often there was often an equivocation of terms or that I just didn't agree with Laporte's conclusion. For example, I felt that her critique of finding balance in one's life was a bit of a straw man argument. The type of balance that is commonly sought after and advocated for is not the sort of balance that she critiques. I flat out disagreed with her statement on debt, "Debt is neither good nor bad-it's how you feel about it that matters." These sorts of lightly stated, dubious claims abound in the book. If you like some good self help with a mix of questionable self help and then some light/feel good/new agey affirmation, then this is a good choice. Otherwise I think there may be better reads out there. However, I suspect that if one did take the time to go carefully through all the sessions, a lot of benefits and insights could result. Just take everything with a grain of salt.
review 2: Although "self-help"/ soul-searching books can get a bit a redundant, it's the tone of this book that is kick ass. It is filled with the positive energy of "i love you..." and we are all really here to share what we learn and be our best selves. No two best selves are the same and there is enough...of everything...for everyone...and we don't have don't have to settle. I think somewhere in the book a reviewer referred to this as a modern "Artist's Way..." I don't think it is actually as spiritual. It's more business-oriented than artist focused- and a quick read. less

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