Be Inspirational, Be Authentic

Be Authentic, Be Inspirational! That is quite a challenge, and two completely different attributes that in their own right are worthy of attainment. Tara Wilken would like to suggest that both attributes are conjoined twins. History has maybe suggested that she is right and that we have been mostly inspired by those individuals who stood out as authentic selves. Great individuals like Ghandi, himself a superlatively authentic individual, unequivocally inspired countless millions. All the while he pleaded for individuals to nurture their basic qualities of love and kindness; but not at the cost of losing one’s dignity.

So Tara is a chef offering us a recipe for authenticity. The good news is that what she has us cooking will not fail if her ingredients are not used in the exact proportions as listed. I found myself agreeing strongly with some of them and less so with others. The proof of the pudding is that, although because of my personality I would change the ingredients somewhat, I believe that Tara’s recipe is sound and strong enough to allow for my individual tampering. The final product, (my authentic self), will still come out better for having tried baked it. For this reason, I believe that Tara’s recipe is a keeper.

Reading through, “Be Authentic, Be Inspirational”, I felt rather like a tourist being guided by the hand by a tour guide who wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss a thing. Tara’s capacity to make living your life comparable to a school field trip, replete with interactive homework was quite enjoyable.

Tara isn’t telling you who you are. She supplies exercises that lets you see deeper aspects of yourself. She wants you to look at these images and allow yourself to sense the evocative reverberation that hits you. She makes the point that in spite of the plethora of religions, systems, or techniques that one may be bombarded with; there is a string of truth inherent in all. Too many people get lost trying to placate the messenger, all the while forgetting that the reason for a messenger’s existence is the message.

Rather than coming across as a proselytiser, she sidestepped from the process and used the simple language that lets you come to your own obvious conclusions about yourself. A case in point was when she slid in the idea of focusing on one task to its fruition, rather than being caught up in the ‘multitasking’ mode of today’s pseudo-efficient lifestyle. She caught me, because I had to admit that those times when I thought that I was accomplishing more by doing several things at a time, I was really usually doing several things less efficiently. I certainly wouldn’t argue with the idea of increasing productivity by increasing awareness, I was just feeling sheepish that I wasn’t already doing it.

The one chapter that I would have liked to have seen expanded upon or else dropped was the chapter on chakras. Anyone who has had even a cursory look at colours and their effect on our psyche would recognize that certain colours give us something that we need at the time. I think the idea of utilizing the right colour at the right time could have been done without reference to the chakras. My reasoning for this opinion has to do with the fact that for anyone new to the subject of chakras is getting too little a taste of the subject to perhaps know what to do with it.

Tara says in a chapter (actually it is the chapter’s title) that “the universe is talking to you”. I like this, and I like it for a few reasons. If you look at it metaphorically, the universe sometimes seems to be yelling at you to ‘wake up’. I have, for a long time now, chosen to adopt the idea that the universe really IS talking to me. I don’t care if you want to say God, cosmic consciousness, or little green men; the notion of a listening universe works for me, so I use it as a matrix for how I live my life. Tara mentions spirit guides and angels that are there for you. I don’t know if I know that to be true, but in a chapter on life’s metaphors, it’s okay that she sees it that way, and it doesn’t get in the way of the message. Something is talking to you, and I just keep it as the universe. Regardless of the messenger, Tara is telling you that if you start paying attention to what happens in your life as guideposts to how you are doing, you will have a better compass for which to steer your ship.

This book is peppered with what Tara calls ‘encounters’. What they are, are exercises or experiences to go through to help you focus or become aware of the sensation of what she is talking about. This book is not big, coming in at 109 pages, but these encounters allow you to experience the essence of what she is saying. In so doing, she has made the book bigger and more encompassing. Of course you have to actually go through these encounters, and I would encourage you to do so because that’s when what Tara is saying crystallizes and becomes a part of your reality.One caveat to the reader is this. If you are dogmatically anchored in a world of black and white, and cringe at the esoteric, you may well cringe at the notions of angels, spirit guides, and chakras.

But…

One of the great discoveries by those who study language and its impact on the psyche, as in the developers of Neuro-Linguistic Programing, is the power of the metaphor to bypass fixed and hardened consciousness and allow knowledge to permeate those parts of the brain that are better adapted to using knowledge for benefit. Those esoteric elements of the book, for those of you neither familiar nor comfortable with them can be seen as metaphors for all manner of ‘logical’ elements, such as the subconscious mind, the central nervous system, and maybe those parts of the brain they say we don’t use. If you allow this to happen, you will still be able to harvest the fruit from the tree.

There are enough ingredients in Tara’s recipe for you to make significant measurable and life-altering changes. Remember, Tara isn’t offering you a book to read, she is offering you a series of ‘encounters’ with yourself. If you do the things that she suggests, and they don’t take long, you will feel the shift as you slowly, then faster and faster, emerge from the cloud of commonality, and break through into an emerging self, distinct from others in ways that will serve to inspire others.
For these reasons I would say, Bravo Tara. For you the reader, I would say, get cooking !
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Note: This is a review;I do not receive any compensation for writing this review.