As I sit here reading a self-help book or three, my mind started to wander....are we a generation of self-help junkies? Are we a group of people who analyze our childhoods, our happiness, our relationships, our careers, our successes and our failures to such an extent that we are either never happy or in paralysis due to overwhelm? Are we so inundated with advice that we can't make decisions on our own? I mean everywhere we look someone wants to tell us what to do - book, social media, Netflix specials, friends, family, did I mention social media?

So, I have to admit I got a little judgy as only us enlightened folks can get (read with sarcasm) and it made me wonder when this self-help addiction started and what events or elements in our society brought the onslaught.....

Well, guess what I found? Self-help is old, like really old. The Ancient Egyptians had the first documented self-help books, teaching about life and moral behavior. Hmmm not sure the societal definitions of moral behavior back in Egypt are the same as today, but kind of interesting in between using their slaves to drag giant blocks of pyramid rock they had time to analyze "moral behavior." 

Now, if we want to pick on meditation specifically, as I also sit here and set my alarm an hour early every morning to write in my gratitude journal and meditate before work....we have to look at the Ancient Greeks...don't worry they also wrote about the best ways to live, in addition to meditation. This is in between orgies (not a slam on orgies no sex shaming here).

Even the Middle Ages had a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series....ya know lets stop sweating the small stuff and focus on the guillotine as a form of humane execution....and much more.

In case you want to delve deeper into the history of self-help I found this great article. Actually I really enjoyed the article, shout out to the author!

However, since my first theory about us being a new self-help addicted generation got blown out of the water, and since I am of the age that I love to feel special I had to start digging a little deeper. So, we as humans have wanted to better ourselves for a long time obviously, but with this desire to improve have we also created a hierarchy of "better than." Does the self-help nation create more divide instead of unity? Can we spiritually start judging if we aren't careful? And can something that is designed to improve ourselves and our lives end up being just another divider in an already segregated world?

Don't get me wrong I am not giving up my self-help books especially if they keep naming them such super sexy and catchy titles like "Unfuck Yourself" or "How to Be a Badass," but I do go through phases where I have to step away from my self-help genre and just BE, truly allow myself to live the truly messy life I have been destined to live. 

I love my gratitude practice and I try damn hard to keep my head high and focus on the positivity, but folks sometimes life is just fucking messy. And it is in that messy that I think we can get a little bit better on giving each other some grace - read all of the self-help you want, post those social media memes on love, and preach baby preach....but when someone hits that rock bottom, as a collective regardless of whether or not they read "Good Morning Monster" or "How to Keep House While Drowning," think we could all just give our fellow humans a bit more love.

Side note: All of these titles are real self-help book titles and several of them I have read myself.