AS GOOD AS THE BEST

Novo offers advice on how to overcome childhood trauma and create the life of one’s dreams.

This modern guide to healing is informed by “classic manifesting books” from the early 20th century, written by the likes of Napoleon Hill and Neville Goddard, and it’s aimed at people experiencing complex post-traumatic stress disorder. C-PTSD can be the result of chronic childhood trauma, notes the author, and to heal from it, people must change the “limiting beliefs” that they were taught by a “wounded narrator”—the inner voice that “kept [them] from being mentally obliterated.” Other books, such as Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score (2014), offer a more science-driven approach to somatic healing, but this one is propelled by the author’s personal convictions. The work includes behavioral practices, reflective questions, chapter-by-chapter goals and objectives, inspirational quotes by famous figures such as author Ursula K. Le Guin (“Truth is a matter of the imagination”), mantras such as “Time is plentiful,” and cultural touchstones that provide readers with actionable steps toward healing. The chapters follow a similar structure, but their organization can be frustrating. The first few repeatedly reference what readers can anticipate, but the book doesn’t offer any foundational information about the author until halfway through. One chapter, “Practice Recontextualizing,” is so good, though, it could be expanded into its own book; in it, Novo acknowledges that what keeps many people from working toward their goals isn’t a lack of willpower or ability, but poverty and disenfranchisement. The author boldly notes that if one is living in poverty, one must first “escape” it and “search for inspiration wherever you can”: “If you can work on achieving baseline stability while healing and pursuing your dreams, work on both in tandem,” the author advises. “If not, get to baseline first.”

A helpful take on manifestation that’s hampered somewhat by a lack of organization.