Guest Post & Giveaway: The Girl in The Truth Made Me Do It!

I'd like to welcome Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein to Acting Balanced as part of her Virtual Book Tour with Pump Up Your Book.  Dr. Becker Holstein is guest posting today and I will be reviewing her books The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know Everything and Secrets: You Tell Me Yours and I'll Tell You Mine Maybe tomorrow and she is also kindly offering a copy of her books to one lucky Acting Balanced Reader!



The Girl in The Truth Made Me Do It!

My books have taken so many strange curves.  Let's look, for example, at the evolution of The Truth (I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything), the first book in The Truth Series.  You may not realize that this book is actually a version of a totally different manuscript.  The original title of the first manuscript was You Don't Have To Be A Princess to Have an Enchanted Self!  What was this version?  It was a dialogue between a woman and the girl within herself, as they both explored the Seven Gateways to Enchantment.  (You can obtain a paper on these Gateways by going to www.enchantedself.com)  In the manuscript I teach what each Gateway is and then both the adult woman and the girl inside of herself, talk about that Gateway.  For example, there is the Gateway of Self-Esteem.  The girl sees feeling good about herself from a very naive viewpoint that gets right to the essence of knowing her own talents, strengths and potential.  The woman is awakened again to her grown-up potential by listening to the wisdom of a child.  

The core notion of this manuscript was that as women we too quickly forget, with all the pressures and strains of life, our own unique gifts, talents, and potential.  We also forget how to relax, have fun, laugh, enjoy the moment, and take delight in the small stuff.  However, the girl inside of us never forgets.  If we only give her a chance and let her talk to us, we have a chance to take all of the best parts of ourselves back and to have fun in the process.

What gave me the energy to write this manuscript?  Twenty-five years of being a therapist and many more years of being a woman!  I have seen the pain and felt the pain of women losing the best parts of themselves and forgetting how to get back to the best of themselves.  I've seen too many women depressed or at least experiencing some malaise because they didn't know the road back to their own laughter, pep, and energy. 

Does this sound like the energy and wisdom I would need to write The Truth (I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything)?  Actually, it was the energy and wisdom I needed.  After many futile efforts to get my Princess book published, I finally had to put the manuscript away.  But I couldn't put the message away.

The energy was still there and what happened was one of those miracles that keep writers going late into the night.  The girl just wouldn't go away.  She wanted me to keep writing so she could talk.  She seemed to be insisting that she could find a path that I wasn't seeing that would help women and girls feel good about themselves and stay committed to the 'truth' of Being True to Oneself.

And so, long story short-and I am leaving a lot out-she simply made me write her diary and that was the simplest and most direct way I have found yet to help us girls of all ages, from 10 to 95, get back in touch with the special person that each of us really is!  The girl knew how to get the message out! 


About the Author:

Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein, nationally know Positive Psychologist, is the creator of The Enchanted Self,® a systematic way of helping to bring more joy, meaning, and purpose into our lives.

Dr. Holstein has been a school psychologist for more than 25 years. She has taught elementary school children and was an assistant professor in education in at Boston University.

She has been in private practice as a psychologist with her husband, Dr. Russell M. Holstein, in Long Branch, New Jersey, for over 25 years.

Contact Dr. Holstein on the web at http://www.enchantedself.com/ and http://www.thetruthforgirls.com/.


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