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Tuesday, December 25, 2007

'Feeling Good' Teenager

Please no corny comments on the title of this post!

This is an interesting personal story that I have been wanting to write about for a while. 'It all started' 3 years back when I read a post by Leon titled - How to be Depressed.

Now generally I would skip past most "self-help, push yourself, you can be bigger and better or the seven habits of highly effective pets" stuff. However, Leon seemed like a normal guy. A good programmer, and great writer with an excellent sense of humor. He also has a life saving software product. So I read the post.

I loved the post.

Then surprisingly I read the book.

And then in the next 3 years I gifted the book to 7-8 different people. I felt strongly that people should at least glance through the book. You would think I am surrounded by real sad people all around me! Well, Maybe!

Most of them loved it.

Then recently the most fantastic things of all happened. One of my friends, Rubal, took the book home, and her teenage brother picked it up. He probably liked the bright yellow cover. He flipped a few pages and said he wanted a copy. My friend was pleasantly surprised, considering her brother was this outdoors kind of guy. She gladly passed on the copy and got a new one for herself.

When I heard about this, I assumed the teen is probably kidding. My second guess was he was trying to project a intellectual and serious outlook to impress a girl.

However, the next time Rubal met her brother he told her- "I am using "Do Nothingness" concept from the book you gave me, and I have been cleaning up my room regularly now! ". He also told her that he was using the double column technique to control his anger!

Hearing that made my day. I was talking to a friend telling him, this should be required reading in High school. Now I know if it does become required reading, it would work!

A world with spot clean rooms of teenagers, controlled kids who don't fight after provocation - might be a dull place, but it would be change.

3 comments:

Manjot said...

Two things: First, it's amazing how much you care, for your friends, family...and even family of friends!!

And two,I'm inspired to read the book again- you sell well:)

Anonymous said...

Ya... i also read this amazing book a few months back. To really tell you the truth i didn't thought of myself as somebody who would be depressed about anything that is happening around. But reading this has added so many new horizons that if i start to write about them, they will be much more than this post itself :)
And for all those who think that this comment has been added by David Burns(author of Feeling Good), you are wrong :-)

Anonymous said...

I enjoy reading books about self help and one's which tells how a person is capable of doing much more then he think he is. This book tells about many practical applications which one can use in daily life to feel good rather I would say Feel Better.
And I agree with you everybody should read this book at least once and many will feel this book is worth reading again.
If this book become part of high school, the world will spot a lot of changes. Good idea! I would like kids around me reading this book and can imagine the changes it will bring in their lives