When I was a child I had a lot of stress in my life. By my teen years, transcendental meditation was becoming very popular. I utilized a lot of the teachings to help myself become calm when stressed. My mind has always been very active and back then, I didn’t have much control over thoughts and emotions that ran rampant through my brain. So many stray thoughts intruded into my childish consciousness that I found it nearly impossible to even go to sleep at night. Once I began using calming exercises to physically relax my body and mindful breath and mantras to ease my mind, I learned to easily take myself into to a deep, restful sleep. When I had children and they grew old enough to understand these concepts, I introduced the same techniques to them and the meditation process helped them as much as it did me.

That said, I like the concept of Inner Guides and Guards as presented in “Connected – Discovering Your Inner Guides” by Seema Desai. The author lets us know that your Inner Guards are the negative emotions that sometimes threaten to take over. As scary as they can be, emotions like fear, sadness, frustration are all normal. Everyone experiences them. Seema says, “Guards can behave much like a puppy that quickly reacts when the doorbell rings, barking loudly with the intention to protect its home and family. Much like the puppy calms down once it sees the person at the door is a friend, you can calm your Guards by connecting with your Inner Guides.”

So, your inner guards work to protect you from harm but they can actually completely halt progress if you don’t let your inner guides add some balance and harmony to your outlook.

Seema gives great, simple to understand explanations about our inner guides like Curiosity, Fun, Creativity, Balance, Hope and others that we all have access to, if we only allow them in. She also provides exercises to help you call on and listen to your guides, like Tapping, Karate Chopping and Finger Circles. She even offers a golden mantra that everyone can easily follow, “I bring peace, I bring love, I bring kindness to those around me, both near and far away.”

The gratitude journal is a great idea.  There are far too many people who have never learned or have completely forgotten the value of being grateful for the things they have in their lives. Gratitude is truly something you have to continuously work on perfecting. Seema says, “If you are always encouraging your mind to see the good, there is a lot less time to focus on what you do not have or what is wrong.”

The simple black and white illustrations by James Ballance are pleasant representations and do not distract from the discovery process.

All in all, I approve of the messages in this book and feel it can be beneficial to most anyone of any age. I give it 5 stars.