Open When: Letters to Lift Your Spirits by Karen Salmansohn
Open When: Letters to Lift Your Spirits by Karen Salmansohn
OPEN WHEN: LETTERS TO LIFT YOUR SPIRITS is an unusual book. The impact of this little book goes beyond it's brief length. OPEN WHEN is actually a book of letters that you "open" as needed. Each letter is filled with encouraging, uplifting affirmations. Each letter is accompanied by cute artwork depicting an actual envelope to be opened.
I admit I was a little skeptical when I started reading the letters. I wondered if this was some sort of new age enlightenment? What's the purpose of this? Does this really do any good?
Review: Open When: Letters to Lift Your Spirits by Karen Salmansohn
Yes, when an open mind, I found these uplifting messages are genuinely helpful. The letters are not trying to mesmerize the reader into new age thinking; on the contrary, the use of positive affirmations is a well-established method of improving feeling of well-being, and even performance.
I decided to see if there was any scientific research to support using positive affirmation. I discovered that there is indeed solid scientific evidence to support "self-talk" like this. The evidence is easy to find.
Open When: Letters to Lift Your Spirits by Karen Salmansohn
One study at Carnegie Mellon University showed that "a brief self-affirmation activity at the beginning of a school term can boost academic grade-point averages in underperforming kids at the end of the semester." Research published in "Society for Personality and Social Psychology" showed that self-affirmation caused executives to have higher confidence and perform better.
The first letter points out that even optimistic people can have blue days: "POSITIVE PEOPLE have negative thoughts too." The letter suggests that people who remain positive "don’t allow those thoughts to grow too big. And they make sure to stop those negative thoughts from following them around all day."
Here's my favorite letter: "Next time you feel sad or stressed, do a Mental Rental and check that happy memory out again." Even before reading this little book, I had already found this advice to be true. I have personally recalled happy memories as a way of adjusting my attitude.
There was one message that really surprised me:
"Sometimes the first step to forgiveness is understanding that the other person is an IDIOT."
Wow--Why didn't I think of that?
All in all, I found this little book to indeed be an uplifting source of encouragement. I suspect that engineering-types may not be too receptive to the encouraging affirmations, but I encourage readers to keep an open mind. I found it worth the effort.
Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher. Photos courtesy of Pexels.
