MIND YOUR BUSINESS

A Christian-oriented guide to living and working with a greater sense of authenticity.

“Success,” clinical psychologist Guerra writes in her slim nonfiction debut, “is being intentional in your actions, honoring your greatness, and being yourself!” The author is the youngest of four children who later became a single mother of two, and she spends the opening part of her book telling her readers about her upbringing and how it shaped her (“challenging the status quo became second nature to me”). She narrates her time in school and her choice of therapy as a career path, working hard and playing hard: “I was at the top of my game,” she writes. “I had figured out the rules of this game called life, and I was doing well.” She also movingly relates the collapse of her marriage and the doubts it engendered. Her chosen life’s work had been about “helping people be honest with themselves and move in the direction of living in their truths,” and yet she says that she’d found herself far removed from her own truth. Guerra returns to this concept repeatedly throughout her book, effectively sharpening it into six “key strategies,” designed to help readers home in on the task: “Always honor your truth and your experiences,” she writes. “But remember that your truth and perceptions can change and evolve as you do.” Over the course of this book, Guerra’s prose is consistently direct and highly personable, and she alludes to her Christian faith as a balancing force in her life and her truth journey. Even so, she seldom addresses how, when speaking one’s “personal truth,” one can avoid it becoming a simple expression of egotism, which readers might have found useful. However, her advocacy of honesty and intentionality will hopefully inspire her readers.

A passionate and personal self-help work that aims to help people become the best versions of themselves.