Book of the Week: The Power of Now

“Accept — then act.
Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.”
– Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

I was eighteen when I opened this book for the first time. My then-counsellor recommended it and I hoped it would somehow make all my anxieties go away so I could start to enjoy my course at University. (Nursing, they didn’t, and I left after a month..).
The book, at the time, went way over my head.
It seemed incredibly deep and almost idealistic. Maybe even creepy. There was so much I couldn’t get my head around.
I didn’t know if I could trust this Eckhart person. What a strange name.
It remained in my bedside draw for years. I had no desire to awaken, no understanding of my mind or how to be more present, no way to articulate the problem of what I now know to be compulsive thinking.
Then I started reading the book, slowly, small chunks at a time. (It’s not really one to digest all in one go, certainly not one to be rushed through). 
It’s a lot. But it’s also one of my desert island books. The one piece of writing I wouldn’t want to live without.
The Power of Now, for me, soars above all other self-help books. It’s truly remarkable and so much more than self-help, more a spiritual literary necessity. The book all of humanity should read. 

Tolle cuts through ALL the crap. He answers some of life’s biggest questions and his answers are faultless. He’s a sort of spiritual genius. A beautiful soul and a rare enlightened being.
(And also quite comforting, I’ve turned to Eckhart countless times over the last few years.)

Have you read The Power of Now? What did you make of it?