Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World

A meandering collection of poems, haiku, charts, and essays from self-help guru Warfield boils down to two admonitions: we must allow our creative selves to manifest, and we must not allow people to control and constrict our lives. In most cases, Warfield's advice and exercises%E2%80%94daily affirmations, essays on perception, tips like "learn and grow from your mistakes"%E2%80%94are well-intentioned and provide methods of increasing self-awareness that will likely prove helpful to readers. But the book takes an unsettling turn when the author offers her bizarre take on the Holocaust: "Certainly, genocides and holocausts are unwise choices if we want to create a peaceful, prosperous planet where humans respect one another and work together in harmony. Yes, we can label them evil if we want but what do we accomplish? Doesn't this just beget pride in us and guilt in others?" Warfield then concludes: "We, of course, would never do such a horrible thing, but then we have never walked in those other shoes." These and other stunningly wrongheaded statements undermine her approach and, coupled with ramblings about religion and consciousness, result in a book that raises more questions than it answers.