Review: Intentional Smile

Author: Shazia Omar & Merrill Khan

Art: Lara Salam

Publisher: Bloomsbury India

Genre: Self-help

Rating: 4/5

Format: Paperback

Life is a series of hitting rock-bottom and getting back up. No one gets out without being grilled, marinated and roasted. Such is life. But sometimes the weight of the world gets too hard to carry. We lose our focus and sense of self. All of us have hit rock bottom at one point of our lives. However, how many of us have recovered from the fall? With everything that’s happening in the world around us, finding love, joy and happiness becomes an illusion. The silver lining keeps fading till you realize life’s nothing but a big giant pile of dump. It’s okay. Life is made that way. But what if the secret to living a happy life lies within you? What if the power to realize your potential has been hidden inside you all along, only you never considered tapping into the abundance that YOU are? Well, Intentional Smile is one such self-help book that’s going to help you look within and understand that life, after all, is pretty simple.

Shazia Omar and Merrill Khan have co-authored Intentional Smile which is a girl’s guide to positive living( I think the laws applied in this book are universal and not restricted). The book is a journey of self-discovery where gratitude , joy and abundance are the sole factors that make life worth living. Come to think of it; we spend our days whining and sulking about the tiniest things not realizing we’re being ungrateful for the million things that are still going right in our lives. Maybe if we’d take a minute to express gratitude for everything in our lives, our perspective would change. Life’s not as messed up as we think it is.

The book has been illustrated by Lara Salam who has done a tremendous job. It’s very rare to come across self-help books that are so picturesque and easy to follow. Most of the exercises, morning routines, chakras and Meditation cards are self-explanatory and easy to understand. Don’t you love books that are visually appealing?

I think one of the most important themes in the book is self-love. One of the prerequisites to being a confident person is being happy with oneself. Social Media in this day and age has in a number of ways given false impression to different body types/skin and unreal expectations of how one should should like. Teenagers and mostly young girls are rubbed in a negative way resulting in low self-esteem, failure to accept themselves and lack of self-love. It’s so essential to know that you’re whole just as you are. The book captures and gives readers several practices and techniques to start loving themselves even more.

The journey of self-love begins with loving yourself

There’s a lot of criticism to positive thinking. An underlying impression that positive means staying happy all the time has made it difficult for people to come to terms with their problems. Thinking good thoughts, acknowledging your shortcomings and problems and believing in a better tomorrow is part of being positive. It’s humanely not possible to be an energizer bunny 24/7 but it is extremely important to accept you have a problem and then moving on from there. And how do you accept there’s a problem? You can try EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique. It is a technique to release all your negative feelings by tapping on certain acupoints. There is a clear diagram in the book to explain where your EFT hotspots are.

To free up energy for dream construction, we need to take care of ourselves so we feel good mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Don’t neglect your health.

You might think it’s easier said than done, right? But the authors, Shazia Omar & Merrill Khan, have spoken from their persoanl experiences. They’ve fought the demons and risen above it. Shazia Omar is a well-being psychologist and yoga teacher (she’s multi-talented; writer, mom and a believer too!). Merrill Khan is a child counselor, primary school teacher, wife , a mother and mermaid! (Super woman, eh?) Together these two weaved some magic and presented us with Intentional Smile!

Everyone has fears.

Becoming aware of your fears is the first step towars letting them go.

Identify your fears, then choose to let them go.

From morning routines to breathing exercises to setting goals to yoga, this self-help book has it all. And if you’re someone who loves visual representations of things, then, the art illustrations in the book are a treat. Intentional Smile is one book that’ll give you a warm fuzzy feeling from within and help you look at things from a better perspective. Start thinking good things to attract all that is good!

Remember, “You are a blissful warror princess”