Book Review

Cheri Huber’s workbook, “How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything” is filled with art activities designed to “assist in the process of self discovery.” Each page provides a prompt and space to draw, paint, collage, and write your responses. Your responses to the prompts affords an opportunity to expand your awareness of “how” you process rather than focusing on “what” you process. In other words, the activities are about how you do what you do, not the content of what you do. The idea is to then take this awareness and relate it to other areas of your life. For example, when I first received my workbook, I didn’t want to write in the book. I used a separate sheet of paper to do the first exercise. Then it dawned on me that I felt I would ruin the workbook by writing in it. In the next moment I realized I “save” other things in my life by not using them. Anything I really like gets put away so it doesn’t get ruined. The belief behind my behavior is, “If I have something good, I better make it last because I may never get it again!” This realization enabled me to let go of an old belief that no longer serves me and freed me to enjoy using my stuff.
In addition to using this workbook for myself, I also use some of the activities during group counseling sessions with at risk adolescent youth. In particular, the activity to “draw a picture of your body” has been a wonderful tool to address body image. It is amazing to witness how each youth approaches the activity, and then relate this to other areas of their behavior. Many “ah-ha” moments occur for these youth and once they make the connection, they run with it. Statements like, “I never looked at it (the commonality in “how” they do things) this way before” and “No wonder I keep getting the same results” flow out as the light bulb turns on. What typically follows is a period of time where the realizations continue to occur as the youth apply this new information to other areas of their lives. The results of this process are profound.
“How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything” is an excellent tool to expand your self awareness by shining a light on how you do what you do. According to Cheri Huber, “how we are and how we conduct our lives leads either towards suffering or away from suffering.” The exercises in this workbook provide invaluable insight that leads us away from suffering and towards joy, love, and peace.
“How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything” can be purchased at…
http://www.amazon.com/How-You-Do-Anything-Everything/dp/0963625551/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315622467&sr=1-6