Dear Emily V Gordon, I’d like to grab coffee with you and pick your brain and become BFFs.
After reading Super You: Release Your Inner Superhero, it felt like I received the biggest and warmest hug. I felt like I could tackle anything, and even if I couldn’t, that’s ok. I have read a handful of books to help me “deal”, but this one was truly unique and gave me the right tools to handle a multitude of situations. I found the book relatable because of her personal stories and experiences peppered in. Gordon’s honesty made me trust her beyond just her past experience as a therapist. She helps us to figure out who we are, and become a “Super You”, which is the best version of yourself not weighed down by “stuff”. She makes a helpful comparison that it’s how you would present yourself on a dating show to get picked over the other contestants; you are putting your best self forward, not focusing on the negative and letting it overtake you.
This book stands out with the superhero comparisons (emotional Hulk is great), the fun pop culture and comic facts placed throughout, and the writing prompts and exercises to really dive deep into finding your Super You. There are prompts to help you find your core values, and an important one was about what changes you would like to make in your life. These were done by answering some questions twice, once as yourself now and then again as Super You. It was a simple but powerful exercise that really stuck with me. Another concept that stuck with me was the “reality show”, which is about taking yourself out of a situation and viewing things as an outside party. Like in a reality show, the cameras are getting all angles of a situation, including the confessional booth where everyone’s thoughts and feelings come out. This was a helpful strategy to remove myself from a situation, take some time really looking at it, and assessing how to proceed.
TL:DR- I could go on and on about this book, but I encourage you to pick it up for yourself and explore it! Emily V. Gordon gives us the tools to become the best and truest version of ourselves, not what we think we should be. Embrace your weird and nerdiness and become a Super You.
Reviewed by Katie Holland, who is a Chicago based artist, creative mind and bookworm.
Publication Date: September 29, 2015 Page Count: 320
ISBN: 1580055753 Publisher: Seal Press