28 July,2026 09:17 AM IST | Mumbai | Rumani Gabhare
The author asks readers to jot down honest answers to a wide range of introspective questions. REPRESENTATION PIC/ISTOCK
A few years ago, when this writer was reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, one stark question lingered: Do self-help books actually help, or do they become coffee-table conversations after a week? This is where the recent release, Self Help=Help Self Journal (Rupa Publications) by filmmaker, entrepreneur and author Shailendra Singh, comes across as a refreshing contrast.
Instead of lecturing readers on changing their mindset, the book centres on the expectations you quietly place on yourself. It explores what needs to be broken; what needs to be un-built, and how to begin that process. Sectioned into 99 chapters, each with five sections, the 253-pager comes across as more of an interactive journal than a conventional self-help title.
Shailendra Singh
Throughout, Singh asks readers' questions such as, "Are you really living? What's stopping you? What is it that you actually want?" - Not from a material, but emotional standpoint. Rather than offering unsolicited solutions, he encourages readers to find their own.
Most importantly, the journal embraces vulnerability. Singh urges readers to be petty, write down what they hate, unpack their fears and question everything they think they know about love.
Reading it as someone born just before the 2000s, it felt different. It doesn't offer advice; instead, it encourages introspection through uncomfortable questions. There isn't a one-size-fits-all formula for healing because healing looks different for everyone.
One of its more unexpected chapters, Chapter 28, ventures into conversations around sex. Initially, it feels unusual - Why would anyone willingly write such personal thoughts down? Yet, this isn't the point. Singh questions love without sex, and sex without love, while asking whether you're protecting both your body and your heart. He reminds readers that every action has an equal and opposite reaction - physically, emotionally, sexually, mentally and even hypothetically.
By the time we reached the end, it no longer felt like a clichéd self-help book. It came closer to an experience similar to deep, meaningful late-night conversations with close friends, the kind that effortlessly drifts from discussing Pantone's Colour of the Year to unpacking your love life and everything in between. Somewhere around the 70th chapter, one realises that they learnt something about themselves without even noticing.
Available Bookstores and e-stores
Cost Rs 310
