"Whistling Shade Winter 2010"

To the pantheon of troubles that come in numbered groups, like The Four Horseman of The Apocalypse and The Seven Deadly Sins, there is now a new number in town: The Nine Scoundrels.

You may not know it, but you have partied with these folks. Because these scoundrels are none other than your shadow side—that particular little devil that sits on your shoulder. And oddly enough, even though they no longer serve you in any shape or form, you keep hanging out with them like an energy sucking friend you just cant quit.

Who are they? Why do they linger? How do you get rid of these psychic vampires? And best yet, how do you start being who you came here to be: happy and creative and loving?

The journey back to the authentic self is presented in a fresh new book, The Nine Scoundrels: How to Recognize and Release Subtle Patterns of Sabotage.

Author Deanna Reiter is nationally known for bringing people back in touch with themselves on a deeper, more effective level through presentations and seminars based on positive thinking and releasing sabotage. She is also the author of the popular book/CD combo: Dancing with Divinity: Positive Affirmations for Any Situation, released in November 2007. She helps people to clear their roadblocks of money, relationships, food, body image, releasing ego and mind chatter. Reiter includes modalities such as breathwork, yoga and dance to process and integrate new material beyond a mental focus.

The beauty of The Nine Scoundrels is that it’s free of psychobabble and New Age platitudes. It is based on a simple premise, which is quite engaging: Now that you have gotten to be as good as you’re going to get with your strengths, imagine the possibilities if you dissolved the ways you sabotage yourself?

Sounds good, but with one caveat: How do you become aware of the profound ways that you unconsciously, unknowingly, and unwittingly sabotage your self, since these ways are unknown and unconscious?

This is where this book becomes absorbing and engaging, as Reiter takes us on a journey into the dark corners of our souls that often we are too afraid to explore because a) it’s just too threatening to our self-image or b) it is presented in such a tiresome way that it is frankly, unreadable and boring.

But on these pages, without guilt or shame, we get to laugh and wonder and gasp at our foibles and our neurosis and our self-defeating beliefs as we look into each of the Scoundrels: Complacent, Delayed Gratification, Addicted to Misery, Fear of Happiness, Martyr, Negative-Thinking, Stuck In The Past, Forward Thinking and Grass Is Greener.

I was able to really understand that despite my complete conviction that I am a person-of-action (and I am, dammit!) there in my face, I met the Complacent Scoundrel, and to paraphrase Pogo, I met the enemy and it is I.

Psychology is long on diagnosis and short on non-drug related prescriptions for simple actions you can take to get out of your hole, which is probably why, after one hundred years (take one or two) of psychotherapy we really aren’t more compassionate and effective as a society.

And here Reiter breaks new ground, as your scoundrel is wrestled to the earth and you walk up the mountain of manifestation, because she offers you delightful, engaging and surprisingly positive actions you can take that will leave your so-called friends eating your dust.

Indeed, her prescriptions on how to leave your scoundrel behind and embrace your more authentic self are a lot more fun and satisfying than a regime of Wellbutrin or ambushing your mother in a talk-therapy intervention.

There is none of that here. On the pages of The Nine Scoundrels, you’re invited to affirm yourself by pulling the plug on your TV, getting your dance groove on and nurturing yourself with luxuries that even the most modest salary can afford.

Best yet, this book is not one of those single-shots of energy. You learn what your scoundrel likes to say to you and exactly what to say back when it comes calling.

In short, this is a book to get because you want to live out of your integrity and your excellence. Or take The Nine Scoundrel Workshop that is offered in cities around the country. These little guys have been sucking your energy for way too long. Get this book and get your life back.

- Curtis West