A Review of Kristi Watts’ “Talk Yourself Happy”
Happiness Is …
Sometimes books leap out at you when you go to a book galley or just plain book download website, and this one was no exception. I was enticed by the blurb for Kristi Watts’ Talk Yourself Happy, because, well, it was a book about happiness. Seeing as though I’ve had my share of disappointments, difficulty and anxiety, I thought it would have a good message for me to parse. Indeed, it did. Basically, it’s a book about how you can go from a bad place to a good place by speaking the promises and such of God, found in His Word. I found the book to be largely compelling, as the author shares intimate details of her own faith journey. Now, a bit of a warning: the author was a former co-host of The 700 Club, which I haven’t seen in years, but recall from my youth as being particularly evangelical. So there’s some stuff here that I found myself reacting against. But not too much.
Essentially, while the tone is evangelical, and there are things here such as “Jesus died on the cross for you sins” and so on and so forth, there isn’t a lot of it — so that made me feel thankful and as though I wasn’t being bashed over the head with a theology I don’t really agree with (which I find in some books). In fact, the message of this book is rather universal and fairly mainstream. We all have trials in life. But if we hold onto the Word of God, good things are bound to happen in their own time.
Granted, I found some of the information in this book to be repeats of other fairly recent books that I’ve read on hope and such. That seems to be a bit of condemnation in other reviews that I’ve seen online. However, I think it’s good to be constantly reminded of certain things — such as God does things on his own timeline, whether or not that’s acceptable to you — so I wasn’t too hung up on that aspect. I suppose where I did get hung up is that the author’s story is — to use the word of another reviewer — rather opaque. She uses flash forwards and flashbacks as a narrative tool, and this can disorient the reader.
Usually, it isn’t until later in the book that details of the author’s personal narrative start to emerge. For instance, Watts tells us early on that she was seemingly let go from her co-hosting job. So a lingering detail hanging over readers’ heads is … why? It turns out, though this is to be inferred and isn’t told to the reader directly, that her marital status change (along with giving birth to her son from said marriage) seemed to have a big role in bringing about her dismissal. It’s critical details that seem to be missing from the book, and that is one of them.
Anyhow. The key takeaway from Talk Yourself Happy is that you can get to a better place by putting the practices of talking about your life as being centered around God’s Word. That’s a crucial bit, and I have to admit that even I stumble on that fact most of the time. To help, Watts gives exercises to do at the end of each chapter that is to help you live life more glorified. The only problem is, for me at least, that a lot of the advice involves praying with other people. I suppose I do this every Sunday in church, but I’m not a very social guy (to be honest) and the concept of praying with someone else outside of the church context is something that absolutely terrifies me. So I’m not sure if the exercises are helpful in that regard — though maybe they are planting seeds in my mind that I have a few things to work on.
Still, I was taken by the book because some of the author’s circumstances mirrored mine. While I haven’t suffered divorce and being a single parent, Watts loses her job at The 700 Club early on — again, presumably because of her personal marriage circumstances — and her financial struggles were something that deeply resonated with me, and, thus, my interest in the book increased as Watts went on to recount how she was able to get by with the help of her community and other people in general, and how God revealed the promise for her life. This aspect of the book felt true and honest, and the book is worth reading because of this account.
All in all, Talk Yourself Happy is a worthy read. It’s not perfect, and I found my interest waning from time to time (especially when the author talked about her son, which I have no context for as a single person), but, overall, it’s an uplifting and empowering work. If you’re going through a season of sorrow or trouble, reading this book may help — and it may serve as a moral compass towards getting your life back on track. To that end, I’m grateful to have read this, even if some of the writing is a little wanting. There’s some good information to be had between these covers, if not a little Good News — and, for that, I can heartily recommend this title.
Kristi Watts’ Talk Yourself Happy: Transform Your Heart By Speaking God’s Promises was published by Thomas Nelson on January 3, 2017.
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Zachary Houle is a resident of Ottawa, Canada, and was the recipient of a $4,000 arts grant from the City of Ottawa for emerging artists. He has been a Pushcart Prize nominee, too. He also is a music critic, with music writing publishing credits in SPIN magazine and the Ottawa Citizen, among others. He is a member of First United Church in Ottawa, Canada, and has been so for the past two years. Houle is interested in anything having to do with deepening his newfound faith in God, so, if you’re an author, feel free to get in touch. Contact: zacharyhoule@rogers.com.
