Customer Reviews

Messages to Myself: Overcoming a Distorted Self-Image

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Deep down, we all struggle with knowing and living the Truth about ourselves. This book is crucial to anyone who has been bombarded with negative messages and may feel trapped in others or his/her own expectations. For me, this book was extremely helpful in reframing my identity and self awareness in light of God's Truth rather than distorted messages from my self and others.

What we tell ourselves can be damaging. This is a great book to learn new ways of overcoming destructive self talk and begin to see ourselves as God sees us.

I have found the information in this book to be liberating. The chapter on peaceful relationships has been profoundly helpful. Our small group has chosen it for a book study and will take advantage of the questions at the end of each chapter. Hope many others will take the opportunity to benefit from Dr. McIntosh's wisdom.

I got this book thinking that it would be on how to feel better about yourself, maybe some positive self-talk for people like me that don't really see what we want to when we look in the mirror... I don't know if it is just me or if maybe the title isn't as good as it could be for this book, but I was blown away by how wrong I was about this book! Messages to Myself is basically a God Encounter in 6 chapters! What is a God Encounter? Well, about every 6 weeks at our church we have a special weekend where we help people walk through steps and stages so that God can bring freedom to their life and they can grow closer to God through knowledge of His truth. It's an amazing process that includes sessions on "What's Your Name?", "God Still Speaks", "Forgiveness", "Wounds of the Past", "Breaking Down Strongholds" (lovingly referred to as "the yellow sheet" because of the color paper it is printed on) and so on... I was astounded as I started reading to realize that Helen McIntosh goes through many of these same stages and even has a section at the end of each chapter called Making It Personal that helps you start applying the process immediately in your own life.

I have already recommended this book to the leaders of God Encounter at our church as a wonderful tool for participants to use at home as a follow-up of what they learn through the weekend. I strongly encourage you to get your hands on a copy of this book and start applying it, you may be surprised at how it could change your life!

I don't think the title does this book justice for everything it actually holds in its pages, everyone needs a copy of this book.

Sometimes it is really hard for me to review a non-fiction, self-help book - and this was one of those times. I like her ideas, in that you have to "reframe" your thinking or self-talk. Many of us immediately go to the negative if something bad happens and she says we need to learn how to go away from these negative thoughts about ourselves and look at how God would see the situation - and that regardless of what you think about yourself - God created you perfectly and He is enough. See, I am not sure that I am doing a good job explaining here - so let me tell you about a conversation that I had with my oldest daughter tonight.


She was upset because a boy she liked at school told her that he didn't have time for a girlfriend right now. The first thing she said to me was - "He says he doesn't have time for a girlfriend, but he just doesn't want me to be his girlfriend." I talked with her a little bit and told her not to read anything into what he had said - and that maybe this was God's way of telling her that there was somebody even better out there - she just needed to wait a little longer.


This is very much a faith-based book and if you are already a Believer it would be a good book to have if you struggle with self-doubt, depression, feelings of insignificance. I am not sure how a person who hadn't accepted Christ as their Saviour would view this book though. I am not sure that it would actually lead someone to Christ. I like knowing that I am not alone in these thoughts and behaviours though, and Dr. McIntosh gave lots of great scripture references to help boost you up.

Like so many women, and men for that matter, I have had to endure my fair share of people teasing me and criticizing me for any number of reasons. Not only was this my experience growing up, but even as an adult I have had to deal with this type of person. It really does make it difficult to not believe what others say, when you have to hear it over and over in your head. It may take only a moment to say something hurtful, but it can take a lifetime to heal from it.

Helen B. McIntosh has written a wonderfully helpful book to help heal and restore a positive self-image. In this interactive, biblically based book, McIntosh offers help to those who have been hurt by negative self-talk. I really like the truth chart that Dr. McIntosh includes in Messages to Myself. I recognized a lot of myself on the `thinking' side of the chart, but I was reassured and help by the `truth' side of the chart. This book is written in a sensitive and encouraging tone that was easy to read and easy to follow. The `Make It Personal' pages at the end of each chapter are helpful because they encourage the reader to think about the questions asked. There are also prayers and Bible verses for added guidance. I highly recommend Messages to Myself as a helpful resource to find some peace from a negative self-image.