Grammar for the Soul – Using Language for Personal Change

By Lawrence A. Weinstein.

155 Pages | First Quest edition 2008 | Hardcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. - ISBN 9780835608657

As unlikely as little punctuation marks and other grammatical elements may seem as tools for personal change, author Lawrence Weinstein shows how we use them can make a big difference in who we are and how we live. Consider these sentences of a job applicant:

'What a great pleasure it was to meet you today!! The position sounds absolutely perfect for me!'

Such overuse of italics and intensifiers reflects a lack of trust in being heard. By cutting back on those devices - and discovering they aren't needed - a person can begin to increase his or her capacity for trust in life. Topics of the book include:

• Grammar to restore the Ego
• Grammar for Mindfulness
• Tolerating ambiguity
• Getting out of one's own way

Weinstein used to teach at Harvard, but don't let that intimidate you. Though his book is ultimately serious in nature, drawing on both Western and Eastern traditions, his prose is witty, anecdotal, and packed with good, clear examples. He doesn't claim that personal change occurs easily. But he muses, 'for the right person, that mere featherweight, a comma can alter the course of a day'.

From the Introduction (p. 4):

" I have come to view the realm of grammar as a kind of rarified gymnasium, where - instead of weights, treadmill, mats, and a balance beam - one finds active verbs, periods, apostrophes, dashes and a thousand other pieces of linguistic equipment, each of which, properly deployed, can provide exercise for the spirit, like that which gym apparatus provides the body. Grammar can become a place to get in spiritual shape. "