Let’s see what is Tomi’s take on his book Mind Your Elephant.
How would you describe the book briefly?
The tagline says it all: how to get rid of your ego, connect with others and save the world. The key message in Mind Your Elephant is that “Being yourself without the ego in the way enables you to build healthy relationships, through which you can change the world for the better.”
Tell us about the writing process.
Oh, my… Now, that was a can of worms. The more I learned the more questions arose. See, I was in the middle of my own awakening process, and I just started jotting down my thoughts. Then I realized that others might benefit of these realizations also. But once you are no longer writing just for yourself, you have to make sure that you don’t go spreading some pseudo-science baloney. Thus I ended up reading a lot.
Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” was the book that triggered me to embark on this journey in the first place. And that book is very close to perfection as you might know. I had to be careful that I wouldn’t just end up re-writing someone else’s book. I had to dig up a lot of wisdom to see what more I can deliver.
These are not exactly new ideas, so apart from all the societal understanding and relationships advice, I had to scan through all the major religions in the world to see what they are saying of spiritual awakening. Luckily they agreed on many things. Quite surprisingly there wasn’t that much difference between religion and scientific discoveries either.
The African ubuntu philosophy – “I am because you are because we are” – created the unique structure for Mind Your Elephant. The fictional story of Anna Were and the fantastic illustrations of my friend Petteri Laakkonen brought the factual text alive. Also, the help and support that I got in reviewing and re-writing the book was just outstanding. I guess I got feedback from all continents. It was a tough but at the same time very rewarding process.
What is your opinion about the end result?
I’m really happy with it. Mind Your Elephant takes the age-old wisdom and wraps it in understandable modern language. Especially people who don’t speak English as their native tongue have been thanking me for very understandable text. I think that’s my strength as a writer: simple language for simple people.
In fact, hundreds of people have downloaded the book and the feedback I keep getting is just amazing. They say that this book articulates what they have been thinking for years. It has helped people to find balance, improve their relationships and figure out new directions in life. What more could a writer ask?
Still, I am thinking of re-writing parts of it and adding a whole new chapter. I actually got some feedback from a possible publisher. They saw the value of the book and encouraged me to provide more rigorous evidence that shows the way towards a more sustainable future society. I have a vague ideas already but if you have some ideas for this, don’t hesitate being in touch.
Who should read the book?
Anyone, really. The youngest reader I know is 18 and oldest close to 90. Readers are people of both sexes the World over. Some of the readers are helping me to translate the summary of the book in their language to make the message more accessible.
Quite frankly I don’t think the good feedback is only a merit of this book. I think it’s a yet another sign that people start getting these things, that we are amidst a massive awakening of humankind.
