Shawn Bent tells students how to manage their quarter-life crisis, around the time
when students graduate and have to join the ‘real world ( Photo: Julia Johnston )
You and your friend both drank as much water as you possibly can in a matter of a few minutes. You sheepishly tell your friend you have to go to the bathroom, but instead of letting you go, your friend grabs you and holds you down as hard as they can.
As you fight the urge to pee, you struggle against your friend’s firm hold. Their grasp begins to weaken and, relieved, you triumphantly jump up and run to the bathroom.
This is an example of the kind of exercises in Shawn Bent’s second book, Change for a Quarter, a self-help book for 21-29 year olds, which emphasizes the importance of using your own natural skills to embark on a journey of self-discovery.
The book, which came out on Feb. 4, deals with the quarter-life crisis. This crisis, according to Bent, affects a substantial number of people in their 20s who are experiencing a loss of identity and simultaneously trying to deal with such changes as moving out of the house, finding a job, trying to do well in school and trying to establish their place in the world.
However, unlike other self-help books on the quarter-life crisis, Bent’s book takes a more emotional and spiritual approach to the problems young adults face, rather than a physical and material approach.
“I deal with the inner person because that is where the problems start,” Bent said.
The book is designed as a workbook in order to get the reader involved in the process of self-discovery. It has three sections, 14 chapters and 32 exercises. The book also incorporates the techniques of waking hypnosis and parallel learning.
Waking hypnosis is a natural trance, whereas parallel learning is meant to get the brain involved on the conscious and subconscious levels.
“[Parallel learning is a way of] sending messages into the brain without your conscious mind interfering,” Bent said.
Bent said the outrageous and unique exercises within the book demonstrate these principles by challenging people’s societal conditioning and using pattern interruption to allow people to look at things from a different perspective.
He said he believes that making people step out of their regular routine, and encouraging them to think critically and look inwardly is the best way to foster self-direction and independent thinking.
“It gives them the opportunity to discover themselves,” Bent said.
However, Bent, who gets his inspiration from his own life experiences and the unconventional hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson, said he does not believe in providing answers for people.
“I don’t believe in telling people what to do,” Bent said. “I just establish the foundation for them to build a house on.”
He also encourages people to use what works naturally for them, and to question the difference between one’s natural self and one’s conditioned self. In the end, he said he believes in the power of human beings.
“This is our world,” Bent said. “We have the power to change it. It is about waking up and becoming conscious of what we are doing to ourselves.”