Dive in: Unlocking happiness and miracles by exploring the hidden parts of us and the universe we live in (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780620725804)

First time author Melanie Britz has managed to do what some of us only wish we could do - go back in time to our 20-year old self and offer her the wisdom gained from years spent in the trenches of life. In her memoir and self-help book Dive In - Unlocking happiness and miracles, Britz has literally jumped into the deep end of her young adult life, picking away at the painful memories of a family torn apart by a divorce no one saw coming and the trauma of a mother's near suicide attempt. "It was really a powerful process to see my younger self so clearly and to realise, 20 years later, how far I had come and how much I had learnt and what exactly those lessons were," explains Britz. Her memoir consists of letters penned to her younger self. The letters were not only about writing a book for herself, but about sharing her experiences and how she overcame things that impacted on her while growing up. "As a child, I was never really taught how to handle my emotions. This caused huge problems in my adult life. Over time I learnt how to process difficult emotions and it's one of the things I share in detail in the letters. Another part focuses on programming, the things our subconcious mind learns in our first seven years and which make an impact on us later on. In those seven years we are taught about life by people who are teaching us based on their own programming, which is often not any better." "The book also focuses on self-love and acceptance and how one can move from not being happy at all to learning to forgive yourself and others for mistakes that were made in the past." Other topics related to programming and which she touches on, include her struggle with beliefs around money and her weight. She has a strong writing background and specialised in marketing, communications and public relations in the past. Britz has taken the publication of her book a step further after feedback from friends and family on her unpublished work made her realise just how many women could relate to what she had shared. She created a website, Showing Up Today, and in the conclusion to her memoir, invites others to share their own letters to their younger selves online.