White Hot Truth
Clarity for Keeping It Real on Your Spiritual Path from One Seeker to Another
In this of-the-moment spiritual guide, the lesson is this: stay true to yourself, and the answers will follow.
From its bright cover to the eighteen handwritten #Truthbombs in its pages, Danielle LaPorte’s new book, White Hot Truth, is a self-help book for a spiritually starved, social-media-saturated generation of seekers. LaPorte shares lessons she’s learned on discernment, spiritual confidence, and finding her own path.
Spirituality is an open field, and anyone looking for enlightenment will encounter mixed messages and conflicting guidance. LaPorte takes these issues on with grace and humor. Her willingness to describe her misadventures in spiritual seeking is heartening—especially in a genre where many authors portray themselves as gurus.
LaPorte samples a wide base of religious and spiritual practices, and is quick to say that although she’s tried pretty much everything—including hiding amethyst crystals in her bra and meditating through a coffee colonic—she’s still learning and adapting too. If anything, she says, the “spiritual overachiever” mind-set worked against her: “I had to see that somewhere between the yoga classes, support calls with a shaman, and guided visualizations, my spiritual path had become another to-do list.”
White Hot Truth is broken into chapters that each include a spiritual lesson, such as forgiveness, maintaining healthy boundaries, and humility. Although her spirituality is very of-the-moment—sprinkled with references to Tibetan monks, goddess power, and more yoga than a Gwyneth Paltrow lifestyle guide—LaPorte’s message is easy to access. Her mantras may be highly Instagrammable, but she lays out the hard truths too.
“Instead of medicating with Marlboros and martinis, we might be doing it with metaphysics and macrobiotics,” she says. “On the surface, positivity and wellness goalkeeping present so nicely that it can be hard to see when healthy actions are hooked to unhealthy ambitions.” LaPorte confidently asserts that healthy spirituality is available to anyone who’s brave enough to take a long look in the mirror.
Best of all, LaPorte’s voice comes through on every page. She’s self-aware and funny, quick to laugh at herself. “My New Year’s resolution a few years back was to be way mo’ bad,” she says. Planning to smoke more, drink more, and sleep around, she instead gets nasty on her inbox, deleting emails like a dominatrix. Sometimes, it’s the little things. The lesson? Stay true to yourself, and the answers will follow.
Reviewed by
Claire Foster
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
