Muhumuza hits right spot with page-turner

The Transforming Power of Self-perception by Precious Babra Muhumuza is not your run-of-the-mill self-help book. That’s because it isolates the attitude formation of each of us as developed through the prism of one’s own behaviour and self-image.

As a result, it serves as a significant source of motivation and guidance for persons seeking to transform their lives through a positive self-regard and the right perceptions about themselves.

Inevitably, we are all challenged by how we view ourselves and where one’s self maybe located in the grand scheme of things, otherwise known as life.

As the author puts it succinctly, “Growing up, many people have had the unfortunate experience of living with a poor self-esteem. At some point, you have been limited by your own self-perception. You have probably believed the lie that you are inadequate, unqualified, not beautiful enough, or that you would be doing better if you were put under different conditions. The limitations of a poor self-image are indescribable. It cripples one’s confidence, ability and results.” 

In this book, Muhumuza pulls back the layered persevere of how we perceive ourselves to emphasise the life-enhancing impact that comes with a positive self-image and the growth effects it may have on our mental, spiritual and physical well-being. By this token, she uses Christian values and teachings that aid in the cultivation of a positive mindset. So we can overcome Goliaths of fear, shame and other psychic hindrances in order to achieve a successful life (as opposed to a successful living), and experience true happiness.

Muhumuza, who describes herself as a “pastor, customer relations consultant, a wife, mother, friend and a child of God”, channels Christian teachings grounded in her deep understanding of self and spirituality. She extolls this as God’s plan, a grand, beautiful and unique plan to achieve the self-love God intends for us all. However, fear often blurs this picture and delivers us into the hands of the enemy.

Fear rooted in self-centredness

The author relates a trip she had from Kampala to Mbarara by bus aged 16. In order to avoid hunger along the way, she took some drinks before the bus burnt the proverbial rubber. Unfortunately, these drinks ballooned her bladder to pregnancy.

“Fearing to call the bus conductor, I opted to keep quiet. I had all these imaginations of what people would think of me that I chose safety. Well, this was not to be for long as the discomfort worsened. It still didn’t make sense for me to stop the bus and speak up for fear of embarrassment,” she writes, adding, “I chose silence. Sometimes fear is rooted in self-centredness. When one focuses so much on themselves that all opinion and decision is centred on themselves.”

Predictably, and possibly tragically, the metaphorical dam burst and she ended up urinating on herself as the fear that held her in check exploded into her worst fear!

The perception cycle

The Bible says in Mark 4:24: “Then He said to them, Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.”

Muhumuza uses this biblical message as a guide to explain the cycle of perception through: 1. Hearing to Believing (internal perception) 2. Believing to Acting (Actions/Results) 3. Actions to External Perceptions 4.External Perceptions to Reactions 5. Reactions Back to Internal Perceptions.     

In a nutshell, our self-perceptions are guided by the principle of GIGO—Garbage in, Garbage out. So when we take in the wrong information by what we hear, eat or see; our self-perception goes on the fritz.

To expound on this further:

On two occasions I have been asked, “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?”... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

— Charles Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosophe

Take care of yourself

The author notes that taking care of oneself boosts the right self-perception. That is because people will perceive you the way you present yourself and it is this social feedback which in turns feeds your self-image.

You have heard the saying, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

It was first quoted by an English cleric John Wesley in the year 1778. And it sums up much of what Muhumuza says when she encourages the reader not only to stay clean but invest in a good wardrobe.

For “your appearance is the seed for perception,” she says, quoting Apostle Moses Mukisa.

All through this well written book, the author exhorts us to believe in ourselves and affirm our “inner witness” in order to achieve great things.

In the end, what we tell ourselves is the root of who we become and who we become is rooted in our self-perception.

Book Title: The Transforming Power of Self-perception
Author: Precious Babra Muhumuza
Year of Publication: 2023
Pages: 114
Price: Shs 40,000
Where: Worship Harvest Makerere