The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, book of a lifetime: Discover how to live in the moment

Eckhart Tolle with the Dalai Lama (Rex Features)

No book has impacted on me as much as The New Earth. I love reading spiritual books. From a very early age I have had a fascination with the esoteric, mostly because I'm very psychic, and I have devoured many, but this book is THE book for the new age, without a doubt.

Eckhart Tolle is not saying anything new. It's the same wisdom that Jesus, Buddha and other great masters have tried to teach us, but what sets it apart is that it's clearly and simply put and most importantly, practical.

Boiled down to its essence, The New Earth is about living in the moment, because fear inhabits the gap between the Now, which is all there is, and our imagined future or past. Any moment other than the Now is only in our thoughts – memory in the past, fantasy in the future – and fear arises because of hurtful memories replayed in our thoughts, or imagined scenarios in the future. We have two choices: to accept the moment, or if it's unpleasant to do something about it. But to allow our mind to chew endlessly on negative thoughts, taking us out of the moment and filling us with anxiety, is what makes most of us unhappy.

So how do we stop our mind from being drawn to those painful memories and into our uncertain future – by committing to the Now. By really feeling it with our senses. How often have we walked through a beautiful wood but noticed nothing because of our worries? Try listening to the birdsong, feeling the sun on your face, looking at the bluebells – the way the light filters in pale beams through the trees and falls in dappled sun spots on to the grass ahead – when you begin to notice the natural world around you, your heart expands with joy and your worries dissolve.

The second point he makes is about the ego. We are NOT our egos, but we think we are. We identify with our egos even though they make us miserable, because the ego is never satisfied. It is the ego that tells us we are not good enough, rich enough, pretty enough, successful enough. Our ego is the cause of our unhappiness. Eckhart tells us how to get over our egos to find the loving people we are beneath. It's a life-changing book. READ IT.

Santa Montefiore's new novel 'The Beekeeper's Daughter' is published by Simon & Schuster