Help Me, Asia

Shawn is a a sad, neurotic 31-year-old business journalist when her life implodes--her boyfriend moves out explaining "love is only a survival mechanism" and the doctors diagnose her with a weird autoimmune disorder that makes her allergic to sunlight.

Pissed off at life and tired of feeling numb, Shawn quits her job and treks overland from Thailand to Nepal, searching out sages to answer a simple question: How can I be happy? Along the way, she braves 10 days of silent meditation, jungles, parasites, border wars, bureaucratic officials, life-threatening bus trips and the strange social rules of backpacker relationships.

The "sages" turn out to be quite surprising: a Berlin lawyer, a village sorcerer, drug tourists, scam artists, fellow backpackers, Tibetan cowboys, quirky tour guides, a monk or two and, finally, herself.

This book will forever change how you look at happiness, travel, sages and, above all, yourself.

Shawn D. Phelps has spent most of her life trying to find the "perfect" career. She's been a senior editor at a national business magazine, a college professor, and a workshop facilitator at some of the biggest companies across Canada. She co-founded and managed a children's education charity for five years, which led to many great adventures helping support schools in Laos and India. To raise money for the charity, she ran an indie music festival in Toronto for two years. As a consultant, she was a brand storyteller and content strategist for entrepreneurs and digital marketing agencies.

Shawn's life is now focused on helping people understand what's special about them and how they can use it to reach their highest potential using her tried and true "Superpower Process". It helps solopreneurs, and anyone in transition, uncover their "superpower"--what they are naturally amazing at, along with the unique problem they solve that other people will pay for.

She lives with the love of her life in the condo jungle of Toronto, where she's an active member of the social innovation community, and a supporter of the good-food movement (evidenced by the ridiculous amount of veggies growing on her balcony).