Amy Cerny Vasterling’s Know is a heartfelt and deeply personal journey into self-trust and the reclamation of what she calls “personal knowing.” Vasterling draws from her own life and her experiences as an intuitive advisor to lay out a powerful critique of what she labels “The Model”—society’s unwritten rules and expectations. Structured in three parts, the book explores how we lose connection with our inner voice, how to regain it, and what life looks like when we do. It’s part memoir, part manifesto, and part field guide for sensitive souls trying to navigate a noisy, demanding world that doesn’t always make space for them.

Vasterling’s writing is clear and accessible, without fluff or over-intellectualizing. That’s rare in the self-help genre, which can often feel cold, detached, or overly prescriptive. Her voice is warm, intimate, and honest—even when she’s being blunt. She doesn’t pretend it’s easy to ditch society’s script and follow your own. She tells stories about discomfort, mistakes, fear, and even the collapse of her long-term marriage. But she also shows how choosing yourself, even when it’s hard, is the most liberating thing you can do. As someone who’s always second-guessed my gut and felt the weight of expectations pressing in, her insistence that you already know struck a nerve.

What I especially appreciated was her nuanced view of sensitivity, not as a flaw to fix but as a form of wisdom. Her metaphors, like comparing highly sensitive people to elephants with intuitive strength, stay with you. The book doesn’t offer a step-by-step plan, and that’s the point. It’s not about copying someone else’s path but tuning into your own. That said, at times I did wish for a little more grounding in how to apply these ideas in messy day-to-day life.

In the end, I found Know: Where the Status Quo Ends and You Come to Life to be a brave and soulful book. It’s especially well-suited for women, creatives, healers, and anyone who feels like they’re swimming upstream in a world that praises conformity. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing life “wrong” despite having all the right pieces, this book might just be the permission slip you need to do things your way.

Pages: 140 | ISBN: 978-1-966629-14-6