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fbroom's review against another edition
3.0
It was an easy read and I liked the book and the ideas but it will be really hard at least for me to apply some of these ideas in my life …
Summary / Notes
While analyzing stories on shame, fear and vulnerability Brown realized how these stories were so powerful in embracing imperfection, vulnerability, trust and authenticity. At first Brown thought those wholehearted people must be living the way she is by empowering herself with knowledge and understanding but she eventually realized that those people having something different, they love themselves. they are kind and gentle to themselves. They live wholeheartedly. She made two lists of Dos: “rest, play, trust, intuition, faith, hope, authenticity, gratitude, joy, love, belonging, and creativity”. And Donts “numbing, certainty, exhaustion, self sufficiency, being cool, fitting in, judgement, scarcity”. She immediately realized that she belongs to the Donts list and she wanted to fix it. Brown decided to pursue treatment and write about it in a book. She shares her experience during that year in 10 guide posts:
Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think
* “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.”
* "E. E. Cummings wrote, “To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself— means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight— and never stop fighting.””
Cultivating Self-Compassion: Letting Go of Perfection
* ”Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be your best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth”
* Perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life-paralysis. 2 Life-paralysis refers to all of the opportunities we miss because we’re too afraid to put anything out in the world that could be imperfect. It’s also all of the dreams that we don’t follow because of our deep fear of failing, making mistakes, and disappointing others. It’s terrifying to risk when you’re a perfectionist; your self-worth is"
Cultivating a Resilient Spirit: Letting Go of Numbing and Powerlessness’
Cultivating Gratitude and Joy: Letting Go of Scarcity and Fear of the Dark
* To invite gratitude to your life, keep a gratitude journals, do daily gratitude meditations
* "We think not being grateful and not feeling joy will make it hurt less” but we’re wrong
Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting Go of the Need for Certainty
* Letting go of certainty is one of my greatest challenges. I even have a physical response to “not knowing”— it’s anxiety and fear and vulnerability combined.
* When I’m really scared or unsure, I need something right away to calm my cravings for certainty. For me, the Serenity Prayer does the trick. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference"
Cultivating Creativity: Letting Go of Comparison
* There’s no such thing as creative people and non-creative people. There are only people who use their creativity and people who don’t.
Cultivating Play and Rest: Letting Go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth
* In today’s culture— where our self-worth is tied to our net worth, and we base our worthiness on our level of productivity— spending time doing purposeless activities is rare.
* “The opposite of play is not work— the opposite of play is depression.”
* When we compared our dream list to our “joy and meaning” list, we realized that by merely letting go of the list of things we want to accomplish and acquire, we would be actually living our dream not striving to make it happen in the future, but living it right now.
Cultivating Calm and Stillness: Letting Go of Anxiety as a Lifestyle
* I define calm as creating perspective and mindfulness while managing emotional reactivity. When I think about calm people, I think about people who can bring perspective to complicated situations and feel their feelings without reacting to heightened emotions like fear and anger.
* Stillness is not about focusing on nothingness; it’s about creating a clearing. It’s opening up an emotionally clutter-free space and allowing ourselves to feel and think and dream and question.
Cultivating Meaningful Work: Letting Go of Self-Doubt and “Supposed To”
* “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman
Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance: Letting Go of Being Cool and “Always in Control”
midwifereading's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a lot to process.
It definitely hits the nail on the head for me in many areas of my life. It illustrates the need for what the author has dubbed "wholehearted living."
Frankly, I don't feel like I can write a review just yet. I want to buy the book, so I can read it again, take notes, and go from there.
Powerful content.
Beware of seeing more of yourself than you intended.
It definitely hits the nail on the head for me in many areas of my life. It illustrates the need for what the author has dubbed "wholehearted living."
Frankly, I don't feel like I can write a review just yet. I want to buy the book, so I can read it again, take notes, and go from there.
Powerful content.
Beware of seeing more of yourself than you intended.
bookishbecca20's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
sapphicvampire19's review against another edition
2.0
Just really un-relatable!!! She talks for an hour and 4 minutes of that is fire and the rest is just like okay lady whats the point…
miss_mick's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
2.5
I read this book as I was going to group therapy based on this book.
I’m not sure how they based the group therapy on this book. I mean It had some good points if you’re will to wade through the boring in between parts. I just didn’t find it helpful in the end, maybe I need to check out the website for the online workshop to make this book work for me. I wanted to like this book but I didn’t
I’m not sure how they based the group therapy on this book. I mean It had some good points if you’re will to wade through the boring in between parts. I just didn’t find it helpful in the end, maybe I need to check out the website for the online workshop to make this book work for me. I wanted to like this book but I didn’t
victoria_chiakmakis's review against another edition
4.0
Quick and easy read with a substantial amount of information on how to live a more worthy and wholehearted life. Ten guideposts serve as the framework for this book and it’s one that I’m happy to keep on my bookshelf for reference in the future. Connection, compassion and courage are common themes throughout the book. My only qualm is that so many deep and meaningful thoughts seem to be glossed over in short chapters when the author (in my opinion) should have gone into more detail.
meganreads5's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5