A review by giorgiawessels
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer

reflective slow-paced

1.5

I was gifted this book by someone dear to me (I have already read it - scroll down to read my first review) and wasn’t too eager to reread it. But I decided to give it another go as it is so popular and many people seem to love it. There are definitely some good takeaways from the book, such as:

“You are not your thoughts; you are aware of your thoughts. You are not your emotions; you feel your emotions. You are not your body; you look at it in the mirror and experience this world through its eyes and ears.” -The untethered soul

“…the “I” who is always talking inside will never be content.” “When a problem is disturbing you, don’t ask, “What should I do about it?” Ask, “What part of me is disturbed by this?”

“When you are an aware being, you no longer become completely immersed in the events around you.”

“Remember, your self-concept if just a collection of thoughts about yourself.”

“If you truly want to grow spiritually, you'll realize that keeping your stuff is keeping you trapped. Eventually you'll want out, at any cost. You will then realize that life is actually trying to help you. Life is surrounding you with people and situations that stimulate growth. You don't have to decide who's right or wrong. You don't have to worry about other people's issues. You only have to be willing to open your heart in the face of anything and everything, and permit the purification process to take place.

When you do this, the first thing you'll see is that situations will unfold that hit your stuff. But, in truth, that's exactly what has been happening your entire life. The only difference is that now you see it as a good thing because it's an opportunity to let go.”

“Everything will be okay as soon as you are okay with everything.” In its simplicity, it’s actually a pretty good idea.

“This world will never be able to bother you again because the worst the world can do is to hit the pain stored within you. If you do not care, if you are no longer afraid of your-self, you are free.”

Many of these I already knew and the book didn’t seem to teach me anything new, but it was good reminders. Overall I enjoyed chapter 8.

I did however find myself rolling my eyes a little too often, like when he writes:

“There is a very simple method for staying open. You stay open by never closing.” Yeah thanks. Very helpful.

“To achieve this state, simply allow the experiences of life to come in and pass through your being. If old energies come back up because you were unable to process them before, let go of them now. It's that easy.” Of course!

“Do you think God likes to be around people that are happy or people that are miserable? It's not hard to tell.” Toxic positivity it seems like.

“If they starve you and put you in solitary confinement, just have fun being like Gandhi.” Sir, are you for real?

The main takeaway was: “Just let go, be happy and have fun.” This’ll work amazingly as long as you’re not facing any difficulties. Ps. Do not read this book if you’ve experienced any sort of abuse, discrimination or any severe trauma.

First review: I had mixed feelings about this book…It starts off interesting and it did prompt a few good meditations for me, but I just cannot see why this book is so popular. I feel the concepts being taught in the book could’ve been done with more clarity and so I would not recommend this book to someone just dipping their toes into meditation and spirituality. The majority of the book was inclusive but at the very end it felt more like a Christian book and I would imagine it would be displeasing to people who belong to other religions.
I also would not recommend it to someone who may have experienced trauma or abuse as the author oversimplifies the idea of letting go and does not give clear steps to overcome trauma, struggles and psychological difficulties one might go through as a result.
I found the book very repetitive and during the last few pages I couldn’t wait for it to end.