Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Oh, dear. I have heard so much about how everyone needs to read Glennon Doyle's Untamed. The recommendations are almost aggressive- "You HAVE to read it. NOW!" I put it off for a bit, partially because of all the aggression. How could it be that good? I haven't ever read one of her books because they just didn't seem like something that would be for me. I really wasn't all that interested.

And then I read Untamed. And let me just say, "You HAVE to read it. NOW!" 

Okay, I apologize. That was a little over the top, but seriously. I got so much out of this book that I think I highlighted more of it than I didn't. Seriously, my Kindle says I have 110 highlights. That's so much! One of the early underlines pretty much speaks for the rest of the book:

Who was I before I became who the world told me to be?

And another:

I lost myself when I learned how to please.... When a woman finally learns that pleasing the world is impossible, she becomes free to learn how to please herself.

That's where I want to be. I want to let go of pleasing the world and learn how to please myself. Will some of that include taking care of the people around me and making sure they have what they need? Of course. Pleasing oneself likely won't include a double middle finger to the rest of the world, unless one is a sociopath, so I'm really not worried about that. I would, however, like to worry less about what everyone else thinks and be a little more concerned about what I think and why.

There are so many more thought-provoking quotes I'd love to share with you, but then I'd just end up transcribing half the book. I am adding this to my "frequently recommended" list. I hope you'll read it soon. I'd love to hear what you think!

 

 

What I've Heard- Rising Strong

My most recent Brene Brown read, or more accurately listen, is Rising Strong. Brene reads this book and it is so much better to hear a non-fiction book in the voice of the author. Some of my favorite advice from this book is to not take opinions from people who are not also in the "arena", or in other words, fighting hard their own battles. It is easy for people on the sidelines to tell you how they would do it or criticize your methods, but they aren't out there doing it. Don't listen to them. Listen to yourself.

She also talks quite a bit about empathy, about trying to understand the people around us. I feel very strongly that she is correct on this. In her words:

Empathy is not finite, and compassion is not a pizza with eight slices. When you practice empathy and compassion with someone, there is not less of these qualities to go around. There's more.

I really love that. All in all, this wasn't my favorite of her books. I think Braving the Wilderness still holds that spot, but there was a lot of good material in this one as well. 

I'm a big Brene Brown fan.