The Body Keeps the Score is a non-fiction book about how the body stores trauma and what you can do about it.
My most distressing take-away from this book was how common trauma is. Author Bessel van der Kolk discusses how people from all walks of life suffer from trauma.
People suffering from these kinds of afflictions believe they’re the only ones. They try to numb the pain with drugs or alcohol and are easily triggered which brings back the pain of the traumatic events again and again.
This affects their lives, relationships and ability to trust others.
Kolk details how traumatic memories can be triggered by smells, touch and taste. He explains how powerful emotions remain behind, even after the logical mind has processed the event.
He suggests you can’t think your way out of strong emotions.
What do we do about this?
Form a strong community around yourself with supportive relationships. Practice mindfulness and yoga- exercises that explore the mind and body connection.
Also, find a therapist who practices eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). The author records amazing recoveries by sufferers who utilized this therapy.
Personally, I’ve practiced EMDR with a therapist and the results were astounding. I left the session feeling lighter than I have in years, having released trauma I didn’t realize I was carrying.
But, like others, I still struggle with powerful emotions stored in my body. It is a process, not a cure. And I’ve learned to take life one day at a time.
Highly recommended for readers looking for scientifically-proven ways to handle trauma.
This collection of essays from the pages of O are wonderful. Through memories and insights, the writers of each chapter have something uplifting and inspiring to share.
My favorite was the chapter entitled “My Unplanned Adventure” by Catherine Price, pgs 88-99. It’s about an uptight traveler who planned every aspect of her trips around the world until she came to the conclusion that she was overthinking it.
Once she figured this out, she walked up to a person, asked them where they would travel if they could go anywhere, and went there. I won’t ruin the essay by relating all of it here, but it resonated with me. I also have to remind myself that going with the flow is always more desirable than white-knuckling intricate plans and time tables.
I have to confess: I am not a reader of magazines. I find them to be filled to the brim with advertisements for things I neither want nor need and, after I’ve dug through the pages of stuff for sale, I find the writing to be insipid. “Six new sex positions!” “Keep your romance alive!” blah, blah, blah…
That being said, O’s Little Book of Happiness was totally different from my expectations of what a magazine is and introduced to me the idea of what a magazine could be. (And there were no advertisements!)
A couple of the essays felt too short- one page or one paragraph in some instances- but for the most part I enjoyed their length and the order they are arranged in.
There’s something very powerful in reading back-to-back essays about happiness and accounts of people finding their path in life. I read this through in almost one sitting but it could also be savored slowly like a-chapter-a-day devotional guide.
I enjoyed this very much. And I hope you will too.
If you like O’s Little Book of Happiness, I would also recommend Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill by Matthieu Ricard and Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Live as TV’s Most Influential Guru Advises by Robyn Okrant.
I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads. FTC guidelines: check! And thank you for reading.
“The years, of which I have spoken to you, when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this.” preface
The Red Book is a stunning publication. It is a physically large book which mimics Jung’s own handwritten copy which measured 11.57 inches by 15.35 inches.
Carl Jung’s calligraphy
The contents are just as impressive. The first part is a brief history of Jung and his publications. The second contains pages of calligraphy in both German and Latin of his “active imagination” visualizations as well as sketches and paintings created by Jung to accompany the text.
The last section of the book is the English translation of the second part.
“Jung described his technique for inducing such spontaneous fantasies: ‘The training consists first of all in systematic exercises to eliminating critical attention, thus producing a vacuum in consciousness.'” pg 209
Painting from Carl Jung’s The Red Book
The visions themselves are interactions between Jung and voices or figures that he named his soul, gods and other archetypical figures.
“To this my soul spoke a word that roused my anger: ‘My light is not of this world.’ I cried, “I know of no other world.” The soul answered, “Should it not exist because you know nothing of it?” pg 240
As he stated in the preface, Jung felt as if his ‘confrontations with his subconscious’ affected his work for the rest of his life. It is a fascinating, little-examined side of a man who has had a huge effect on psychology and is credited, by some, as being one of the leading figures of the New Age movement.
The road to publication for this book is a story in itself. At first, Jung’s family carefully kept The Red Book in a safe deposit box to protect it as they recognized its value as a one-of-a-kind creation. They also believed that Jung wouldn’t have wanted its contents made public as he hadn’t left any specific instructions in his will about it.
Painting from Carl Jung’s The Red Book
However, researchers and scholars have since examined the text and found parts where Jung addresses, “my dear friends,” leading to the opinion that he did intend to share it with a wider audience. They also point to its importance to Jung’s following works as another reason why it should be published.
Whatever their reasoning, I’m so very glad his family and foundation made the decision to publish. This book is a treasure.
Curiously, The Red Book ends in an incomplete sentence.
Here it is:“I knew of nothing better than to write them down in a ‘precious,’ that is to say, costly book and to paint the images that emerged through reliving it all- as well as I could. I knew how frightfully inadequate this undertaking was, but despite much work and many distractions I remained true to it, even if another/possibility never…” epilogue
Painting from Carl Jung’s The Red Book
I wonder what he was going to write next.
Though I didn’t use Jung’s method of active imagination, I too have undertaken lengthy ‘confrontations’ of my subconscious and have come back with pages of material that read, in some ways, quite similar to this book.
Perhaps, one day, I will also find the courage to publish it.
Highly recommended for any readers interested in Carl Jung’s methods, archetypes or dream interpretation.
“Expressed in its most functional way, the Shadow is composed of all those aspects of ourselves that have a tendency to make us uncomfortable with ourselves.” pg 9
Jungian analyst James Hollis examines “shadow work” from the perspective of an individual to couples then communities and all the way up to the collective unconscious.
He’s at his best when he’s illuminating how the Shadow works at an individual level. When he goes beyond that into couples or groups, I thought he began to generalize to the point where the book was no longer helpful on a practical level and moved more into the realm of philosophy.
Hollis brought the book back into the self help genre by providing a final chapter full of questions for “reflection” by the reader. The purpose of this inner gazing is not just self knowledge, says Hollis, but also wholeness at a soul level.
“This book operates from a central thesis that is relatively unknown to the general public but is a truism for depth psychology, namely, that the human psyche is not a single, unitary, or unified thing, as the ego wants to believe. It is diverse, multiplicitous, and divided… always divided.” pg xi, preface.
I read Why Good People Do Bad Things in conjunction with a philosophy class off of The Great Courses Plus (Wondrium) called “Understanding the Dark Side of Human Nature” by Daniel Breyer. The two complemented each other quite well.
“Can the reader imagine that something inside you wishes to ‘talk’ to us? As a result of this conversation, consciousness is strengthened, new energies are available, and each person lives a richer life, one that is more authentically one’s own.” pg 192
This isn’t what I would call a ‘fun’ read. In fact, I had to take Why Good People Do Bad Things in sections, put it down for awhile, and come back to it, again and again.
I don’t mind self knowledge. I’ve done dozens of meditations where I look at aspects of myself and come back with a different understanding of who I am than before I started.
The difficulty is looking into the bits that I don’t want to see. Like I said, I can manage it in small doses. It isn’t somewhere I’d want to live.
It is understandable why so few attempt Shadow work. It is much easier to scapegoat others, blame, and feel superior to them.” pg 203
Recommended for any seekers who are looking for a psychologist’s take on Shadow work. This book might be the push that you need to brave that darkness. But beware, there’s someone in there who may have been waiting to talk to you for a long time and you might not like what they have to say.
James Nestor takes a deep dive into the fascinating and surprisingly mysterious world of breathing. “How mysterious could it be, Heidi?” I hear you ask. It’s something everyone does without thinking literally a few times every minute every day of their lives.
Well, there’s a lot of mysteriousness, as Nestor discovered through his journey from terrible breathing to consciousness-shifting, bone-building, better breathing.
“I do as instructed, and listen as the rushing wind that was pouring through my lungs suddenly stops and is replaced by pure silence, the kind of jarring quietude a skydiver feels the moment a parachute opens. But this stillness is coming from inside.” pg 143, ebook
He talks to researchers and mystics from around the globe to access both cutting edge research as well as ancient teachings from such exalted texts as The Upanishads.
What he’s discussing here isn’t new, but it feels new, perhaps because of the chronic disconnect between the mind and body that seems to haunt modern humanity.
From breathing slower to exhaling more, the dangerous of mouth breathing and the astonishing connection carbon dioxide inhalation has to panic attacks, there’s a lot to explore.
And, despite all of the observed benefits and ten years of extensive research, Nestor doesn’t forget to mention that breathing isn’t a panacea. I appreciated that part as well.
“… what I’d like to make clear now, is that breathing, like any therapy or medication, can’t do everything. Breathing fast, slow, or not at all can’t make an embolism go away. … No breathing can heal stage IV cancer. These severe problems require urgent medical attention.” pg 184-185, ebook
I bookmarked all of the exercises Nestor gathers together from the text and lists at the end of the book. Each has similar yet slightly different affects according to practitioners of the methods. I may have to try every one to see for myself.
To start, I didn’t know that humankind wasn’t the only species to demonstrate “kissing” behavior.
“Moose and ground squirrels brush noses. Manatees nibble at their partners. Moles rub snouts and turtles tap heads. Porcupines nuzzle noses – one of the few regions of their bodies that lack quills.” pg 29
I also didn’t know, seems obvious in hindsight, that kissing wasn’t always a common behavior. It has spread throughout cultures and countries because of the way we’re interconnected with technology.
But that wasn’t always the case. Historians and anthropologists have recorded different attitudes towards kissing among various cultures for hundreds of years.
“… he noted that some Finnish tribes were not very interested in kissing, and observed that while the sexes would bathe together completely nude, a kiss on the lips was considered indecent.” pg 57
Kirshenbaum briefly covers a few different scientific studies into sexual behavior or kissing.
“In Alfred Kinsey’s 1948 report ‘Sexuality in the Human Male,’ for instance, kissing style was found to correlate with a person’s level of education. Seventy percent of well-educated men admitted to French kissing, while only 40 percent of those who dropped out of high school did.”
However, I felt that the majority of this book was written anecdotally because there are so few rigorous studies that have been conducted. In fact, one of the chapters of this book consists of suggestions of studies that could be done with some of the information that Kirshenbaum compiled.
… only one in seven women answered that she would consider sex with someone she had not first kissed. Conversely, the majority of men reported that they would not be deterred.” pg 92
Despite what I perceived as a lack of hard science in here, I found the book amusing. Recommended for readers who are looking to be entertained, rather than enlightened, about kissing.
Embrace Your Weird is a non-fiction and self help manifesto encouraging creativity and told in Felicia Day’s unmistakably humorous way.
I say “unmistakable” for any of her myriad fans who have watched her ground-breaking web series, “The Guild,” or read another of her books like You’re Never Weird on the Internet. Her tone and sense of humor remains the same.
And if you haven’t had the chance to enjoy any of Day’s other creations, I encourage you to give them a try. They’re light-hearted and fun.
“Aside from (over)sharing a lot of my opinions, I have filled this book with exercises designed to uncover the joy of creativity. To help people beat back the fear that keeps them from trying new things.” pg xi
On almost every other page, Day encourages readers to stop a moment and draw a picture, fill out a list, or write empowering messages over and over so that they’ll sink in. The act of reading this book is nearly a creative act in and of itself. (Sadly, I couldn’t do this because I was reading a library book. Suggestion for future readers: buy yourself a copy.)
“No, I don’t think creativity is a cure-all. But I do believe it could be a cure-most.” pg 29
Besides reminding readers that we have unique voices and viewpoints that the world needs to hear, Day loosely structures the rest of the book off of life viewed as a game. She asks us to remember our “hero-self,” identify “enemies” and “allies” of our creativity, and to view the steps we take towards creation as “quests.”
Day also shares moments in her life when she’s completed or failed attempting various pieces of this philosophy in her own life.
“I constantly hand my heart over to strangers to batter however they wish, and I wonder why I’m constantly wounded all the time, and this makes me reluctant to create. Good way to operate? NOT REALLY!” pg 143
As I said, the whole book has a definite Felicia Day vibe. And it’s fun!
“Playfulness is the root of all creation. All invention. All discovery. There is no reason NOT to feel joyous when we make things.” pg 206
She wasn’t afraid to tackle all sorts of hang-ups people might have in their creative process. Day nailed my biggest issue: finishing projects once they’re started.
“But we will never get anywhere if we don’t focus on one thing at a time. And then see that thing through before moving on!” pg 239
Message received. Now to put it into action…
Recommended for anyone looking to start or jump start their creativity. This book is an excellent place to begin. Thanks for reading!
In The Spiritual Gift of Madness, Seth Farber interviews half a dozen people who have had negative experiences with western psychology as well as experts in mental health. His thesis is the mental health system as it is values medication over other types of therapy and, because of this misguided focus, harms the very people it is attempting to help.
He is a champion of the Mad Pride movement, a group that seeks to celebrate and assist those suffering from mental health issues to embrace who they are rather than medicating it away.
“… helping the mad does not mean drugging or coaxing them into a state of “adjustment,” but rather appreciating the state of madness for what it is: an existential clearing in the jungle of our insane modern society that potentially leads into the realm of true sanity, which, in the world today, means a state of creative maladjustment.” pg 124
I should mention that Farber doesn’t use “mad” in a negative way, rather he uses it to highlight how individuals with different viewpoints from the rest of society are marginalized and sedated into silence. He puts forward the idea that insanity is believing everyone must view the world in the same manner or be ostracized for it. He holds up society’s repeated failures to handle issues like global warming to racial and gender equality as evidence of the insanity of the world.
“Now one of the things that’s so detrimental about the hospitalization is the power impact of being treated like a patient – people end up believing they’re chronically mentally ill.” pg 44
Farber believes mental illness is a transition to a new, potentially powerful state of being that, as a modern society, we quash before it’s completed. He points out that many of the great prophets and visionaries from history had, what we would now call, complete breakdowns before their epic breakthroughs.
“… a few weeks of mania could give one access to a sense of understanding that it could take ‘years of meditation’ to achieve, access to visions of ‘the wholeness’ of the universe and ‘the interconnected nature of love, access to a sense of time and space that allows one to discern what is and what is not important.'” pg 21
Instead of medication and psychiatric facilities, Farber would like to see the creation of safe havens for people going through this process so they could assimilate whatever is going on in their minds before going back to the rest of society. That would be for the experiencer’s protection as well as the public.
I think Farber brings up important issues in this book. As someone who has struggled with mental illness, I’ve viewed the system from the inside and recognize some of the problems he points out. There’s the stigma of the diagnosis and the embarrassment of feeling separated from “normal”. There’s the expectation you will take your meds from the day you’re labeled until you die, no matter the side effects.
But, worst of all, is feeling like you can’t trust what’s going on in your head because it went so spectacularly wrong before and what’s to prevent it from going sideways again.
I agree some changes need to be made to the system and, as a society, perhaps we can do a better job minimizing stigma, maximizing communication, and helping people live in a happy and healthy manner that they choose.
However, I feel like Farber goes too far in his insistence that the “mad” are the future. That somehow they hold the keys to a paradise on earth if only we’d let them share their messages unfettered.
In the midst of my psychosis in 2009, I wouldn’t have wanted any of the nightmares in my head to permanently affect my future or my family. If there are lessons to be learned from it, maybe it’s an individual message for the people undergoing the change rather than expecting it to be universal lessons, applicable for everyone.
But, that’s my two cents. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but The Spiritual Gift of Madness asks some interesting questions.
Recommended for seekers who are interested in a different way to both approach and treat those with mental illnesses or for those who have gone “through the looking glass” and are now viewing the world from the other side, like me and the people in this book and many, many others.
“Each entered the Forest Adventurous at that point which he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no way or path.” You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there’s a way or path, it is someone else’s path; each human being is a unique phenomenon. The idea is to find your own pathway to bliss.” pg xxvi
Pathways to Bliss is a collection of Joseph Campbell’s writings and lectures, expanding upon the theory he put together in The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Namely, that myths serve a psychological function to help individuals safely traverse the various stages of his or her life.
That statement is over simplifying Campbell’s complex and richly-developed discussions of mythology, but it’s the basic building blocks of the thing.
“If it is a living mythology, one that is actually organically relevant to the life of the people of the time, repeating the myths and enacting the rituals center you. Ritual is simply myth enacted; by participating in a rite, you are participating directly in the myth.” pg xix
Campbell talks about not only the importance of the myths throughout generations of humankind, but the idea that it is a living, breathing system. He believes there is trouble on the horizon if society’s myths don’t change and evolve to keep up with the challenges of the current day.
He also stresses the need for the individual to find their own meanings in the stories and symbols of the mythology. The pathway to that which you are here to live is something that only you can find for yourself.
Though, he does point out, you could experience your unique pathway through ritual and communion with a community of like-minded believers. Campbell applies his mythological lens to the world religions, to life stages, to everything in-between to see what universal truths he can pull out of the stories and the common experience of humanity.
“And my little sermon to the churches of the world is this: you have got the symbols right there on the altar, and you have the lessons as well. Unfortunately, when you have a dogma telling you what kind of effect the symbol is supposed to have upon you, you’re in trouble. It doesn’t affect me that way, so am I a sinner?” pg 43
I found this book easier to understand than The Hero With a Thousand Faces, which I read a few months ago. Despite this, I suggest you read Hero first, because it’ll give you a better contextual base to understand what the heck Campbell is going on about.
I had some issues with his concluding chapter of this book, Dialogues. In an open discussion with some female attendees of one of his seminars, Campbell and the women try to define how the woman’s heroic journey is different than a man’s.
I didn’t agree with some of their conclusions. Maybe you had to be there to truly grasp the essence of what he was saying.
“The suffering overtakes women – it is part of the nature of womanhood. Whereas the man has to undertake suffering – it’s a big difference.” pg 153
Recommended for readers interested in more of the musings of Joseph Campbell or for people interested in mythology and its practical applications. Beware that some of the material may be somewhat dated.
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