How Untethered Can I Get?

It took me a few days longer than planned, but I finally finished “The Untethered Soul” by Michael A. Singer.  First, I have to say that it is a pretty spectacular book.  If you want to be alone with your thoughts for a while, it is the book to read.  It took me a while to digest because the content was really difficult to absorb and come to terms with.  But, if you are willing to go out there, it’s totally worth it.

The basic purpose of the book is to help with transcendence.  I know, that sounds spacey, but it really is about learning how to face the good and bad in life but never lose your center.  I like the concept that we are who we are and life happens around us, not to us.  It’s our reactions that determine if we are stressed, happy, angry, frustrated, sad, etc.  It also talked about how we think we know who we “are” but really that’s just a construct of life experiences that we’ve chosen to accept.  For example: I have never believed I was a very athletic person and I just assumed since my parents had certain metabolisms, that was my future as well.  I also have a tendency to like to be the leader or the “best” at something.  So when I put it together, I wasn’t the best at sports and it bothered me.  I also saw that not everyone led an active lifestyle.  So I just put the construct up that I could be a couch potato because that was “me”.   In actuality, I have a sister who exercises daily and looks totally different than I do.  She always has.  For some reason, she chose not to build the constructs I did and embraced different habits.

The book challenged me to drop those constructs.  I might be the greatest unknown distance runner on earth.  I need to accept that I'm not always the best at some things.  I like the fact that I can drop some of these ideas about myself.  It’s freeing.  It means I can try pretty much anything.  I intend to do just that.  And not to “find myself,” but rather to embrace the experience, learn from it and stay centered. I think that's what the quest is really all about if you boil it down.

Singer encourages us to focus on core beliefs instead of goals.  Instead of saying, I want a certain type of job, or I need to accomplish X amount of things in my life—we should be saying “I want to be happy”, or “I want to be honest”, or “I want to be encouraging.”  And he says we should never allow life to sway us away from those beliefs.  If we want to be happy, we have to commit to it—even if the world is falling apart around us and sad things happen.  We can choose to let it consume us, or remember our happy and stay centered.

The book ends with an amazing chapter on walking with God.  But you can’t skip to the end.  You have to read all the heady stuff before it to really appreciate what he is saying.  But I’m telling you it made me tear up when I realized how simple it all really was.

Deep right?  Told ya.  So again, if you want to dig deep, get this book.  We can be untethered together.

Up next is a totally different read:  “SPARK! The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” by John J. Ratey, M.D. and Eric Hagerman.  It’s all about understanding the effect exercise has on the human brain.  Good thing I’m about to become the most happily mediocre athlete ever. 

Have a great day friends!