Book Corner: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
Hello and welcome again to our Book Corner. Hopefully, by now, you have completed the task of going through our previous book, Eight Dates by the Gottman’s and the Abrams. Now we want to use the momentum to shift from couple’s work to individual work and strengthen the gains achieved in the past couple of months. In our opinion, the best way to do so is by introducing today’s book and its author.
Our book for this month is The Gifts of Imperfection: Let go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, written by Dr. Brene Brown from Texas. Published in 2010, it has been translated to 30 languages and has sold over 2 million copies. This book started after a groundbreaking TED Talk on vulnerability (11 million views on You Tube… now we know it spoke to many!). It is more than a self-help book. We wouldn’t even consider it a self-help book, we have used it as a tool in class and as a guide in therapy. You may even call it transformational!
So what makes this book so special? It is Dr. Brene Brown’s ability to connect with the humanity in all of us, by sharing life stories and how they impact us, positively and negatively. But not only that, it is also a roadmap towards living a wholehearted life! What is a wholehearted life, you may ask. Well Book Corner friends, a wholehearted life is the life that we engage in from a place of worthiness, knowing that “we are enough”. Easier said than done, right? Especially when we have been bombarded with comments, interactions and advertisements that make us feel that we are lacking or not enough; “you’re not pretty enough, strong enough, big enough, intelligent enough, rich enough, etc, etc, etc”. This book takes us back to the basics, how to cultivate authenticity, self-compassion, creativity, how to connect at a deeper level with ourselves and our loved ones.
She divides the book into 10 guideposts. Since we want you to read the book, we will only mention the topics but not go into details. The guideposts invite us to cultivate authenticity, self-compassion, resilient spirit, gratitude & joy, intuition & faith, creativity, play & rest, calm & stillness, meaningful work, laughter-song & dance. Then she invites us to DIG Deep. DIG is the acronym for being Deliberate, become Inspired and get Going with actions.
We are encouraged to live these chapters to the fullest as we rediscover who we really are, not what we have told the world that we are, or who we think the world wants to see, but our true bed-head in the morning, running out of patience, overworked and possibly overwhelmed self!! We have had plenty of topic discussion regarding this book at the office, and we agree that it is a great way to end the year and start a new year, and a new decade with a fresh outlook, an authentic self, and a new way of living! Will you join us in this path? We sure hope so!
Yiara Blanco, Psy.D
If you want to learn more about Dr. Brene Brown’s work, and want to know how her therapeutic approach is introduced into therapy by implementing her Daring Way© approach, feel free to contact our offices at 813-434-3639 for more information. Let Yiara Blanco be your home for Hope, Growth and Healing! Until our next Book Corner meeting! Happy reading! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
