I Thought It Was Simply Me (however it is not): Making the Journey from “What Will Folks Suppose?” to “I Am Sufficient”

Different. Buy this.
Upgraded my DISH package for March Madness and got the OWN channel and saw a commercial for Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday interview with Brene Brown, which peaked my interest enough to make me tune in. Typically, I don’t buy books Oprah recommends, only because I have found the ones I have read of hers to either be too philosophical for my taste or commericially written/trendy. And I would not have bought this one except when I watched that interviews with Brene Brown – I was very affected by what she was saying and how REAL she was. I was going to order her books even if the reviews were zero stars – based on that interview. I started with this, her first book, and it was what I needed right now and what I needed a hundred times in my life and it’s absolutely a game changer for me. I have read The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner and I thought that was super powerful – and when I got these books, it was a bonus to see Harriet Lerner raving about the book in its reviews. Much like Lerner’s books – this one is timeless. Women in the 50’s could have read this and felt the same way I do.Brown states in the beginning that you are going to have feelings when you read this and you are going to be uncomfortable and that was very much the case for me. I keep a journal and I found that when I started reading this I started having all these emotions and feelings and things started taking on a whole new light and I have been journaling what seems like nonstop as I go along in this book. This is the sort of book that you are going to want to go slow through and you will find yourself having AHA moments, and rereading pages over and over again and if you are like me you are going to have to stop and take a breather and process what you are discovering about yourself. To be clear – it’s not philosophical, it’s not over your head, it’s not like A New Earth. 🙂 It’s so real, and down.to.Earth that you will want to buy a copy for every person you know.My favorite thing about Brene Brown in her interview was when she said that she didn’t want to be a self-helper or a therapist for all her readers – but instead she just wanted to give us words and a vocabulary to better describe and understand what we are feeling. And she absolutely does that.

Powerful book and an engaging read
To be perfectly upfront, I would like to acknowledge that I am a friend and colleague of the author, Brené Brown. But also to be perfectly upfront, I would really appreciate her book even if I was not.This book is powerful in its scope and impact as it lays out what shame is, how women respond to shame, and how women can respond differently to shame in order to become shame resilient.Brené helps women identify what their shame triggers are, how to develop a critical awareness about how shame is impacted by larger forces in our lives, such as media images of extremely thin and beautiful women, how women can reach out to others, and how to learn to “speak shame.”As Brené was writing the book and I was reading early drafts, I was already learning to apply her concepts to my life. For instance, previously when I experienced a shameful moment I would curl up in a little ball of pain, constantly replay the shamming incident in my head, castigate myself over and over, and then wait for the passage of time to relieve some of my symptoms, although even years later I could get flashbacks of the event and the accompanying pain. Today, due to Brené and her book, I react very differently. I call multiple friends and share my painful story and seek out comfort, caring, and empathy. I begin to “contexualize” the shameful event, that is, I see how political, economic, and social forces have shaped my personal experiences. For instance, that expectation that women must be “superwoman” juggling kids, work, partners” perfectly, which is an unreasonable expectation that no woman can live up to. That helps put my experience into context and allow me to see the broader picture.This book is a gift to women from a committed scholar and researcher. Although the hype on many books is that “it will change your life,” this book has that potential. And it doesn’t hurt that it is written in an accessible, friendly tone with many stories to illustrate her ideas that will make you both laugh and cry.I highly recommend the book. I predict it will be one of those books you read and then go out and buy for your mother and sisters and best friend. I know I did.

Excellent

Gave it away as I did not find anything new to learn.