Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up And Leave Insecurity Behind (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
This book was okay to start, but got progressively more touchy-feely, and then got really weird near the end. What I mean by weird is that the author and her husband take their autistic son to Mongolia to be "healed" by shamans. The shamans tell the author that a black spirit or something like that got into her womb with her son, so they instruct her to wash her "private parts" (Who says private parts?! Just woman up and say vagina if that's what you mean. Or vulva. Or genitals, if you are too squeamish to say any v-words.) with vodka (couldn't you get really drunk really fast from doing that?). After washing her lady bits, the author and her husband consent to be whipped by the shamans. So that their son would be healed. Of autism. Because that's how this stuff works. Good thing she has a PhD in psychology. Call me closed minded, but I just can't respect a person who is that ridiculous, (I am sending myself compassion for being closed minded - ha!) especially when she claims that this "healing" worked. Awesome book! So much truth- I feel I have in a lot of ways been set free! I can see why conservative Christians would have a hard time with it. She talks about the self a lot, giving yourself compassion for your faults as well as having appreciation for yourself. As a Christian, I was always taught to put others before myself and anything that talks about loving yourself could be considered "New Agey". Now I have come to understand that my "self" is not really "my" self. I belong to Christ and am made in His image. So why would I not love myself and meet my own needs? He has been conviciting me lately that in not meeting my needs in a healthy way, this is actually dishonoring to Him. The misconception Neff addresses is that self-esteem (standing out as "unique" or "better than" others) is one and the same as self-compassion. WRONG! I would add that the Christian misconception is that loving yourself leads to over-indulgence, becoming self-absorbed, etc. When in fact this is NOT LOVING to yourself. Anyway, you need to read it! It's one of those books you just need to buy! I would love to have a conversation with anyone about the idea of self-compassion.
What do You think about Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up And Leave Insecurity Behind (2011)?
I tried to read this and got most of the way through it but I just could not get into it.
—kaustubhchakraborty
Recommended to absolutely every person I have ever met.
—andreagg
