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A review by redpineapple
Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire Your Brain for Calm, Clarity, and Joy by Shauna Shapiro
4.0
Shauna starts the book with the story of how she got a metal rod in her spine and how that experience, although negative at the outset, changed her life. She discovered mindfulness and its power to live a different and happier life.
Mindfulness literally means clear sight, which means seeing what is, not what you want to. Mindfulness is not just about what you are paying attention to, it's also about your attitude (of kindness & compassion) and intention. These are the three pillars of mindfulness practice. And because it is a practice, you need to keep practicing.
"What you practice grows stronger"
There is a small section on neuro-plasticity and Shapiro encourages us to practice positive neuroplasticity which means intentionally focusing on areas that are in sync with your intention.
Shauna focuses a lot on self-compassion throughout the book. She mentions various studies and shares examples of her patients who have been able to heal through self-compassion. There is a section here that I loved, instead of paraphrasing her, I would just quote her.
"When faced with adversity, many of us respond in one of the two ways. We either turn on ourselves, our minds filled with self-judgement and shame. Or we try to paper over mistakes with rationalizations and pep-talks intended to boost our self-esteem. These coping strategies don't work because both are defense mechanisms that distract us from the underlying issues."
Here self-compassion works. We become mindful of the issues and have energy to heal them. Shame doesn't work, mindfulness works.
My favorite chapter was 'Six practices for tough times' where Shapiro shares the practices of - acceptance, emotional regulation, shifting perspective, compassion, radical responsibility, and forgiveness.
Each chapter ends with a mindfulness practice and an invitation to write a 'gold nugget' from the chapter to remember and practice later. This worked well.
I would end this review with one of my favorite lines from the book, which was in the very first chapter.
"I knew that despite everything that had happened, and whatever might happen, there was something within me which was indestructible."
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.
Mindfulness literally means clear sight, which means seeing what is, not what you want to. Mindfulness is not just about what you are paying attention to, it's also about your attitude (of kindness & compassion) and intention. These are the three pillars of mindfulness practice. And because it is a practice, you need to keep practicing.
"What you practice grows stronger"
There is a small section on neuro-plasticity and Shapiro encourages us to practice positive neuroplasticity which means intentionally focusing on areas that are in sync with your intention.
Shauna focuses a lot on self-compassion throughout the book. She mentions various studies and shares examples of her patients who have been able to heal through self-compassion. There is a section here that I loved, instead of paraphrasing her, I would just quote her.
"When faced with adversity, many of us respond in one of the two ways. We either turn on ourselves, our minds filled with self-judgement and shame. Or we try to paper over mistakes with rationalizations and pep-talks intended to boost our self-esteem. These coping strategies don't work because both are defense mechanisms that distract us from the underlying issues."
Here self-compassion works. We become mindful of the issues and have energy to heal them. Shame doesn't work, mindfulness works.
My favorite chapter was 'Six practices for tough times' where Shapiro shares the practices of - acceptance, emotional regulation, shifting perspective, compassion, radical responsibility, and forgiveness.
Each chapter ends with a mindfulness practice and an invitation to write a 'gold nugget' from the chapter to remember and practice later. This worked well.
I would end this review with one of my favorite lines from the book, which was in the very first chapter.
"I knew that despite everything that had happened, and whatever might happen, there was something within me which was indestructible."
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.