Book Recommendation: Daring Greatly, by Brené Brown

As you can probably guess from this post's title, the purpose of this post is to recommend a book to you. That book is Brené Brown's Daring Greatly, which can be purchased through Amazon here. The book discusses Brené's research on the subject of shame.

So, why do I recommend this book? Well, there are two main reasons.

1. It will help you stop shaming others by making you aware of the various ways we often shame others, even without realizing it.

2. It will teach you how to handle shame whenever this emotion arises within you.

I don't think I need to elaborate on the first reason too much. Obviously, shaming other people is an unwise thing to do. It's not compassionate. It's cruel, and doing cruel things will generate negative karma for you. Needless to say, negative karma is something most people try to avoid, and for good reason.

As for the second reason, this is what I want to discuss in more detail. As a Bardonist, you need to learn how to handle shame because shame is an emotion that all Bardonists will feel at some point during their training. Here are some of the things that happened to me during my decade-long experience working through IIH.

- One day, I planned to wake up extra early so I could spend extra time meditating. Instead, I ended up sleeping in.
- One day, I planned to spend the whole afternoon updating my soul mirrors. Instead, I ended up binge-watching The Big Bang Theory.
- One day, I tried to practice visualization for the first time ever and found I could not do it.
- One day, I thought I had eliminated irascibility from my personality long ago but found myself becoming angry when an intern working for my company treated me very rudely.
- One day, I tried to meditate but kept becoming distracted. 

On each of these days, I felt shame. I felt shame because I slept in. I felt shame because I spent the whole afternoon binge-watching The Big Bang Theory. I felt shame because I couldn't visualize. I felt shame because there was still some irascibility in my personality. And, I felt shame because I kept becoming distracted while trying to meditate.

When I think about those days, I can't help but wish I had read Brené's book back then. I would have had an easier time coping with the shame I felt. When it comes to magical training, you're not always going to get things right. You're going to mess up or fall short sometimes, and that might cause you to feel shame. That's understandable. The important thing is not to let the shame keep you down, but to rise back up and continue forward. I think I would have had an easier time doing that if I had read Daring Greatly much earlier than I did.