The Power of Literature

I really love reading.  I can use it as an escape from reality, it can push my mind to grow, it can question everything I believe and let me dwell in thoughts I did not know I had.

At the moment I am reading two books. The first is The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown and the other is Thinking Slow and Fast by Daniel Kahneman.

They are very different books.

 Kahneman's book dissects the brain and how we think in a scientific manner and Brown's book takes a sociological perspective of looking at how people live life.

Ironically, I find reading the two together is the perfect combination. Kahneman points out how the brain works and breaks it down into system 1 and system 2. System 1 is our automatic response to life and system 2 is our critical thinking. He explains that the society we live in relies heavily on system 1, he even goes as far as to call people intellectual sloths (which I thought was quiet clever).

Brown confronts the idea the we are living in society that pushes superficial norms that creates people to work for perfection. She speaks to learning how to be vulnerable, to learn to spiritually connect and to live with people and for people; she asks people to accept their own flaws.

One idea that Kahneman and Brown have in common is how people avoid hard work. Brown coins it as "taking the edge off". We all have tactics to take the edge off of life, most of which are unhealthy. Brown talks about how she use to be an alcoholic and once she became sober, she used being a perfectionist to take the edge off. It is easier to mask the hardness of life with substances or an action that keeps us preoccupied.

I think it has become engrained in human nature to not want to deeply think or feel.

I know I have avoided it like the plague, I started by doing too much coke for too long to avoid the hardship of life, when I overcame that I hid from the pain by throwing myself into a relationship and giving my all to a person and expecting too much in return. The past few weeks I avoided it by keeping myself busy, some with activities that were healthy and others that weren't like drinking too much.

I am now realizing I have to think and feel deeply.

I spend most nights allowing myself to feel pain, to actually look at my life and start to accept my story.  I spend my days reaching out to people who are willing to listen to me and push me to be my best self. People that ask me to think and feel deeply.

I am starting to realize life is not worth living if we are just constantly hiding. I want to be vulnerable and raw and in relationships with people that are willing to reciprocate this openness.

I am exhausted from hiding.

People are magnificent, we must just learn to reach out and connect with them.

Happiness is a form of courage -Holbrook Jackson