'The Book of Awakening' by Mark Nepo - Book Impressions -⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

About Mark Nepo:

Mark is an author, poet, spiritual adviser, and cancer survivor.  He has taught poetry and spirituality for over 40 years.  The Book of Awakening was a New York Times #1 best seller. In addition, he has published many other books.

My Impressions:

I originally heard about this book because it was mentioned by Oprah as one of her favourites.  I decided to read it because its daily format appealed to me.

The book is written as a daybook, with a short entry for every day, covering a span of a year. 

Each day starts with a date, a title, a short quote, the main body of the work, and ends with a reflective/meditative practice. I didn’t complete the practices as they weren’t in a style that I enjoy and often involved doing something with a partner, which didn't work for me.

I spent about 5 years going through this book on and off.  In total, I must have read it in its entirety at least twice.  It is possible to skip around in the book without feeling you have lost the gist of it.

The author writes in a very poetic and spiritual manner.  His writing is deep, emotional, personal, and at times raw. The meaning you derive from the text will vary depending on your own personal life experiences.

It left me feeling thoughtful and reflective. Some of the entries 'went over my head', whilst others resonated deeply.

This book would suit anyone who wants a daily reflective practice they can meditate on and ponder.  It is a timeless book that can be read again and again, and each time a new meaning emerges.

This is a book I am likely to read again.  I am sure it will feel fresh again and have new meaning because I will be reading it again as a different person.  I look forward to reading other books by Mark Nepo.

10 of my favourite takeaways:

1.     Be completely, authentically who you are. Voice your innermost fears, emotions, and needs. Show all parts of yourself.  Don’t deny who you are or be shaped by the opinion of others. Listen to your own guiding spiritual/inner voice.

2.     Let your heart/soul/inner voice be your guiding compass in life and not your self-comparison to others.  

3.     Break free from the rituals, schedules, rules, and restrictions you place upon yourself, like some self-imposed cocoon.  Instead, open yourself up to exploring your hidden passions. Evolve and grow. Change old patterns for new patterns. 

4.   You need to be true to yourself,  but first you have to find out who you really are. 

5.     Decide how long you want to headbutt your current path before considering one of the other paths available to you. 

6.     Deal with conflicts as they arise. To ignore them is to let them fester and breed resentment within you. You can still feel compassion for others and hear their truth, without negating the pain and suffering they may have caused you.

7.     Don’t be a bystander in this world; instead, you need to be part of it, live in it, connect to it, feel it with your full being, and feel its energy flow into you.  

8.     When you are afraid of something, you should not ignore it - but hold the fear gently and look at it so that it does not consume you.

9.     You can become consumed and laser-focused on pain, which makes it larger.  You can make it smaller by looking at it from a greater distance, so you take in more of its surroundings - it is then a smaller part of something bigger. 

10.  Don’t let hurt, depression, anxiety, or other negative emotions set up camp inside you - let them surface and let them out. 

My 10 favourite quotes:

“Don’t ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman (p.398)

“Our purpose is that which we most passionately are when we pay attention to our deepest selves.” Carol Hegedus (p.169)

“Hard as it is, we cannot shrink from our relationships or we simply become an audience or gofer for the dominant partner or friend.” (p.135)

“.....resist either complying with how others see us or withholding who we really are.” (p.166)

“For years I lived this way [referring to being like a Lazy Susan]: spinning the aspects of my true self like a lazy Susan, offering only what others wanted or needed or felt most comfortable with……more and more of who I truly am was being hidden, and that showing only the part of me that others found acceptable was not being true to myself.” (p.306)

“It seems we run our lives like trains, speeding along a track laid down by others, going so fast that what we pass blurs on it.  Then we say we’ve been there, done that.  The truth is that blurring by something is not the same as experiencing it.” (p.68)

“...we evolve in spite of our limitations, and though we break and make mistakes, we are always mysteriously more than what is broken.  Indeed, we somehow grow from the soil of our mistakes.  And often in the process, the things we refuse to let go of are somehow forced from our grip.” (p.183)

“If you cannot speak when your mouth is stuffed with unchewed food, how can you think clearly if your mind is stuffed with undigested information?” (p.297)

“...living is a process of constantly paring down until we carry only what is essential.” (p.176) 

“Transformation always involves the falling away of things we have relied on, and we are left with a feeling that the world as we know it is coming to an end, because it is.” (p.256)

If you plan to change something in your life following reading this review, or the book, please let me know what you did. I would love to hear from you. 💓

If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy my other book impressions.

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