Book Review-The Four Agreements
Book review: Prashanth from Team Saahas
Book Title: The Four Agreements
Author: Don Miguel Ruiz
Non-fictional books can be of many types : biographies, philosophies, guides, self help books etc.
There are a lot of self help books out there which theorise the concept of positive living.
Reading them may give us external motivation, but there are those rare ones which give us internal inspiration; whose concepts are learnt and understood in practical sense alone.
One such book is “THE FOUR AGREEMENTS”.
As the author says, “If we can talk or walk (simple things), it is just because we’ve repeated and practiced them more than anything else!”
Don discusses the “Four agreements” with which we can live life with maximum satisfaction and minimum regrets. As a reader, I must comment that he is a very knowledgeable person who has a wholesome understanding of vast subjects including people dealing, psychology, and spirituality.
Of them, the 2nd agreement: “Don’t take anything personally” connected to my heart.
It invites us to acknowledge that we are all working through the perspective of our own unique experiences. My perspective is different from your perspective, and while we may share a multitude of commonalities and connections, your actions, thoughts, and words are not about me.
When I take something someone does personally, I am centering myself, using limited information to jump to conclusions, and ignoring their experience and perspective. Additionally, I am telling myself untruths. Whatever a friend posts on FB, says to me over coffee, or thinks about the way I dress, for instance, IS NOT ABOUT ME.
(Emphasizing because this is still quite hard for me to realize, and my guess is that I’m not alone.)
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out. It doesn’t matter much to me.” is my favourite quotation from the book.
This book is a really good one for changing the way you think about communication and interaction with others. It will make you look at things differently. Definitely worth a read!