Ruiz, Don Miguel Ángel "The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom" - 1997
I bought this book years ago. I don't remember what drew me to it but the fact that I didn't start reading it earlier probably says it all.
I'm not the kind of person who will feel better if you tell me that I will feel better if only I start to love myself. On the contrary, if you tell me a problem will be solved if only I looked at it differently, I will feel even worse because you tell me that I am the problem.
In general, I agree, if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you. Most of the time. But that is not a wisdom I need to read, I've learned that all by myself. And with some people, it just doesn't help. And if someone wants to be mean to me, there is no way this book is going to change that.
Anyway, I did not enjoy reading this book. It had less than 200 pages, so I carried on, hoping the big enlightenment would come at the end. Well, it didn't.
From the back cover:
"In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love."
I'm not very big on self-help books so I probably wouldn't enjoy this either.
ReplyDeleteThat is more than likeley. Stay away from it. ;)
DeleteHave a good weekend,
Marianne
Ditto Mac n' Janet on self-help books. I coined a phrase some years ago: "Self improvement is overrated."
ReplyDeleteWhy am I not even surprised. I love that quote! LOL. I rather improve my knowledge by reading good stuff. ;)
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ReplyDelete(I don't know if my other comment went through, so I apologize if this is posted twice! 😅) I agree with your statement: "if you tell me a problem will be solved if only I looked at it differently, I will feel even worse because you tell me that I am the problem." In his absurd little book, Ruiz does a lot of victim-blaming. He shifts the blame to injured people, telling them that they are choosing to take things personally when others mistreat them. Horrible logic! Perception can change how you look at certain situations, but reality is reality. I'd advise everyone to stay away from this book!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lectrice. I received a lot of spam on some older posts, and the only way I can avoid those now is to "approve" of comments. You can do that on all or just the older ones which is what I chose. That's why your post didn't show up, yet.
ReplyDeleteI always felt that way. It's like, you get killed by someone, it's your own fault, you shouldn't have let the murderer kill you. They also use that with rape victims, totally unfair, but that's another topic.
Still, I thought this was so much rubbish, I actually felt worse after reading this but then I realized, it's just one stupid guy who thinks he knows everything. So, I kept telling myself, those people who kept making my life hell on earth are just as bad as he is. That helped a little.