Radical Acceptance is an amazing book about embracing your life with the heart of the Buddha. In other words, learning how to live a beautiful life, through particular teachings from the Buddhist religion. You don't have to be religious in any way shape or form, it just recommends to meditate as a Buddhist follower would and learn to accept yourself for who you are.
Tara Brach
Before I break down the book a little for you all, I will first give a bit of information on the amazing author Tara Brach. Tara is a proponent of the Buddhist religion and is a spiritual leader in the modern world with her guided meditations and insights into living a better life. She is also a trained psychologist and founded the Insight meditation community which is based in Washington D.C.
In her early 20's straight out of college she joined a 'spiritual community' which didn't turn out to be what she thought it would be and she subsequently left after 8 years but it enlightened her to explore more of the Buddhist religion and really kickstarted her journey into being a teacher and proponent of the religion.
A little bit about the book
The book Radical Acceptance was published in 2003 and still holds masses of value today. It is honest and real and is written as a personal guide by Tara. In it, she describes some trials and tribulations she has personally experienced or currently experiences and also the problems she has been exposed to when dealing with her clients and how she advises herself and the student to deal with the issues in their life. This is great because it allows us to confide and live with her and the person as though they are real people, who have real-life anxieties and problems just like us. Tara is expressive of her own personal experience of believing 'Something is wrong with me' and conveys that one of the main issues for personal sadness or the hindrance of our growth emotionally is due to the fact that we don't accept ourselves, and thus we should truly learn to love ourselves.
It is split into chapters each following the same format:
Beginning with personal or external accounts of problems we face in reality, such as the problem of Fear, or the problem of not being able to trust others. She then gives clear-cut examples that any reader will be able to empathise or learn from and then finishes each chapter with different Guided Meditations to help us on our way to overcoming the problem and radically accept who we are and the situation we are faced with.
How it has helped me personally
I am not a religious person because despite being brought up in a Christian family I have never felt the need to confide in a religion. However, despite this book being based on Buddhist philosophies, it is one of the best I have ever read for self-help in facing the trials and tribulations of everyday life. It is extremely useful in day to day life and I already use many of the tips and tricks Tara has presented in the book which has allowed me to live in a more peaceful and empathetic way. My favourite chapter was Chapter Six on the radical acceptance of Desire and how we can learn to pause, listen to our body and accept that we are having a desire that may be good or bad for us. I use this now, whenever in an argument to evaluate whether or not it would be good to express my viewpoint in a strong way, by listening to my desire to crush the person I am arguing with and evaluating whether this will be a good thing or a bad thing.
Please read the book, it is one of the best self-help books I've ever read and I can't wait to read more of Tara's work.
If you have any suggestions of what I should read next, please comment below!
Have a great New Year!
Adam x
You can buy the book here:
Waterstones
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
Check out some of my other book reviews!
Ego is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday
HomoDeus - Yuval Noah Harari
The Wisdom of Insecurity - Alan Watts