Written by: Michael A. Singer
Reviewed by: Shelby Gobbo
The Premise: Author Michael A. Singer takes you on a spiritual awakening through a self-reflective lens. Beginning the book with the familiar ‘voice inside your head’, you embark on a journey of self exploration that touches on transcendence, freedom and love. The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself is one of the best books I have read this year. Singer breaks his teachings into five parts: Awakening Consciousness, Experiencing Energy, Freeing Yourself, Going Beyond and Living Life. One of my favourite quotes from the book really illustrates how embracing change can lead to the freeing of your soul, Singer says “The spiritual journey is one of constant transformation. In order to grow, you must give up the struggle to remain the same, and learn to embrace change at all times.” What is so powerful and unique about this book is the author’s ability to present simple solutions, yet ones that are profound and will spark change for the better.
Singer launches the book by taking you through the different ‘relationships’ you have with your thoughts. Beginning with ‘The Voice Inside Your Head’ and ‘Your Inner Roommate,’ Singer outlines what our everyday internal dialogue, or ‘inner roommate’ is telling us and how that affects our internal relationships; a simple, relatable and understandable concept that helps you to break down what your internal thoughts are telling you, what they are preventing you from doing, and how they can shift to a positive dialogue. Next, Singer introduces us to the concept of ‘energies’ – one of my personal favourite sections of the book. As he explains, “It’s actually a shame how little attention the Western world pays to the laws of inner energy. We study the energy outside, and give great value to energy resources, but we ignore the energy within.” Highlighting how to use our internal energies, Singer digs deep and details how to unleash and use those stored up energies. Finally, the book closes with the concept of ‘freeing the soul’ and ‘the price of freedom.’ In this section, he speaks to the pain that sometimes accompanies freeing the soul saying: “true spiritual growth and deep personal transformation is coming to peace with pain.” In this he means that we need to accept that some things will not change and that some things will hurt. However, when you accept this truth, you will allow yourself to be at peace (although at times it may be hard) and you will no longer re-hash those ‘hurts’ – you will have freed your soul and allowed it to channel energies into more positive streams of consciousness.
The Bottom-line: Easy to read and written in an honest and truthful prose, this book challenges you to really look inside yourself and reflect on your perceptions, your goals and your life. Tapping into concepts of mindfulness and meditation, Singer really shows how you have the ability to ‘untether’ your soul and control your stream of consciousness. The author also shows how you can choose to control your inner monologue, and how to identify which ‘everyday’ scenarios may be unintentionally preventing you from reaching your full potential, and most importantly, freeing your mind and your soul.
Recommendation: If you are looking to better yourself and better your life – this book is a MUST read. The takeaways from this book have allowed me to re-focus, destress and feel a sense of inner freedom. Highly recommended for anyone hungry for a healthy relationship with the world around you, and with yourself!
