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I learned so much from reading this book!
If you‘re interested in medical reading material ,and more specifically, the practice of neurology, I highly highly recommend this book!
A truly fascinating read that caught me up in it from beginning to end!
I kind of didn‘t want it to end!
The reasons I gave it four stars was because parts of it felt like it drifted, some language was difficult to understand, and the chapters were LONG!!
And just like that, we‘ve made it to another Monday (tomorrow)!
I hit the reading goals I had in mind and accomplished a new achievement I wasn‘t expecting upon finishing this book.
50 books down in the Bookly app, 18/40 books down on my Goodreads challenge. One less behind now.
Hoping to be all caught up on my Goodreads challenge over this next week!!
We can experience the full presence and magnitude of these connections between us to move us from suffering to empathy to compassion to kindness—to hope. We can remain individual while simultaneously being in communion with other people.
The visible and invisible connections that exist between us - be they pheromones, herd immunity, mass hysteria, yawning, social networks, the Internet—will continue to surprise us in their dominion over us to create conflict and cooperation.
Though we may feel singular in our individual consciousness, we are far from confined to this singular experience. We are porous, open, and free in our interconnections, and as Walt Whitman continues to remind us, we contain multitudes.
Exchanging our personal stories with other people allows us to enter into a kind of communion with one another, and that might mean beginning our story from our childhood, from our family history, or from however we came to arrive here. As Paulo Coelho put it, “Even if my neighbor doesn‘t understand my religion or understand my politics, he can understand my story. If he can understand my story then he‘s never too far from me.”
Understanding and redefining ourselves through our stories helps us take that next step toward the other and as the recipient—listening, observing, feeling, experiencing—being open to the joy and discomfort of surrendering to new perspectives and realities.
When tragedy inevitably befalls us, we are always able to reflect, to notice with clear eyes what is happening around us and within us. This ability to reflect affords us the opportunity to figure out what to do next, one hesitant step after the other, even if our feet take us in the direction of surrender.
Answers (or at the very least, clues) about other people arise from the telling of our own story. Through curiosity, creativity and courage we can redefine and rearticulate our personal narrative.
Each body contains its own story, it‘s own quiet epic. Setting it free into the world requires patience and fortitude. But this is ultimately how we declare ourselves, in our own unwavering voice, ready for the world—and, with the assistance of empathy, the only way we remain open to the world.
Empathy is not just putting yourself in the other person‘s position. It‘s also caring enough to consider why. If we can genuinely appreciate what is motivating others to do what they are doing, we can remain open long enough to piece together their story and understand for ourselves in our own language what it is they expect to happen next, their hope for the future they envision most clearly.
While we might be naturally driven by the desire to win, each step we take regardless of the outcome is but one more step to propel us in our story. Whether forward or backward, no step is wasted.
Yet the unpolished stories of our lives usually do not end with a final glorious triumph, a blazing victory followed by a roll of credits. Our stories go on. More likely, more marathons remain beyond the finish line. One more thing, one more time.
Our conditions, our circumstances, are too often out of our control. But the stories we tell about those circumstances are ours and ours alone, allowing us to choose the way we live.
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” Joan Didion reminds us, and our ability to create meaning out of personal tragedy is crucial to our existence, to rediscover resiliency while coping with adversity.
Only made it through one chapter today instead of the two I had planned on, so that means two chapters tomorrow and I‘ll still finish this book on time!!
Documented the goals for tomorrow tonight, aside from the times I get my chapters done so that I have no choice but to get them done, even if my pen is erasable! 😉
As a former epileptic, I never thought I‘d see information or lived experience documenting someone who had success with a ketogenic diet plan and reducing seizures, but as a current keto-er, I‘m so excited that it worked for this girl!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Family is made up of individuals who care for each other and help one another become a better version of their truest, most liberated self.
We are all, in our own way, in search of our own tribes, a group of people who understands us and helps us find peace. Our most authentic sense of purpose is likely to be found by growing our family, our community. “Family” extends beyond beyond people with whom we share a blood or legal bond. Family is also our network of support, including friends, colleagues, collaborators, fellow thinkers and feelers.
I think I can, I think I can....
2 more hours, 2 more chapters.
2 more chapters tomorrow and one on Sunday and we‘ve made it to another Monday!!
2 hours and 20 minutes more down today and 2 more chapters read. 4 of 9 chapters complete!
Empathy is the hyperbaric oxygen needed to allow some of the most human wounds to heal.
Empathy requires feeling or understanding. Heightened empathy requires feeling and understanding. Compassion requires motivation to relieve suffering. Kindness requires action.
So today has been a solid reading day.
2 chapters of the tagged book done.
This book has long chapters, so that‘s an accomplishment for me. Usually I can‘t stay engaged long enough to not leaf through to see how many pages of a long chapter I have left, but this book is super fascinating.
I am 2 books behind in my Goodreads challenge, hoping to bring that down to one over the next 5 days! 🤓📚🤞🏻
And, in time, I came to appreciate that the people and experiences that shape us do not define us. They refine us, as imprints that first leave wounds and then tomorrow turn into scars and callouses that allow us to climb higher.
Light reading day today, the intro to the new book (15 pages).
30 minutes for June 30th. No I did not try to do that on purpose.
Happy to say I‘m hooked on this one already!!
At its core, empathy seems to require an initial spark of desire to switch perspectives, to generously give another person‘s experience enough worth so that we‘re not only willing but also yearn to see and live the world through that person‘s perspective.
No reading today, but since I took the liberty to extend this readathon through to next months dates, decided I should still take notes on what bookish decisions I did make today and start fresh with a new one tomorrow! New day, new book!
Also hoping the nausea I was plagued with all day today does not return again tomorrow, that really threw off my focus on anything today.
Just snagged the audiobook of this one from Chirp and ordered up the physical copy on a free book credit from ThriftBooks!
I didn‘t need more books, but I‘m excited about this one!
Mirror Touch: Notes from a Doctor Who Can Feel Your Pain | 
