2 GOOD BOOKS: FEBRUARY EDITION
As I mentioned in my first post, I love reading. I read voraciously. I read because I feel inspiration and camaraderie in the words of authors who also see the potential for our world to transform in positive, healthy ways. The books I will share each month are ones that made me stop in my tracks and feel my own humanity, question my assumptions and beliefs, and hope for a better world. If you like to read or listen to audiobooks, or just want some thought-provoking literature to expand your horizons and inspire personal growth, I hope you will enjoy these monthly book suggestions. As February is black history month, I chose a couple of my favorite books by black female authors who are powerful examples of the courage it takes to accept ourselves. Each book is very different, but they share a common theme: the importance of reframing our relationships with our bodies.
The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power Of Radical Self-Love, by Sonya Renee Taylor
Sonya is a powerful truth-teller, and one of the bravest and most courageous activists out there. She fights for love and acceptance for everyone - no exceptions. You may find this book challenging, but if you stick with it - it will crack open your mind and heart and you will see yourself in a completely different way. She encourages you to be truly kind to yourself - ALL of yourself - in the most profound and honest ways.
Her book is a manifesto of her vision for a world where people no longer wish they were born into a different body, and who recognize that our cultural messages about how bodies should be is toxic to our well-being. Sonya uses the term Body Terrorism to describe how mainstream media tells us we need to lose weight, get plastic surgery, and generally look different than we naturally are. She asks, “What if you accepted the fact that much of how you view your body and your judgments of it are learned things, messages you have deeply internalized that have created an adversarial relationship?” Unless we start to become aware of the messages that are all around us and choose not to believe them, we will never achieve true contentment. This book is filled with powerful truth bombs that are bursting with love and begging each of us to take inventory of our beliefs and where they originate. Because, as Sonya points out, “If you decide to be at war with your body, how will you ever be at peace?”
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person, by Shonda Rhimes
This memoir takes us on Shonda’s journey of learning to say yes to life and love herself exactly as she is. You can probably imagine the hyper-intelligent, creative, humorous brain that Shonda must have to create her portfolio of hit TV shows. She tells us that writing TV comes easily to her, but writing an honest memoir about her life did not. Throughout this book she delights us with her wit and humor, constantly poking fun at herself, but we are still privy to the real Shonda that exists underneath. She shares her introverted insecurities with us and explains how she has always found solace and protection in make-believe worlds and self-deprecating humor. Her memoir chronicles how she decided she was finally worth saying yes to when she reached one of the lowest points in her life. As her career sky-rocketed, her personal life plummeted. In order to achieve these astronomical heights while proving to the world that she - the first African-American woman to create and produce a Top 10 network series - was not a fluke, she allowed her work to take over her whole life. She writes, “Losing yourself does not happen all at once. Losing yourself happens one ‘no’ at a time.”
Then one fateful Thanksgiving her sister said to her, “You never say yes to anything.” To save herself, she decided to commit to saying yes to everything life had to offer and even when her yeses began impeding upon her sleep and time with her family, she learned how to say yes to saying no. One large part of her journey of saying yes was learning to reconnect with her own body. She describes her life-long struggle with dieting and how she eventually let herself go, while telling herself that “my body is just the container I carry my brain around in.” Until she realized that so is a car, and if the car breaks down her brain won’t be able to go anywhere. Like Sonya Renee Taylor, she finds that re-connecting with her body and listening to what it really needs (when it is hungry, tired, wants to move), was the path towards feeling good again. It had nothing to do with what outside messages told her about what her body should look like, it was only ever about what she truly wanted and needed.
With that, I’ll leave you to it! I hope these books provide comfort and inspiration, and remind you of your inherent worth. Enjoy!