“If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection.”
This book is a brilliant roadmap that journeys through 87 emotions and experiences that help define what it means to be human. Human emotion can be a very confusing thing. Brown sorts it all out. The print edition is a solid and appealing ‘coffee table’ style edition that is beautifully published and can be browsed in or read cover to cover.
It’s a transformative read dealing with a myriad of topics that cultivate meaningful human connection. Some people have criticised this book for rehashing a lot of stuff in her earlier books, but to me it seemed more like a coming together of her life’s work and research so far.
I think I’m a better person after reading this book. Here’s why. Human emotions and experiences are layers of biology, biography, behaviour, and backstory. She says, in order to recognise, name, and make sense of our feelings and experiences, we have to:
- Understand how they show up in our bodies and why (biology).
- Get curious about how our families and communities shape our beliefs about the connection between our feelings, thoughts, and behaviour (biography).
- Examine our go-to (behaviours), and
- Recognise the context of what we’re feeling or thinking. What brought this on? (backstory)
If you’ve ever felt adrift in your emotions, this book might help clarify things. The groupings of emotions and explanations of those groups were hugely helpful. This is the kind of book I tend to revisit from time to time.
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