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Why Normal Isn't Healthy: How to Find Heart, Meaning, Passion, and Humor on the Road Most Traveled
Signed copy from the author himself!
197 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2000
56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 10, 2008
What a great and refreshing book! I love books that can get you to think outside of accepted norms and your own perspectives on things. Neat!
November 18, 2019
First, full disclosure: I have coffee with Dr. White once a week along with several other friends who like to talk about the big issues and tell jokes all at the same time. He gave me a signed copy of his book and of course I had to read it.
I have to say I'm glad I did. I remember when I told Dr. White (he's Bowen over at the coffee shop) that I was about half way finished with the book, he said that the best is yet to come. And of course he was right. Though it's not the most important book ever written in the field about how to live (see Montaigne, Plato and others), this book provides a wake up call. We do get bogged down.
Just a few highlights:
From page 133: "We're born dependent. We're taught to be codependent. We survive our lives driven by fear. We all have feelings of inadequacy and insecurity that we don't want other people to know about. We project images of adequacy and security to compensate for those feelings of inadequacy, so that no one knows our secret."
And then, as expected, here comes the best: We're driven by fear when we should be driven by love. After we learn to accept that we have the same faults, which he calls our shadow side, we accuse others of having, then we can "eat the shadow. This is soul food." Then he says, "Energy follows attention. What I pay attention to, I have energy for. When I shine the flashlight of my attention on my greedy part, I have energy to change."
Dr. White uses a lot of poetry ( Rumi, Bly, Rilke and others), metaphors, allegories and heartfelt stories to get his point across and he does that very well. And he does it with what he recommends for all of us - with humor. In fact, his alter ego is a clown named Dr. Jerko who has a lot to teach us.
I have to say I'm glad I did. I remember when I told Dr. White (he's Bowen over at the coffee shop) that I was about half way finished with the book, he said that the best is yet to come. And of course he was right. Though it's not the most important book ever written in the field about how to live (see Montaigne, Plato and others), this book provides a wake up call. We do get bogged down.
Just a few highlights:
From page 133: "We're born dependent. We're taught to be codependent. We survive our lives driven by fear. We all have feelings of inadequacy and insecurity that we don't want other people to know about. We project images of adequacy and security to compensate for those feelings of inadequacy, so that no one knows our secret."
And then, as expected, here comes the best: We're driven by fear when we should be driven by love. After we learn to accept that we have the same faults, which he calls our shadow side, we accuse others of having, then we can "eat the shadow. This is soul food." Then he says, "Energy follows attention. What I pay attention to, I have energy for. When I shine the flashlight of my attention on my greedy part, I have energy to change."
Dr. White uses a lot of poetry ( Rumi, Bly, Rilke and others), metaphors, allegories and heartfelt stories to get his point across and he does that very well. And he does it with what he recommends for all of us - with humor. In fact, his alter ego is a clown named Dr. Jerko who has a lot to teach us.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews