Breaking Normal: ReWild Your Inner Child and Set the Truth Free

by Daniel Eisenman

Daniel Eisenman has a raw and wild inner child and he wants to light yours up, too!
Why keep a lid on your growth and opportunities to thrive, especially if those limitations are self-imposed? Illuminate your subconscious shadows with this personal development retreat in book form.
Over the past decade of creating epic personal development retreats, Daniel Eisenman has traveled around the world experiencing beautiful, exotic settings and amazing people. His one big observation is that so many people keep the lid on their growth and passions. This is a self-imposed limitation ~ nobody tells us to do this!
Daniel blows the lid off and gives you a retreat experience in a book. What's inside Breaking ReWild Your Inner Child and Set the Truth Free ?

Genres: Self Help

171 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 19, 2017

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will rub many people the wrong way. They will think, “good for you, Danimal. You found a way to get paid for spending your time doing what you most want to do in life. Make sure to look down on the rest of us who have real responsibilities to manage.” I had to temper my own jealousy while reading this and take from it what I could apply to my own life.

I also had to breathe into my automatically negative reaction to the author’s drug use. He complains that “in this day and age… there’s a drug for just about every symptom,” but admits to regularly smoking marijuana. I really had to think through the way that the function of behavior depends on its context. So for some, smoking marijuana might be an escape or an avoidance move, but for others it could be for enhancing connection to others or heightening a sensory experience. It was still very jarring to read about someone promoting a natural lifestyle (including time in nature; polar plunging; eating fresh, in-season, organic food) filling his lungs with carcinogenic smoke and purposefully altering his natural state of mind. I hate the argument that marijuana is “natural” and therefore safe. Poisonous berries are also “natural,” but that doesn’t mean they are good for you.

Some will also write Eisenman off as a conspiracy theorist for this passage: “Some say that fluoride acts as a neurotoxin, which is why it is added to the public water supply—to keep the populace docile.” All I can say is that I hope it’s not true.

Regardless of the above, reading this did re-awaken within me the desire to live as free as I can and to remember my place in the universe. For me, that looks more like getting rid of physical and mental clutter, and remembering to live by my values rather than by my feelings. There is plenty of wisdom here if you read with an open mind and heart.


Big Ideas:

+ Normal is:
- Not all it’s cracked up to be: “Being normal is one of the most pervasive diseases of our time, infecting 90% of people. The other 10% are infected too, they’re just silent carriers. It’s a disease, I believe, that is caused by a fear-based mindset of self-rejection.”
- Living asleep like a zombie: “On a cultural and societal level, hypnosis works as follows: a population is overfed, undernourished, sleep-deprived, cut off from nature, and dependent on drugs they can only get from those in power. They are surrounded by modern convenience and material things, kept “comfortable” and “stimulated” and distracted by the “news” piped directly into their homes—bigger elections, threats of violence, fears of scarcity. A society that is scared is easy to manipulate and open to subconscious messaging, because they allowed themselves to lose touch with their innate wisdom and discernment. They behave in false ways and make up reasons for it after the fact, reasons they perpetuate and spread to other people.”
- A type of repression: “That’s the situation a lot of people are in. That’s the challenge to overcome. They’re emotionally constipated, full of other people’s stories and ‘why, because’ rationalizations that keep them trapped in the jail of their minds.”
- Not working for us: “What’s not working for you is looking up to others, thinking they are better than you. What’s not working for you is looking down on others, thinking that they are worse than you…. What’s not working for you is desperately seeking outside approval.”

+ On pain and suffering:
- Pain is part of life, suffering doesn’t have to be: “I don’t think anyone has ever been hurt by emotional pain, I think what hurts us is trying to avoid our pain and discomfort.”
- Pain can be useful: “While our survival instinct says pain is bad and we should move away from it, our self-realization instinct says pain is an opportunity and we should move towards it. There’s meaning in pain, purpose in pain, and at the other side of pain, there’s you.”
- Feelings are not problems to be solved: “in many cases, I’ve found that it was my resistance to feeling those feelings, rather than the feelings themselves, that was the true source of my discomfort and suffering. When I allowed them to happen—when I allowed myself to feel them—the feeling got better.”
- You’re not special, we all suffer: “What’s most personal is most universal—and that realization is infinitely healing.”

+ Principles for living:
- Be assertive but accepting: “Ask for what you want, and don’t be attached to getting it… Expect nothing, and experience everything.”
- Put thoughts in their place: “Living a more ‘awakened’ life involves not believing everything you think.”
- Stay open to experience: “When you fully feel an experience, it comes and goes. When you resist it, however, it tends to persist… What you resist tends to persist, and continues to persist as long as you resist it.”
- Feelings have a function: “Feelings are like the ‘check engine’ lights of our individual vehicles. They come on in order to get our attention, to signal something to us.”
- Look closely at your stories: “Fear of rejection is often a cover for the fear of intimacy.”
- Take responsibility: “I remember my dad saying that if you have a problem with someone, you are the problem. It seems to me that the things we are most reluctant to admit about ourselves we tend to look for in other people.”
- Avoid blame: “If you’re going to blame someone for something negative in your life, be sure to blame them for all the positive things in your life too.”
- Don’t gossip: “Gossip is an indication that at that moment you may lack integrity. Presumably you lacked integrity in the past too, because the urge to gossip might be an indication that you didn’t speak up in the past, that is, to the person you’re now gossiping about.”
- Be honest: “Talk to people the way you would talk about them to your best friends.”
- Suspend your automatic judgments: “That’s the story of the bird. Not everyone who craps on you is an enemy. Not everyone who pulls you out of it is a friend. Cows are cows, cats cats, and birds birds. At some point in our lives we’ve probably all acted like one or all three.”
- You do you: “I don’t need your validation in order to be who I am, nor do you need mine.”
- Practice self-compassion for the sake of others: “The degree to which you can accept and love yourself as you really are is indicative of the degree to which you can accept and love others as they really are.”
- Remember, this is the day that the Lord has made: “Before the holidays were invented, every day was holy. In the eyes of the Creator, they still are.”
- Don’t argue with people: “Arguing with someone against a behavior that you think is bad for them might be the least effective way to get them to change that behavior, because it incites more resistance.”
- Let your experience tell you what’s true for you: “I’ve learned that quick-fixes are usually short-lived and not sustainable in the long term, and I’ve learned that different people can eat the exact same food and get different results. I’ve learned that food is fuel for my fire, not the fire itself. My spirit is the fire, and that fire can burn, clean, and refine almost anything, if my intention is right.”
- Protect your reality: “I want to speak in a way that I don’t project anything onto other people, and I choose to honor myself enough that I stop other people from consciously or unconsciously projecting anything onto me.”
- Let go of the “I can’t” story: “Instead of ‘I can’t,’ give yourself the freedom to be more honest. Either you don’t know how, which is a great starting place for any meaningful endeavor, or you simply don’t want to.”
- Follow your heart: “What’s working for you is your willingness to follow your heartbeat, especially when it leads you to the wisdom of the unknown and the unsure.”



Potent Quotables:

*Prayer is when you’re speaking to God, and meditation is when you’re listening to God.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually listened to the Audible edition of this book after my son enthusiastically reported how much he loved it. Always attempting to understand the youth of today, I thought I'd listen in. Daniel Eisenman is one of the famous Rawbrahs; they lead "tribe" retreats all over the world, several of which my son has attended. It's about being vulnerable, celebrating every day as a holy-day, sleeping according to a natural sleep cycle, doing work that you're passionate about, and living each day as you want to live it, and not as anyone else tells you to. It's about breaking out of what people call "normal" and finding your own path. It all sounds great! I wonder how many people are really able to live their lives in this way. Daniel is actually well-spoken and delivers the ideas in his book well. It is interesting, to say the least.

[Lorna Tessem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a meditation on being human

One of the more direct and better books on this grand subject og being human, I have read. Everyone can read this book and gain something, Id be so bold to suggest.

[Nadeem Eltamimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a helpful book for me, since it includes Bio-hacks. When i researched the benefits of those hacks and how it influences the chemicals in my body, i started doing them, and they’ve become an almost daily ritual for me.

One of the hacks mentioned was getting sun where the sun doesn’t shine, on our sex center, and entire body. For men, getting the sun down there boosts testosterone production by 200%, and it feels good as i’m laying there as well.

Breaking Normal is like a practical guidebook on how to upgrade one’s life with daily routines that are different, fun, and healthy for our mind and body.

The Author also provides different methods on how to communicate with people in an upgraded way, that’s fun, and also allowed me to connect with people in a deeper and more authentic manner. This was especially helpful since i used to struggle going beyond small talk with people. I’m at a point where i can talk to people i just met about anything, and be at ease at the same time.

I see this book as an algorithmic upgrade, but for my mind.

[Anastacia Mazzuca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve known about Daniel since the days of his first public explorations of healthy living with the rawbrahs. And then after when he and his wife and child moved across to find their new path as a couple. And then again when life reformed again. He’s been a consistent force of learning, evolving, challenging and reforming of the norms we know as a society. Some healthy, others very unhealthy. I’ve been along for that discovery..within my own deconstructions of sorts and I appreciate someone unafraid, someone who understands movement and growth are the only way to live.

I’m proud of you Daniel. Keep breaking norms. Keep MOVING forward. Because if you stop. You might as well be the unliving.

[Christopher Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are ever looking for an inspiring book, to offer you hope, to offer you inspiration, to offer you guidance, I would highly recommend this book. The author Daniel Eisenman is so authentic in his book. I would also recommend it through audiobooks, as Daniel himself reads it, through his voice, through his words, you feel the emotion in every sentence, you feel the book, you even feel like you are apart of the experience. This is one of my favorite ways to start a long drive, or my commute to work, listening to Daniel tell his story, and spending the day in reflection.

[Noémie Zumer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a poetry writer I enjoyed listening to the stories which blended in beautifully with rational explanation of what was going on, or what point Daniel was trying to make. I thought : ''We need more people to write books like these'' while listening to the logic of his inspiration, and the logic in beauty and living a beautiful life.
At some parts I was like '' what the fuck !!! '' It really had me laughing at myself.

[Rainier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Admittedly, I didn't get very far and what I read, I read pretty quickly. The conversational tone, and seeming lack of research to back up the author's ideas, led to my skimming.

From what I read, this book has some nice ideas. For example, I liked the author's suggestion to seek out people who seem particularly different from oneself and try to get a feel for them, their story, their way of looking at the world, etc.

On the other hand, the book lacks depth, could even be counterproductive to the author's seeming goals. For example, his section on how children learn to "dim their light" might lead readers to think that excessively permissive parenting is the way to go. Having lived in a society where parents consistently turn a blind eye, believing kids should work out problems on their own, I experienced kids breaking other kids' bones, throwing rocks at passing cars on class trips, etc. with no consequences from caregivers. Firm but loving boundaries help kids learn empathy and similar positive/healthy social behavior and values. I also think the author doesn't appreciate that some of his ideas, inappropriately promoted, could reactivate repressed trauma. As to his agreement "let go of saying you're sorry", he misses the objective that researchers studying language and communication point out: that doing so has a socially connective function, particularly for women. It's like saying you're sorry at a funeral: no, most likely you didn't poison the deceased; rather, an "apology" is a means of commiserating and offering emotional support. Et cetera.

So, while I certainly appreciate the theme of the author's work- finding your voice, honoring your needs, not letting social conformity shut you down inappropriately, etc. - he doesn't offer a nuanced, evidence-based view, and he throws the baby out with the bathwater.

[Felicity Charles]

This book changed the way I think. I was going through a hard time dealing with an abusive husband. I was grasping for any life line trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Turned out I had to leave the bad situation. I was reevaluating my choices and decided to go back to school. It was rough I was homeless for a while. My mom moved to me to help and I got through school. I went back to this book to review several times it is funny and easy to read and gives you so much to think about. The inspiration Daniel gave to keep thinking was life changing. I wish I had this book as a teenager and I hope some day to go to one of his retreats. For now I'm living payday to payday but I'm secure in my choices I have found peace within. I'm not lying to myself anymore. There are so many ways I was and didn't see it. I hope you enjoy this book too. The only thing I regret is not buying the hard copy, however the digital copy is great too.

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this book can open the doors for personal freedom for those of us who have been doing their best to conform to society’s rules. Is this why we all feel anguish inside, because we know the lives we’re living, really doesn’t match up to how we would like to feel? Imagine when we were kids having the ability to go do anything in adult could. We thought that was heaven. Now that we are adults, why aren’t we in heaven? Who made these rules we follow and why have we worked so hard on conforming. It’s OK to enjoy life. Daniel gives a real solid foundation on breaking this abnormal reality we’ve come to accept.

[Pía López Copetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of Daniel Eisenman as I tend to find his writing very repetitively, though this book was okay. The best part is the realization of fear and the influence of society's rules since our very early childhood, and how can that condition your personality, your creativity and your performance.

[Lindsey Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend.

When I read this for the first time I was so relieved that
someone else thought ‘normal’ isn’t actually that normal. This book confirmed and excited that wide eyed innocent essence of me and my cells felt like they were dancing the whole way through.

A great book to inspire, remind and free up your best most authentic self. You’ll be glad you got it. Enjoy.

[Marisse Vista · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m about to listen to this book on audible but Daniel is a great human all around. He’s very into getting the story right when speaking with people and I really appreciate his safety as a masculine energy. He’s also sooooo great with his daughter. These are all the values that draw me to knowing more about people so I’m excited to get into this book!

[Kara Alise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel is Breaking Normal. He has always been great at helping others stand for their authentic self and is evidently committed to greatness. He is often encouraging others to be aware of their limiting beliefs, stories etc... and is always pushing the envelope. It’s a great read indeed! 5 STARS

[Dr.Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so willing to read this amazing man's creativity...I had been following the OmDaddy idk since when he's truly a genuine person I believe and I know how beautifully he must have had pearled up the words to create this masterpiece.
-love and luck Gourayyy

[Ben Azadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would you like to create real relationships (REALationships)? Would you like to be more authentic?
I imagine your answer is a resounding YES. If so, go get this book right now.

[Jordan Bowditch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely one of my favorite books. I’ve had the immense privilege of experience Daniel’s gifts firsthand. This book is a GREAT read.

[Sam Poppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-inducing foray into the exploration of what is normal and the limits we place on ourselves. Where it's good it's very good, and even in the places where it's less convincing, the disagreement
is healthy and strengthening. Anyone looking for something, I recommend reading this book.

[Timothy Rawbrah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing life changing book. Read it if you’re feeling ready for an upgrade!

[Sara Afflitto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely inspiring book! Recommending it highly to men and women everywhere.

[Ashleigh Snowdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking forward to reading this one :)

[Daniel Eisenman · Rating 5 out of 5]

So stoked that is one of the most important books during these “new normal” times .... Here’s and cheers to breaking the new normal 🦄🤙🏽✨

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went through this audiobook in a single day while at work. I appreciate Daniel Eisenman's candidness, his honesty when sharing his personal journey and the challenges he gives the reader to reconnect with the child within. I certainly did!