Book Recommendation: The Four Agreements
The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz
This wonderful book talks about unhealthy agreements that we have made with ourselves and what we can do to establish more truthful agreements. These four agreements sound so simple at first, but they take practice to incorporate them into your lifestyle. The author provides great examples that are easy to relate to. Several times while reading this book I could feel a familiarity because of my experience with the situations described.
These are the four agreements:
- Be impeccable with your word.
- Don’t take things personally.
- Don’t make assumptions.
- Always do your best.
Practicing these agreements will help to reduce your stress in several ways. By being impeccable with our words we give ourselves more compassion and therefore give more compassion towards others which can result in more harmonious relationships. By not taking things personally, we don’t take on more than we own. By not making assumptions, we focus on what we know to be true which also makes it easier to work on the things within our control. By always doing our best, we make continual improvement and we don’t have to feel guilty because we know we gave it 100% regardless of the circumstances.
This book helped me to see things differently. I moved away from questioning myself in response to others. I learned about how much power I have. This book is also a quick read and comes in an audio format as well.