The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer

A friend recommended the book, Untethered Soul by Michael Singer earlier this year. It resonated on a deep level, and not just for me. It’s sold more than one million copies and has a 5-star review on Amazon.

What is it that makes this book so special? Here are some key takeaways.

Your Thoughts and Feelings Don't Define You; You Simply Are—

You know that inner voice you have inside of you that rarely shuts up? According to some studies, we have about 60,000 thoughts a day, and 80 % of them are a repeat of the thoughts we had the day before, and the day before that.

These thoughts are the nemesis, the bad roommate, or simply the worst friend ever. But what if instead of listening to this voice, you just witnessed what thoughts and feelings came up? You didn’t identify or judge them. What if you could listen to this outpouring of consciousness without getting trapped in endless looping thoughts or big feelings? If you can do this, you’ll find yourself on the first step to achieving a profound sense of peace.

Our inner voice affects not only our emotions but our body as well. This voice can make us happy, or it can make us sad, but we forget that our thoughts are just objects of our consciousness. They aren’t real. The pain we choose to hold onto can be released if we choose to let go.

This is where the difference between self and personal self (ego) comes into play. Self is pure consciousness. It’s who we are without pain and judgment. The personal self (ego) is how you perceive yourself and those around you. (Spoiler alert: It’s never satisfied)

Accept that your thoughts don’t define you, that jealousy isn’t who you are, and that sadness isn’t a part of you, and total peace will follow.

Your Inside Thoughts are Your Inner Thorn—

For example, You fear rejection. The rejection becomes a thorn in your heart. It’s a sensitive spot, and you do everything you can to avoid making this thorn in your heart hurt more than it has to.

And instead of just taking the thorn out (which will be painful), you do everything in your power to avoid this pain. All of your thoughts, in one way or another, now need to protect you from this susceptible part of you—your fear of rejection. It becomes a way of life. You reflexively pull your heart back from genuine connection out of fear that, maybe, one day, you’ll experience a painful rejection. But if you look at your life objectively, you are rarely rejected— yet you spend so much time and energy guarding your heart against the concept of being rejected—thus keeping the thorn safely in place, undisturbed.

You are bracing for a worst-case scenario, causing you endless pain in the process. Once you close your heart around something like fear, you will be psychologically sensitive about that subject for the rest of your life. It will, in one way or another, run your life.

Open Your Heart; Let Your Energy Flow—

Consciousness and energy are flowing inside you, but most have blocked that flow subconsciously, leading to reactive lives steeped in pain. If you can tap into your authentic self, not your identity, you'll feel on top of the world. Any extremes you experience in life, coupled with the act of reacting and then recovering from these events, no longer weigh you down. Unreleased, stuck energy can lead to anxiety and fear in the body because negative thoughts and negative energy build up inside your body instead of being recognized, allowed for, investigated, and then released. Letting go of limiting thoughts and fears is great, but an even better way is to train your consciousness, yourself, to turn away from negative thoughts and emotions in the first place (and this is where RTT can help). By releasing your personal self from the self-made prison, your heart can expand, and your mind remains open to endless possibilities.

So essentially, choose love over fear… every time.

Free Yourself By Not Worrying About Others—

Singer believes we suffer because we focus our mental and emotional energy on being liked by others. And because this is so familiar to us, we don’t even notice that we’re doing it.

He compares this to a fish not noticing water. So, stop expecting your mind to “fix” what’s “wrong” with you. What if we used our minds to think about something noble, solve problems, and serve humanity? What if we looked at ourselves with love instead of contempt? What if we stopped chasing love and acceptance?