Jeff Hirsh Read: December 2023
Inspiration: Came across on Amazon’s bestseller list
Summary
Written with the help of ChatGPT, below is a brief summary to understand what is covered in the book.
“Lighter”, published in 2022 by author Yung Pueblo (aka Diego Perez), describes the author’s path to deep healing began only after years of drug abuse had taken a toll on his mind and body. Yung Pueblo reveals how we can all move forward in our healing, from learning self-compassion and letting go to becoming emotionally mature. This is a transformative guide to making our actions become more intentional, our decisions more compassionate, our thinking clearer and our future much brighter.
Unedited Notes
Direct from my original book log, below are my unedited notes (abbreviations and misspellings included) to show how I take notes as I read.
Radical Honest=step to self awareness and no longer fearing truth, opening up to yourself, curiosity on your own behaviors/emotions—not judgement but ask why patterns or behaviors form and the root, “self-love” is not just overwhelming positive but rather the radical honesty and frank advice to yourself, important to recognize that thoughts in the mind manifest via sensations in the body and often feels spontaneous but key in Buddhist teachings is that the sensation in the body (ie visceral reaction to angry thought) is separate and controllable, must make this separation and be more mindful to control reactions to thoughts of the mind–these reactions dictate how we go through life and can be trained to distance self/pause and stay calm, self love and healing is about not judging and seeing self from a sort of third person POV and being understanding/accepting without dwelling and triggering emotional/visceral reactions, not about suppressing emotion either–simply about being aware and mindful of emotions instead of reactionary, pause before act as instinctual responses are guided by past habits which are not representative of new habits desired to form going forward, avoidance of emotions alienates you from yourself, avoidance begets more fear, aversion, misunderstanding, feel your emotions without allowing them all your power, recognize methods will differ for everyone and takes many attempts and time, emotional maturity is not about perfection but continuous growth and oppeness to the malleability of the mind, our energy is our most precious resource—give yourself what you need not crave and be able to say no, ability to be patient as well, embrace that responsibility is your for reactions—moments of tension can be diffused with your own doing, view disagreements as discussion to prevent snowball into argument, exchange not a battle, another person cannot make you happy—this is one of the fables of relationships, happiness is inside out, relationship enable people to understand themselves better as open up and see emotions—new side can improve and strengthen which otherwise not tapped into on one’s own, miscommunication is because one must put their feelings into words then another must interpret those words through the filter of their own current feelings and past emotional history, patience required, ask for clarifications instead of making assumptions, real friends do not offer blind support—concerned with your well being so will speak against when needed, letting go is not smooth and the stormy moments that feel like setbacks are in fact opportunities to progress as can embrace acceptance and gentleness as release whatever is coming, other side comes and better than where started, healing is in waves, understand that in agitation the mind looks so objects to further increase agitation (people, ideas, etc), attachments fuel agitation so critical to release, focus on success and being committed without causing yourself tension, the attachment to speed and hierarchy is the ego and causes tension and imbalance of the mind—what good is success under such strain, overwhelming and overloading your mental space leads to burnout/want to quit—value rest and balance proactively, build boundaries to guide how you want to feel—bring those in your life who elevate and say no to time with those who bring down, finite time so key to be deliberate with energy and connections, conventional level of existence is standard way see selves but ultimate level looks at fact we are a series of rapidly changing subatomic particles moving in/out of impermanent combinations, society is triangular/hierarchical vs circular approach that is more inclusive in decision making, not small group choices with wide ranging impact—need more town halls that can decide spending at local level for example, society has cycle of oppressed fight back and perhaps win but then look for revenge instead of healing/harmony, we will live an abundance of opinion—scarcity of truth, societal issues have roots at individual healing level, it is a balance of the individual and collective but really individual healing and self love is most important given ripple effect, remove your own potential to do harm, humanity has a tendency to lean on violence to enemies to resolve issues which creates a cycle—beginning with compassion at individual level is essential, tension in the mind is a sign to embrace a change, center yourself around your values, lead with kindness and energy
