Don’t Believe Everything You Think : Book Review

The theme around the book “Don’t Believe Everything You Think” by Joseph Nguyen, is mainly self improvement. The author talks about how we can control our thinking and our suffering along with it. According to him, the amount of thinking we do is directly proportional to the amount of stress and suffering. And after applying it practically, I can totally second this thought. Most of the times when I am happy or just feeling satisfied by myself, I am in a no-thinking state, I have absolutely nothing going on in my head, although some thoughts might pass by, but I am not thinking about them. Its just empty with no activity no thinking going on. And that’s what the author stresses on!

Sadness/Stress/Suffering = A lot of thinking

Happiness/No-stress zone = No/Very little thinking

For example, let’s take some lines from the book:

“Recall a time when you felt the most joy and love you’ve ever felt in your life and feel the feelings that you felt at that time as much as you can for at least 30 seconds.”

But how do we survive without thinking you may ask? Is exactly what the author tells in his book.

“The most interesting and almost paradoxical thing about stopping our thinking is that we don’t have to do anything to minimise it other than to be aware of it. By us becoming aware that we are thinking and that it is the root cause of all our suffering, it automatically makes us conscious to that fact and we become detached to it, allowing it to settle and pass.”

“The only way to break free from our thinking is to let go and trust that our natural inner wisdom will guide us back to clarity and peace like it always has.”

“We are spiritual, infinite beings having a physical finite experience. Because of this, we are literally a living gateway between the human and the divine, so we naturally oscillate between the two states of feeling anxious/stressed and joyful/peaceful.”

I picked this book up when I was feeling lost in my life. I have my 9–5 job, living in a city away from my home, and almost no friend in the city to rely on, life seemed very heavy at that point to continue. It would be wise to say that this little book chose me to guide me through my not so good days in life, when I was thinking way too much ahead of time.

Not always I remember to apply the non-thinking method, but on most of my days, it has helped me, like a ray of hope.

For me it would be 4 stars out of 5.

Happy Reading, folks !