(The Book and the review)

I have to write three book reviews for my course and yesterday I wrote the first one about the book The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. I loved that book when I read it first and re-reading yesterday reminded me of what I loved. So I’m going to tell you. (It’s a bit long….)

Ruiz explains that we are all domesticated by society. We get rules to follow and we follow them because we are afraid…. of being different and getting no attention. Although we got the rules when we were children (from parents, teachers, siblings who got them when they were children) we still follow them. We’re not even aware that we are following them. What’s more, the rules often contradict each other. So here we are blindly following someone else’s, not very logical, rules.The solution? Ruiz says that his four agreements will help us break the old rules and create our own ones. And his four?

(Some four agreement cards)

1.Be Impeccable with your word….. only speak the truth. This doesn’t mean that you must tell everyone what you think of them! Instead, everything that you say is your truth. Gossip is a big no-no! 2. Don’t take anything personally. Someone else’s negative words can only become poison to you if you take it personally, otherwise it’s just their words. Someone saying something good about you? Don’t take that personally either, it is still only their words. 3. Don’t make assumptions. “The problem with making assumptions is that we believe they are the truth”, and then we react by sending our own words and creating a big drama. 4. Always do your best. Of course do your best…. but he says to remember it’s never going to be the same from one day to the next. Give yourself a break and do the best you can do in that moment.

(More four agreement cards)

Finally, he says we talk a lot about freedom but we are the only ones who can grant ourselves freedom and the first step is awareness.

Be free… go on, go on, go on, Mairead.