Atlas of the Heart
by Brene Brown
Non-Fiction. Themes: Self-Help/Psychology/Relationships
Dr. Brene Brown has dedicated her career as a social scientist to researching courage, shame, vulnerability and empathy. Five of her books have topped the New York Times bestseller list and her TED talk (with over 50 million views) is one of the top five most watched of all time. Brown’s newest work delves deep into 87 of the emotions and experiences central to our humanity. For each of these hard-to-describe, but often used emotion labels, Brown drops her truth bombs and social science research to define what these emotions truly are, creating a true atlas of emotional terms.
“Our connection with others can only be as deep as our connection with ourselves. If I don’t know and understand who I am and what I need, want, and believe, I can’t share myself with you. I need to be connected to myself, in my own body, and learning what makes me work. This is how I start to develop the grounded confidence I need to move through the world and cultivate meaningful connection with others.” ”
As always, it is a tremendous pleasure to read Dr. Brown’s words. She makes hard topics approachable and helps you lean into self-awareness with curiosity and laughter. There are so many helpful tools in this book, particularly her examination of “near-truths”, the differentiation between envy and jealousy, and my favorite, her assessment of grief. Quoting the famed grief expert, David Kessler, she offers this pearl of wisdom: “What everyone has in common is that no matter how they grieve, they share a need for their grief to be witnessed. That doesn’t mean needing someone to try to lessen it or reframe it for them. The need is for someone to be fully present to the magnitude of their loss without trying to point out the silver lining.”
Beautifully illustrated, Atlas is a perfect coffee table companion. A resource you’ll turn to again and again along this journey of being human. Listening to the audiobook, it felt like I was having a conversation with a very dear and very smart friend. Perhaps like me, you’ll want to own both the audio and print versions.