What would it be like to free yourself from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to discover inner peace and serenity? The Untethered Soul, written by Micheal A. Singer and published on 3rd October 2007, offers simple yet profound answers to these questions.
HOW THIS BOOK HELPED US?
Untethered Soul helped us free from our limitations and soared well beyond our boundaries to achieve inner peace, energy and happiness. The book encouraged us to focus less on the world around us and more on changing our relationship with internal space to achieve these outcomes.
THE BOOK EXPLAINED UNDER 60 SECONDS
The Untethered Soul describes how you can untie yourself from your ego, harness your inner energy, expand beyond yourself and float through the river of life instead of blocking or fighting it.
TOP THREE QUOTES
“There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind – you are the one who hears it.”
“Only you can take inner freedom away from yourself or give it to yourself. Nobody else can.”
“When a problem is disturbing you, don’t ask, “What should I do about it?” Ask, “What part of me is being disturbed by this?”
BOOK NOTES AND SUMMARIES
Part one: Awakening Consciousness
The Voice Inside Your Head
If you haven’t noticed, you have a mental dialogue that never stops. Have you ever wondered why it talks in there? How does it decide what to say and when to say it? How much of what it says turns out to be true? How much of what it says is even necessary? If you’re smart, you’ll take the time to step back, examine this voice, and get to know it better. There is nothing more important to actual growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind—you are the one who hears it. If you don’t understand this, you will try to figure out which of the many things the voice says is you. People go through so many changes in the name of “trying to find themselves.” They want to discover which of these voices, aspects of their personality, is who they are. The answer is simple: none of them.
Your Inner Roommate
Your inner growth is entirely dependent upon the realization that the only way to find peace and contentment is to stop thinking about yourself. You’re ready to grow when you finally realize that the “I” who is always talking inside will never be content. It always has a problem with something. Before you had your current situation, there was a different problem. And if you’re wise, you will realize that there will be another after this one’s gone. The bottom line, you’ll never be free of problems until you are free from your inner roommate.
To attain true inner freedom, you must be able to objectively watch your problems instead of being lost in them. No solution can exist while you’re lost in the energy of a problem.
The Lucid Self
There is a type of dream called a lucid dream, in which you know you’re dreaming. You are conscious enough to know that you are dreaming. That’s very different from regular dreams, in which you are fully immersed in the dream. This distinction is the difference between being aware that you are knowledgeable in your daily life and not being aware that you are aware. When you are conscious, you no longer become completely immersed in the events around you. Instead, you remain inwardly mindful that you are the one who is experiencing both the circumstances and the corresponding thoughts and emotions. When an idea is created in this state of awareness, instead of getting lost in it, you remain aware that you are the one who is thinking the thought. You are lucid.
Favourite quote of the part: “There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind – you are the one who hears it.”
Part two: Experiencing Energy
Infinity Energy
Consciousness is one of the great mysteries in life. The other is Inner energy. Little attention has been paid to the laws of inner power for a long time. People think, feel, and act without understanding what makes these activities occur. Creating thoughts, holding onto thoughts, recalling thoughts, generating emotions, controlling emotions, and disciplining powerful inner drives all to require tremendous energy. Where does all this energy come from? This energy does not come from the calories your body burns from food. There is a source of energy you can draw upon from inside. It is distinct from the external energy source. Sometimes you don’t feel this energy because you block it. You stop it by closing your heart and mind and pulling yourself into a restrictive space inside. This closes you off from all the energy. You hide in the darkness when you complete your heart or close your mind. There is no light. There is no energy. Nothing is flowing. The energy is still there, but it can’t get in.
The Secrets of the Spiritual Heart
Very few people understand the heart. In truth, your heart is one of the masterpieces of creation. It is a phenomenal instrument. If the heart happens to open at any given point in time, we fall in love. If at any given end in time, it happens to close, the love stops. If the heart happens to hurt, we get angry, and if we stop feeling it altogether, we get empty. All of these different things happen because the soul goes through changes. These energy shifts and variations in the heart run your life. You are so identified with them that you use the words “I” and “me” when you refer to what’s going on in your heart. But in truth, you are not your heart. You are the experiencer of your heart. The heart is straightforward to understand. It is an energy centre, a chakra. It is one of the most beautiful and powerful energy centres and affects our daily lives. An energy centre is an area within your being through which your energy focuses, distributes, and flows. The heart controls the energy flow by opening and closing.
Favourite quote of the part: “if you concentrate on a thought and another thought interferes, you will have to assert an opposing force to fight the interfering thought. That requires energy, and it can wear you out. Likewise, if you have a thought that you’re trying to hold in your mind, but it keeps drifting off, you have to willfully concentrate to bring it back.”
Part three: Freeing Yourself
Let go now or fall
The exploration of Self is inextricably interwoven with the unfolding of one’s life. The natural ups and downs of life can either generate personal growth or create personal fears. Which of these dominates is entirely dependent upon how we view change. Change can be considered exciting or frightening, but regardless of how we view it, we must all face the fact that change is the very nature of life. If you have a lot of fear, you won’t like change. You’ll try to create a world around you that is predictable, controllable, and definable. You’ll try to create a world that doesn’t stimulate your fears. Fear doesn’t want to feel itself; it’s afraid of itself. So you utilize the mind to manipulate life for not feeling fear. Because people don’t deal with anxiety objectively, they don’t understand it. They keep their fear and try to prevent things from happening that would stimulate it. They go through life attempting to create safety and control by defining how they need the energy to be okay. This is how the world becomes frightening.
Removing Your Inner Thorn
To grow, you must give up the struggle to remain the same and learn to embrace change at all
times. One of the most critical areas requiring change is how we solve our problems. We usually attempt to solve our inner disturbances by protecting ourselves. Fundamental transformation begins when you embrace your problems as agents for growth. The life of protecting yourself from your situation becomes a perfect reflection of the problem itself. You didn’t solve anything. If you don’t solve the root cause of the problem but instead attempt to protect yourself from it, it ends up running your life.
Favourite quote from the chapter: “When you have fear inside of you, the events of life invariably stimulate it.”
HOW THIS BOOK CAN HELP SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
“The Untethered Soul” by Michael Singer is a self-help book that encourages readers to explore their inner selves and achieve more significant personal and spiritual growth. While the book is not explicitly targeted at software developers, it can still be helpful in various ways. Software development is a demanding field that can be stressful and mentally taxing, and “The Untethered Soul” can help developers manage their emotions and thoughts more constructively. By understanding the nature of their mind and emotions, developers can cultivate greater focus and creativity, leading to improved performance and productivity. The book also provides valuable techniques for meditation and mindfulness, which can enhance well-being and reduce stress. Overall, “The Untethered Soul” can help software developers improve their inner selves and achieve tremendous professional success and personal fulfilment.
