October’s Book is Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Join us October 11th and 18th to discuss the following questions regarding Part 1: Caged and Part 2: Free:
How would you describe yourself as a young child? Does a particular age in your childhood stand out as a pivotal moment for you?
What are some things you think you may have been conditioned to want, instead of actually wanting? Are there things you have denied yourself in order to “fit in” to society?
In yoga philosophy, samskaras are old, unconscious patterns we repeat as a result of cultural and societal pressures. These samsara’s originate from citta vrtti, or thoughts that clutter the mind. What have you learned in your practice that helps clear these unhelpful thoughts and break old patterns of unhelpful behavior?
Do you believe that all desires lead to unhappiness or are there some desires that can lead to enlightenment? Where do you think Doyle lands on this?
Doyle describes someone in her life as having the “superpower” of “sensitivity.” In what ways do you think sensitivity can be a superpower? What does it mean to be sensitive and is there a preconceived connotation (or samsara) to that word?
Glennon writes that after she first discovered her husband’s infidelity, she did not know whether they should get a divorce or try to reconcile. When she says that she does not know what to do, the counselor at her children’s school tells her, “You need to figure out how to know.” What are the ways our culture tells us “to know” things? Do you trust those methods of knowing? How do you “figure out how to know”?
Doyle recalls a woman that shared some invaluable wisdom with her: “Feelings are for feeling. All of them. Even the hard ones.” What feelings do you think we are supposed to feel? What feelings does our culture tell us are inconvenient or inappropriate? Do you find it difficult to let yourself “feel everything”?
In “Know,” Glennon describes learning to connect to her inner Knowing. She says that each of us may call this Knowing something different, but that we all have this inner wisdom. She writes, “Why do we worry about what to call the Knowing, instead of sharing with each other how to call the Knowing”? How do you call your Knowing? What does connecting to it feel and look like to you? How does this relate to the concept of Atman, or True Self?
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