BoTM: The Gifts of Imperfection

October's Book of The Month is The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown.

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown is a guide to wholehearted living and provides guideposts to assist in changing your mindset. These ten guideposts include actionable advice on cultivating joy, gratitude, resilience, authenticity, compassion, creativity, and more. These are all vital components of living a healthy, happy, fulfilling life. 

DIG Deep:
DIG Deep is a tool Brene Brown uses to follow up each guide post to help make her stories, guidance, and wisdom actionable and applicable to our lives. She uses this to give examples and advice for taking action and starting the change we wish to see. 
Get Deliberate
Get Inspired
Get Going

Guideposts we love:
Guidepost #3: Cultivating a Resilient Spirit

• This guidepost discusses what makes up resilience, hope and powerlessness, practicing critical awareness, and numbing and taking the edge off.

Guidepost #4: Cultivating Gratitude and Joy

• This guidepost discusses and defines both gratitude and joy and the concepts of scarcity and fear of the dark.

Guidepost #5: Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith

• This guidepost discusses the need for certainty and how faith and intuition work hand-in-hand. 

Guidepost #8: Cultivating Calm and Stillness

• This guidepost teaches how to let go of anxiety as a lifestyle. 

How it applies to our patients:
Living with chronic illnesses can potentially have a terrible effect on one’s mindset. Feelings of dread, impending doom, and loss of control can begin to numb emotions, both good and bad. The Gifts of Imperfection can begin to guide our patients toward finding happiness and cultivating joy, regardless of what they may face. It can also help our patients to accept and love their authentic selves and begin reversing the numbness to emotion that they may be experiencing. 

How it has helped our office:
The Gifts of Imperfection has had a great impact on mindset within the office. We have been able to recognize the impact of being brave and vulnerable. Being our true, authentic selves has allowed us to gain trust and respect for one another, thus creating a stronger team bond and environment. It has also aided us in gaining compassion for one another and our patients. 

Our Favorite Quotes:
“We cannot selectively numb, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive ones.”
“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.”
“...our imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we’re all in this together.”
“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It's our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”

Check in next month to read and grow along with our office! Happy reading!