Presence Activism

Love this book, and I do recommend! I do notice that I have some complicated feelings about it. Because it was even better than expected, both the frequent hits and the few misses were more obvious.

It explained a lot of things really well, using even personal examples to explain. But at random, I couldn't follow because the book assumed I was familiar with certain spiritual terms and it makes me feel left out a bit. The book takes anxiety and burn out seriously and isn't ableist about it (which a lot of spiritual books are unfortunately and was such a welcome change for me), but because of that when thr book repeats the common ableist trope about the rich and privileged having personality disorders it hit harder. At that point in the book that hurt because I was loving this book.

*Thinking that rich people are bad people because you think they have personality disorders doesn't harm the rich, but it harms those with those types of psychological disabilities who just have to keep hearing everyone think they're bad people. The rich do what they do, because they can. It's the impact of privilege, not a personality disorder. It's a choice they make.

For someone who struggles cognitively and with energy levels the short chapters and subchapters was welcome. It made taking breaks easier without losing track.

The book reads like having a lovely conversation with someone you agree with very regularly but not always. It is spiritual and helpful while practical. The author tries to recognise privilege and be intersectional. And is open to learning. I hope therefor any future books veers away from diagnosing the privileged with anything more than privilege. Because I do hope this author will write more. I enjoyed this.