You Belong - Book

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 You Belong 


“You Belong” is a book by Sebene Selassie. This great book provides resources and insights on how to feel better connected to yourself and others. 


Chapter 1: The Delusion of Separation



        This Chapter Provided lots of information about how humans are connected to each other as well as everything else. The author opens the chapter by telling us that she was around lots of white people when she was growing up and her family never really embraced black culture so the people she was around were all she knew, even then, she was still exposed to racism. Next the author shares a few things she learned from practicing yoga and mindfulness. “Everything is connected, yet everything is separated.” The author used this quote to support her claim that everything is connected but everything is perceived differently by everyone. The author used a good example to explain this, if you are running at lighting speed and another person is running at a normal jogging speed then the both of you are seeing the world in a very different way. For you, everything is either going very slow or going very fast, for the person jogging they are just seeing the world in its normal state, so if someone asks the both of you how the world looks when you are running you will have two different answers. The author also shared a saying, “ubuntu” meaning “I am because you are”. This saying is very important to remember because you have to see everyone as you, everyone is vibrating the same vibrations with the same atoms, meaning everyone is connected. The only reason we see each other so differently is because we just perceive the world differently, that is the only thing that separates us other than our appearances. The author made a really good statement that will stick with me for a long time, “Everything came from nothing. Time is an illusion. Nothing is separate.” Putting things in this perspective really makes you think about things differently and if everyone thought like this there would definitely be so much more peace in the world. 


Chapter 3: Ground Yourself



        In this section, the author explores different ways of grounding yourself. She explains the importance of having gratitude for your body and how this ties into "Embodied Awareness." when we think of meditation and mindfulness, we often think of ways of improving our lives through our thoughts. We usually forget to engage our bodies in mindfulness, which is a valid part of feeling a sense of belonging. The author touches on the significance of connecting with our senses, and grounding ourselves with our body so we can become more aware. She explains how it's a very Western concept to place our energy into thinking, and we are often bad at paying attention to our bodies. The author stresses the idea of how the mind and body are not separate. The goal of Embodies Awareness is to become more present in the moment, with the body and thoughts we have now, instead of thinking of body and thoughts we will having in the future. Knowing this can help us feel a stronger sense of belonging, as belonging happens when we exist in the present moment, and belonging is embodied because we don't find belonging through our thoughts but through awareness and gratitude our bodies. 


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