THE FOUR AGREEMENTS : A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO PERSONAL FREEDOM - MAKE A PACT!

Book Review: The Four Agreements

We live in a time where everything is available with the click of a finger. We do not need to make any effort. BUT, we still suffer. This is something beyond comprehension. Even after achieving anything and everything, people suffer. They continue to live in misery and ONLY rest in peace. However, the bitter truth is no one on this Earth can help you, except you. If you woe to help yourself, then the book “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz is for you.

The author in this book has listed four agreements that one needs to woe to for a beautiful life each one of us wants. By only abiding by these, one can lead to salvation while still living in a materialistic world and of course by still being alive (and not being dead). We humans always live in our bubble of imagination and seldom look at the real things around us. The author suggests agreeing on four things to burst the imaginative bubble and live each moment full of life. Sounds like an oxymoron? Well, not actually! Try it to make life as simple as it is and not what we make out of it- a spider’s web.

Like every blog of mine, I will reveal a few and conceal the rest for my readers to relish. So, one of the four agreements that the author has talked about is “Don’t take anything personally”. Sounds cliched? Sounds simple? It’s not that simple as you think. How many times have we taken things personally to ruin the best of our days? Maybe the thing did not exist at all. Maybe that was just an honest suggestion, we couldn’t sportingly take. And, the worst of all, maybe the other person did not even think what you were thinking and you get caught up in your little cave of misery. How humanly insane is that! Even if someone accuses you with their opinion and says all the wrong possible, remember that a person’s opinion about you is not about you, but themselves. They bombard those opinions, just based on their experiences, upbringing, background, or belief system. This does not necessarily mean that you have to take anything from anyone and make your life a living hell. Just let it go. If it is a genuine one, work on it, else simply blow it off from your shoulder. This insight is not only for bad opinions but for compliments too. Don’t take compliments too personally. If someone gives you one, you acknowledge it cause you know it, not because he/ she said so. DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING ON YOUR HEAD! Apply this to live a peaceful life and thank the author later. This was just the one agreement I talked about, there are three more which you can vouch for life.

Having said that, the author suggests the things we unconsciously know of. However, the examples he gives and the stress he has laid on them goes unnoticed. It is like deliberate harm we do to ourselves and this book is like the healing ointment to it. So, what are you waiting for? If you haven’t read it, just go for it and make a pact with yourself today to live a meaningful life.

Happy Reading!