Back in July I read Haemin Sunim’s second book: “Love For Imperfect Things” ,and I loved it. I didn’t know it was the second book, until I bought it. So, naturally I was interested in getting the first one as well. It was good to see that the formula wasn’t changed too much, so this book was a really fast read. The book covers multiple facets of our lives and after a short introductory story you can read all sorts of wonderful short quotes about those topics that can help you  reflect, or give you certain insights.

“When  you have an uneasy feeling,
don’t grab it to inspect at it from all sides.
Leave it alone, so it can flow.
The wave of emotion will subside of its own accord
As long as you don’t feed it by letting it linger”

Because my reading order was not entirely right, I could tell that this was Haemin Sunim’s first book, because I really felt that “Love For Imperfect Things” was a lot more polished than this book. That doesn’t mean that this book isn’t any good, because it really was! I have marked a lot of quotes that really touched me, or spoke to me.

We live in a world that’s extremely busy and it’s quite hard for us humans in Western society to find some rest with all of the notifications we receive on our mobile phones and overall we’re just left with a feeling of unease and restlessness, if we allow our environment to do so. This book can help you to look at things in a different way to create rest for yourself.

“Love yourself, despite your flaws.
Don’t you feel compassion for yourself while you struggle through life?
You want to help your friends, but you treat yourself so badly.
Stroke your heart every now and then and say to yourself:
“I love you.”

I’ve changed my lifestyle this year, for instance by removing Facebook from my mobile phone. The only social media I’m really active on nowadays is Instagram and what I love about it is that it doesn’t take me hours to see all new notifications and posts. I’ve also begun reading a lot more and I love meditation in the morning when I get up before work. I think that society nowadays can be overwhelming and I don’t find it surprising that many people are feeling burnt out, down, or even depressed by all the demands that are constantly being made from their environment. This book covers a lot of this as well, but mostly it’s a philosophical work.

“Humour opens closed hearts.
Humour can free us from the grasp of our thoughts.
When we smile, we feel we can accept things we couldn’t accept earlier
We feel that we can forgive people who have done us wrong.
Humour is an essential part of life.”

What I love about Haemin Sunim is that he is very open minded about religion. He even quotes the Bible a few times, and in one section about religion he tells the readers that if you look closely at all religions you will see that the symbols might be different, but that they’re all about the same thing: self control. I really loved that piece of insight and I hope religious people who read it will take it to heart.

The best way to get even with someone,
is to meet someone else and become happy.
Lingering on revenge and staying jealous,
Even after years, is a recipe for endless suffering.

Overall I really loved this book, but I have to admit that this one isn’t as good as the second one. Not by much, so this book still gets a very good score and I would recommend it to everyone, because there’s something in it for everyone.

Rating:

Cover art: 🌟🌟🌟½
Paper smell: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Print/lettering: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Originality: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Content: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Happy reading!

Jeffrey