Try Again

So, I think in the last post I had started working through a book called Bliss Brain. Today I finally finished the second chapter, and I'm going to move on. It's not worth it to me to add to this site. I was looking for something different. I'm not sure who the audience for this book. For me, it was really disappointing.

The book didn't start out well. The story of his experience in the CA wildfires, while it sounds very tramatic, doesn't really mesh well with me in the point of the book. He tried to tie it together by telling me how other people were shocked he kept it together as well as he did. It didn't really move me. I will say that some of his thoughts about rebuilding, like that it was better to go without than to settle is good, but the tie into meditation isn't really there.

The book then moved into trying to build the case for studying meditation from a science perspective. Not necessarily a bad idea, but honestly feels like something a book may gloss over then deep dive in an appendix. For me who wants to learn more about how to practice meditation, it missed the mark. It didn't do it for me. I was disinterested in the section because honestly Church hadn't sold me on his expertise. I was bored and so far disappointed.

I was done at the end of this chapter. Church starts talking about how we're wired from a survival standpoint to ignore bliss. That enjoying a sunset doesn't protect us from a predator. Nothing earth shattering, but the book started to sell the goal as being in a blissful state as much as possible, and that's when I knew I was done. Again, I guess not a bad thing, but definately not the outlook I was looking for.

My perspective is that life is about balance. The thing is, I don't want to be depressed all the time, but I'm not looking for an all the time escape. At this point, he really hasn't done anything to sell me on meditation as a tool to either strengthen a central tendency of my psyche or as an tool when I'm feeling out of balance. Maybe I'm not getting his definition of bliss, but I'll be honest I got a lot more out of reading The Inner Game of Tennis than in this book.

Instead of fighting through it anymore, I'm going to move on. His practices on meditation may be great, but the unnecessary obstacles the book kept presenting, and not getting to any actionable content by the second chapter (other than going to his website, for some free followed by paid content) was enough effort for me. I think I'll go back to The Inner Game and see if there's some follow up I can chase there instead.