I have read a lot of self-help and motivational books over the years but Untamed has got to be the one that hit home the most. I am normally very precious over my books, wanting to keep them in pristine condition, but I found myself reaching for the maker pen and highlighting passages that spoke deeply to me.
As a creative soul, it was a quote quite early on that connected with me and made me realise that this book was something special:
“Each of us was born to bring forth something that has never existed: a way of being, a family, an idea, art, a community – something brand-new. We are here to fully introduce ourselves, to impose ourselves and ideas and thoughts and dreams onto the world, leaving it changed forever by who we are and what we bring forth from our depths.”
Untamed is honest and thought provoking, tender and forceful. A wake-up call that many of us, not just women, need to hear. As a bestselling author, speaker and activist, it is no surprise that Glennon Doyle was named among the Oprah Winfrey Networks’ SuperSoul 100 inaugural group as one of one hundred ‘awakened leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity’.
From the moment we are born we are bombarded with messages of who we are supposed to be, whether consciously or subconsciously, by our family, friends, community and the media. This book describes one woman’s awakening and her journey to let go of decades of social conditioning and reclaim her true shelf. In doing so shows the rest of us that we can do it too.
“My goal is not to remain the same but to live in such a way that each day, year, moment, relationship, conversation and crisis is the material I use to become a truer, more beautiful version of myself.”
Part inspiration, part memoir, Untamed explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet the expectations of the world, and instead dare to listen to the voice deep inside us. It is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honour our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts.