Today I want to share Glennon Doyle’s Untamed with you.

I was confused by the sample chapter on Kindle, but I carried on. Unlike other memoirs, each chapter is crisp. As a fan of concise writing, I ordered a hard copy right away. I spent a week dwelling on the stories and journaling on the margins. The entire process was so meditative that I eventually decided to share my takeaway with you.

Core Elements

After a high-level overview of the core elements of Getting Untamed, I want to invite you to write down your answer to the following two questions:

What do you really want in life?

Why do you want what you want?

Now, let’s explore the story arch together 🥰

caged

Glennon began by sharing how she was caged by her marriage. She learned to become a good wife and mother, yet her ex-husband’s infidelity reminded her that simply being a good mother was not enough.

Growing up, Glennon was tamed by shame and religion. She was taught to play safe, ask for permissions, and fit in the rules of society (btw, most rules have exceptions). Even when she felt uncomfortable, she would tell herself to stay quiet because “we’ll soon forget that we are caged.”

As a result, she betrayed herself and forgot to ask herself, “What do I really want?”

She had oppressed her feelings until she met Abby. That was her first taste of freedom, and that taste was contagious. She knew that she wanted more.

Here’s a quote that resonates with me:

“We forgot how to know when we learned how to please. When we finally learn that it is impossible to please the world, we can become free to please ourselves.”

keys

Being human is about feeling everything. If you are thinking about the next steps of life, ask yourself:

“What kind of life might I have created if I’d been braver?”

Creating a new way of living is hard. It requires you to let go of the old part of you that no longer serves your dream. While creation can be hard and scary, it is actually much safer than sticking to the ever-repeating known.

This type of destruction is essential to construction.

During my monthly review, I will examine my ten pillars of life and look for areas that are merely good, not great. Then, I’ll ask myself,

“How can I destruct and build a truer, more beautiful version of that area of life?”

free

For the longest time, I thought my rebellion against the status quo is freedom. Instead of staying in Taipei, I protested for two years to come to the States. Instead of being satisfied with my great day job, I challenged myself to build a brand that speaks to my heart.

However, I didn’t see the fact that my rebellion is just as limiting as obedience.

“They both mean living in reaction to someone else’s way instead of forging your own. Freedom is not being for or against an ideal, but creating your own existence from scratch.”

To be truly free, we need to turn inwards, feel for ourselves, and speak it out loud.

“When we let ourselves feel, our inner self transforms. When we are acted upon our Knowing, our outer world transforms.”