This Book Is An Unfailingly Honest Guide
Sharing some of my favourite quotes from Jeff Brown's Hearticulations.
HSP retreat update: There’s still a few places left for the retreat that Jules De Vitto and I are co-hosting next week at the beautiful Quadrangle in Kent, UK (June 15-18). We’re very excited to be convening an in-person gathering, and have some very special guests for what’s shaping up to be a fantastic few days. For more details, please click here:
I’ve been following Jeff Brown’s work for years now, and have often felt inspired to screenshot and share quotes from his writings, since they resonate with me so deeply.
One of my favourite Jeff Brown books is Hearticulations, published in 2020, which is made up of mostly short passages that fit onto a single page. It’s a great book to dip into when you need a dose of inspiration — like reading notes from his journal.
Jeff feels very relatable and like somebody who is speaking from the wisdom of his own hard-won experience. He owns his vulnerability, and his spiritual vision is incredibly clear and refreshingly grounded.
I love his emphasis on the importance of facing your feelings and doing inner work — and appreciate his constant warnings of the dangers of avoidance, spiritual bypassing, or putting a prematurely positive spin on suffering.
He’s also big on taking responsibility for yourself, and the importance of working through your own shadow material and projections — each essential, lifelong processes we all have to come to grips with.
He is also very eloquent in voicing the need we all share to be really heard by others — and the importance of deeply listening in return.
Hearticulations is one of those books that can help us feel less alone and to recognise that — while we’re all unique — healing is essentially a shared, collective endeavour.
Here are just a few of the points that seemed particularly relevant to Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), the 20-30 percent of the population who process feelings, thoughts and emotions more deeply than most:
“The Glorification Of Busy Will Destroy Us.” (Page 3).
Jeff writes that “without space for healing, without time for reflection, without an opportunity to surrender, we risk a complete disconnect from the authentic self.”
This can leave us vulnerable to getting sucked into consuming unconscious media, buying endless stuff, or pursuing unhealthy goals to fill our inner void.
Jeff writes:
“To combat this, we have to form the conscious intention to prioritize our inner lives. To notice our breath, our bodies, our feelings. To step back from the fires of overwhelm and to remember ourselves. It may feel counter-intuitive in a culture that is speed-addicted, but the slower we move, the faster we return home.”
“It’s Not All In Your Head. It’s All In Your Heart.” (Page 27).
I appreciate how Jeff emphasises that we can’t heal purely by trying to think differently — we have to find ways to get into contact with, and begin to release, the unresolved emotions trauma has left in our bodies.
As a clinical psychologist, I was trained primarily to work with people’s minds. ButI’ve come to appreciate the importance of working through the body to make deeper changes. As Jeff writes:
“The trick is to not try to shift your thinking from within the mind itself. You can’t…Because the troubling thoughts are merely a symptom of the deeper issues. They are a reflection of our emotional holdings and constricted musculature. They emanate from the fleshy trauma tunnels that we dug in order to survive this world…You have to go down into the depths of the body to bring a new birth to life. Down, down, down…into the alchemical chambers of new thought. YOUR MAGNIFICENT BODY. This is where we are born again.”