“The world is very beautiful and very wonderful.  Life can be very easy when love is your way of life.  You can be loving all the time.  This is your choice.  You may not have a reason to love, but you can love because to love makes you so happy. Love in action only produces happiness. Love will give you inner peace. It will change your perception of everything.”

“The Four Agreements, A practical guide to personal wisdom” By Don Miguel Ruiz. The book is a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness and love. In this novel, it talks about Toltec wisdom. I wasn’t quite sure what Toltec wisdom was so I did some research and found that this book is world renowned and The Toltec people are related to the Mexico region. The author Don Miguel Ruiz is a descendant of the indigenous Toltec people of the area who pass down ideas, and concepts, that they use to fuel and sustain their civilisation and society hundreds of years ago. It talks about the importance of looking at the self and understanding and how he self-connects to other aspects of our world, the heavens, hell and the people and how spirituality flows in out ut of everything that we see and do. There are four main chapters in the book ”Be impeccable with your word”, “don’t take anything personally”,  ”Don’t make assumptions”,”Always do your best. ”

The first agreement is “be impeccable with your word”
Reading this chapter, we learn that the author demonstrated that words are so powerful. I understand what the author wanted to portray as he demonstrates that many people in society fail to apprehend the power of words and how much energy that they carry. We don’t realise the harm that words can cause while speaking irresponsibly which don Miguel Ruiz did understand and wanted us as readers to learn. Not only do we learn how we fail with our impeccability but we learn how we can actively practice with our awareness and honesty as we talk. “Speak with integrity”. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” I believe In today’s society, many people think they’re impeccable their words but that’s not the case, reading this chapter is described as being perfect with our words is so much more than what phrase we construct out of our mouths. Words affect our emotions which also affect our actions. From reading this agreement, I’ve learned that being impeccable with your word is so much harder than what it seems. So many people fail to be impeccable with their words however they do not realise it. Everyone in society has there own personal opinions based on their emotions. However, emotions like envy and anger may cloud our judgments and what we think is right is not, people who are truthful with their words have nothing to worry about they don’t have to worry about them explaining themselves and providing they are right, they know they are truthful and that all that matters. Don Miguel Ruiz wants us as the readers to understand that we do fail with our words however he wants this chapter to motivate us to aspire to achieve this goal as he knows that being impeccable is one step closer to living our lives to a greater extent.

The second agreement ”Don’t take anything personally”                                The concept of this chapter is the understanding of individual behaviour is there reflections of them and only them. Don Miguel Ruiz truly explained that no opinions are objective we have our biases on how we view the world but so different from other individuals. It’s essential that we shouldn’t take anybody’s view personally as it is inaccurate. Don Miguel ruins really wanted the readers to understand that our judgement of other people are inaccurate because what we are saying about someone one else is what they actually say about themselves as other people view the world different do our opinions are only valid to ourselves since we see things differently. I struggled to grasp this concept, but once you understand everything it becomes so much easier. Don Miguel Ruiz teaches us that if we don’t take anything personally, we become less defensive we won’t become a victim in the need suffering since we will be immune to others opinions. “what others say and do is a projection of their reality”. As readers, we can really understand what don was seeking to say, if we don’t take anything personally we will be open to this unlimited freedom as this negativity will be lifted from our shoulders. ”Whatever happens around you, don’t take it personally…Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one we live in”.

The Third agreement ”Don’t Make Assumptions.”
As the readers, we learn there is a clear concept what the author wanted to portray as we make assumptions it creates a lot of stress as we are constantly thinking about what people believe. It’s important to understand that people will have different motivations for their actions. Don explains that we have to understand these assumptions that people create and understand the motive behind their actions before we can make an assumption. This is really important as we learn that our opinions are never right so why do we need to carry on believing, it will only set us up for emotional wounds and negativity that will enter into our lives. It’s important to think wisely before we act on a situation. “If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don’t tell us something we make assumptions to fulfil our need to know and to replace the need to communicate. Even if we hear something and we don’t understand we make assumptions about what it means and then believe the assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t dare to ask questions.” the author wants us to understand and actively practice to analyse the evidence before we can conclude what people are thinking. This is an important concept to learn as it will freer our minds and the avoidance of emotional wounds.

The fourth agreement is “Always do your best.”
This agreement explains that doing your best at every given moment will lead you to have no regrets. We will all have bad and good days but putting an honest effort into life; you will have nothing to be ashamed of. The author wanted readers to understand that you won’t have unnecessary feelings of regret. However, Don clearly states we shouldn’t do better than our best as it will cause physical and emotional strain and lead to more mistakes. Subtly trying our best will earn recognition and there is no way you can judge yourself. Without judging yourself you are not going to blame, and punish yourself as a person. I learnt that this is a important concept to interpret it into our daily lives since it will set ourselves for success and happiness with our true selves. ”Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.”

Having this book written in the second person is fascinating as it describes how we might feel or what we might encounter, it feels like a self-help book, however, it is written in a primary language and talks about simple things that you can do to improve your life. When I read this book, I feel like I can face these challenges however it also dives in and goes in depth about how these challenges will be ambiguous which I thought was interesting. I really enjoyed learning about these concepts that we can apply to our self which empowers us to reach our freedom, however, not only do these perspectives that I enjoyed interpreting into my daily life but the new knowledge of Toltec culture and what they believe is genuinely something I am fascinated in. Religion plays a primary part in people’s lives and learning what Don Miguel Ruiz has is unforgettable. The four agreements make sense to me as the concepts are what makes us a better person. We do fail to be better sometimes which is entirely normal however if we actively practice these agreements we will honestly solve so many of life complications we have in life. In conclusion, I successfully opened my mind on new interpretations we should implement to our cyclic lives, and it’s interesting how don Miguel Ruiz comes up with these agreements inspired by his culture, it says a lot about what kind of person you are and how you see the world. I recommend to all the readers out there despite what genre of book they’re into, everyone should have a taste of this book as it will teach you the importance of reaching your fullest potential as a human.

Join the conversation! 1 Comment

  1. A very interesting text to choose, Natasha!
    Consider re-structuring your points slightly: it may be beneficial to state your point, THEN discuss what this point looks like in the text BEFORE you discuss what the point means to you.
    Good work thus far 🙂

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