[usr 3]

When I started reading I MAY BE WRONG by Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, I was sure I had read this book before.  It is the same book in different packaging as many before it, although I do not think this is a bad thing.  At its core it is a book about mindfulness and acceptance, and I personally think this is a powerful message for anyone, anywhere, at any time.  At this point in time, choosing which mindfulness book to read is like choosing which therapist’s style resonates with you. Books such as “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson provides a tough-love approach to mindfulness for the cynical.  “The Courage to be Disliked” by Ichiro Kishimi talks about it through metaphorical conversations.  “I May Be Wrong” goes for a light memoir, ‘lessons I’ve learnt’ style, from a dissatisfied Swedish man who became a Thai forest monk. This is someone’s preferred flavour for exploring mindfulness – it wasn’t for me, but I do know someone who was moved to tears by this book.  Its message is clear, and that is all that matters for books which attempt to comfort and guide.  The right reader will find plenty of it in this book.

One large issue stops me from rating this book highly, and it is an issue prevalent in the self-help industry.  There is one paragraph devoted to how he found his way as he noticed the ‘[Thai people] were comfortable in their own skins somehow’, and ‘there was something grounded about them that I hadn’t come across as much in the West’. This is blatantly untrue for every Thai person in existence, and as someone from a minority background, I find these sorts of ideas – that another race and their culture have solved very complex issues that have plagued humans for centuries – as problematic.  The Norwegians have not solved happiness with hygge, the Japanese have not solved hoarding with Marie Kondo, the French have not solved parenting with ‘Bringing up Bebe’.  Thai people, like all people, will sometimes like themselves, and at other times struggle with insecurity. 

The faster we can accept that all humans, regardless of race and culture, struggle from time to time with insecurities, anxieties, hoarding, unhappiness, parenting, whatever, the closer we all get to accepting the universal experience of both pleasant and unpleasant states. Only then may we allow and forgive ourselves and the people around us a little more for simply being human. Accepting this will bring you closer to peace than any self-help book could.

Featured image : Björn-Natthiko-Lindeblad