The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest is one of my favourite books that I’ve read this year.

This book answers the questions:

• Why do we self-sabotage?
• When do we self-sabotage?
• How do we stop self-sabotaging?

And way more. This book makes you realize that self-sabotage is innate, normal and that everybody does it. In fact, our brains are designed to self-sabotage, and it happens subconsciously.

There are valuable lessons in this book that I wanted to discuss today. If you can relate to this, let me know by sending me a message on Instagram!

Lessons from Brianna Wiest’s The Mountain Is You

Self-sabotage is very often just a maladaptive coping mechanism, a way we give ourselves what we need without having to actually address what that need is.

Self-sabotage is a coping strategy. It’s a way of preventing ourselves from losing what we really want once we get it.

Self-sabotage is misunderstood as punishing or hurting ourselves when it is actually a way we protect ourselves from being uncomfortable.

And as you know, being uncomfortable is the only way we’ll learn and grow.

Overcoming self-sabotage is not about trying to figure out how to override your impulses; it is first determining why those impulses exist in the first place.

There are many ways we self-sabotage. Your emotions will guide you. If you ever feel jealous, fearful, resentful, embarrassed, or ashamed, there are stories and beliefs that you tell yourself that make you feel this way.

We store unfinished and unresolved emotional experiences within our bodies.

When not felt, emotions get stuck in our bodies. Every emotion has a motor component that creates a micro-muscular activation.

Our bodies store pain and tension where an emotion gets activated but doesn’t get materialized. Different muscles carry different emotions that can have a range of psychosomatic effects. For example, many feel heartache in their chests and feel fear in their stomachs.

To heal our bodies, we must feel our emotions from start to finish. Meditation is a great way to do this, with the aim of feeling every emotion, and not suppressing what comes to you.

Your brain is designed to resist what you truly want. What happens when we start to chase what we really want: We resist doing the work that it takes to actually get it because we are so afraid of not having it, any brush with failure makes us rescind our effort and tense up.

Brianna Wiest goes in-depth about brain anatomy, and how our subconscious minds are gatekeepers of our comfort zones. This is why any change, whether it be good or bad, is very uncomfortable until it gets familiar. Every time you level up in your life, you’ll meet discomfort and resistance.

Healing requires you to face every ounce of darkness within you because just beneath what appears to be an impermeable barrier is complete, radical, total freedom. When you are no longer scared to feel anything when you no longer resist anyone part of your life, something magical happens: You find your peace.

I love how this book takes you on a healing journey.

Truly, Brianna Wiest does a phenomenal job at breaking down what self-sabotage is, how it shows up, what it looks like, our brains and bodies’ anatomy, how to heal, and what healing looks like and means.

This book is also extremely practical – it offers many examples, meditation ideas, and self-awareness questions and exercises to try!

Since reading this book, I’ve been able to identify how I subconsciously self-sabotage my goals. When I meet resistance, I ask myself, am I making this decision out of fear or love?

PS: Here’s an amazing resource for you all: I use Scribd to read all my books. I’ve always loved audiobooks, but I’ve found myself gravitating towards ebooks to highlight & write notes for myself later.

Scribd has the biggest library of unlimited ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, articles, and more. Here is a link to try Scribd for free for 60 days. Did I mention… Unlimited?!

I’ve also created lists of my favourite books by topic if you also want to check them out.

This isn’t sponsored, I just LOVE Scribd. It’s the only platform I use for everything that I read. You’ll love it.