Bailee Sterling

Antelope Staff

A book on how to build meaningful human connection is explained through relatable, comical and authentic stories backed up by decades of research.   

“Atlas of the Heart,” written by Brené Brown, will go down as one of my favorites.

According to Brown’s writing, “To form meaningful connection with others, we must first connect with ourselves. But to do either we must first establish a common understanding of the language of emotion and human experience.”

Although this book is filled with decades of research, I was surprised with how intrigued I was reading through the stories that were being shared.

I appreciate how her book holds creativity through the drawings, graphics, colors and blown-up quotes that were used.

It kept things interesting and felt less like I was reading the outcome of decades of research. Some of my favorite takeaways from this book consist of the following quotes:

“True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”

“I’m here to get it right, not to be right.”

“Nothing that celebrates the humiliation or pain of another person builds lasting connection.”

“The brokenhearted are the bravest among us — they dared to love.”

Reading this book, Dr. Brown is helping me understand the importance of feeling what I feel and being able to express those feelings to someone who cares about me, along with showing up and being that same person for somebody else.

Something that I didn’t necessarily love about this book is that it was a slow read and with me being a slow reader as it is, it took me a while to get through it. Although, when I finally finished this book was totally worth my time and highlighter ink.

Overall, I give Atlas of the Heart a 5 out of 5 rating.