Queen City Counseling & Consulting is excited to launch our brand new book club series! Follow along with us each month as we choose a different thought-provoking book to share with you. We will post a blog at the beginning of each month as a guide for you to use while reading our pick and conclude the month with a follow up blog post helping you consider how to apply the concepts and ideas from the book you read into your own life.

This September, our book of the month is Untamed by Glennon Doyle. This powerful memoir investigates Doyle’s awakening, empowerment, and learning to shed societal and personal expectations getting in the way of her freedom and ability to be content with her life. Through Doyle’s navigation of sobriety, divorce, and building a life that feels more beautiful and true, readers learn to challenge their own expectations, thoughts, and beliefs that may be interfering with our abilities to trust ourselves, honor our emotions, and get in touch with our instincts. Rather than silencing our discontent, Doyle advocates for listening to our discontent and coming to a greater understanding about how what we are most unhappy with in our lives can point us to making changes to construct a life that feels more true and fitting to us. Doyle’s novel offers insight on what it means to be a woman in today’s world. As you read this empowering memoir, here are some things to look out for and consider:

  • How have cultural, societal, familial, and personal experiences and constructs led to women being afraid to “rock the boat” and feel a need to portray agreeability and satisfaction even if that is not the case?
  • What would it look like for you to get more in touch with your Knowing, or the trusting intuition that we all possess?
  • How often do we base our own decisions on the expectations of others versus what we truly desire and know for ourselves to be the “right” choice? How can we work to balance advice from others and making our own way?
  • Who were you before the world told you who to become?
  • “Untaming” ourselves is an ongoing, intentional process that demands our introspection and challenging of what we know to be true and “right.” In what areas of your life do you find yourself to be the most “untamed?” What are the challenges of this “untaming,” and what might the benefits be?

Be on the lookout for our follow up blog post at the end of the month wrapping up our September read! In the meantime, be sure to engage with us on our Facebook page as we share reading questions and updates. Happy reading, book worms!