Customer Reviews

Inward Bound: Exploring the Geography of Your Emotions

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There isn't a book of Keen's I haven't earmarked and high-lined to a frazzle. A delight to read if only for literary style, sense of humor, metaphor and unique turn of phrase, Keen's books add unique, yet (once pointed out) obvious insights into our individual and collective soul. He has a knack for spotting the elephant in (or heading for)our living rooms, the one the rest of us put off, avoid, dismiss, deny and stonewall. Reading Keen for me is like a simultaneous shot of Jung/Chopra/Rollo May along with a light dose of Carlin.
I've often wondered why Keen's books aren't better read and why he isn't a hot property on the talk show, PBS documentary or speaker circuit. Could it be that his bestseller "Fire in the Belly" was the mother load of political incorectness? I do clearly recall disparaging remarks about the book and it's author by people who obviously had not read it.
Perhaps it is because his books are often difficult to get through--not because they are difficult to read--but because they are too well written. I often find myself rereading paragraph or pages because I've been so involved with the cleverness of the writing that I've lost the message underneath.
Like all his books, Inward Bound is a unique look at our emotions, unique because Keen seems to suggest we abandon that victim mode we all seem to slip into these days and recognize that instead of the clinical and justifiable depression we see lurking around every corner, we might be simply boring ourselves to death. Worse, Keen actually suggests we step into our boredom, accept it, examine it, welcome it out in the open where we can take a good look at it, work with it.
Imagine that. Take responsibility for it.
Why would we want to do that, we might ask, when we can simply digest a tub of prozac instead?

It took me a while, as I read this book to think of why I kept getting this warm feeling about my life as I turned the pages. . .

You have to read it! You don't have to DO it, but you have to READ IT!

I learned about myself at a whole, new level. I found out about things within myself that I really knew nothing about.

The examples of others and their experiences were often so close to some of my own feelings in similar situations, that I kept getting the feeling that the book was written just for me, right now!

Shawn Honnick

I bought this book because it was mentioned in a Thomas Moore book. However, it doesn't come near the level of Thomas Moore's work in terms of insight, originality, or profundity of thought. It is "lite" and to give just one indication of this, the original title of the book was something like 'What to do when you're feeling Blue.' Yuk. Nevertheless, here and there, you may find some interesting reflections and suggestions on how to go 'exploring' by using specific methods, spelled out by the author.