I was not disappointed, by this captivating book. If anything, I was inspired. For anyone still living in a cave, Shonda Rhimes is a brilliant writer and her shows occupy the entire primetime Thursday night lineup on ABC, better known as TGIT. The creator of Meredith, Olivia, and Annalise, women we’ve come to admire and root for were birth in the mind of an insecure, overweight, introverted women from Chicago. Shonda addresses all of her many issues in The Year of Yes with such honesty and simplicity you would think the two of you were hanging out on the couch with a glass of wine in your PJs. …show more content…
I felt like she was speaking directly to me.
The basic premise of the book is Shonda was a very serious career minded women who was trying to balance her hit TV shows with motherhood. She was challenged by a close relative when she was told that she never said yes to anything. So, she began a year- long challenge to say yes to each and every opportunity she encountered. I believe initially she thought she would be challenged only in her professional life. She quickly realized that she’d shut down in all areas of her life. As it turns out her year of yes has become a new way of living.
While reading this book, I saw myself in every word of every line of every page. I’ve done the crazy 20s and now in my late 30s, I've settled into a routine lifestyle. I’m a rule follower and bit of a perfectionist so I’m the responsible person that everyone expects to keep everything on track. I make things look easy and effortless, as if I’ve been down this road before. In reality, I am a perfecting introvert with social anxiety. Basically, I’m a ball of nerves on the edge of jumping all of the time with a conflicting desire to be social but an overwhelming feeling of emotions when forced to do so. I honestly never paid attention to my emotions the way I do now. for years, I walked around completely numb. It’s easier for me to deal with life’s battles that way. Then one day I could no longer hide my emotions and it all came crashing down. I’ve put myself back together but the pieces have changed shapes so parts of me are much bigger than they once were. The more I become in tune with my person the more I see the emotional effects of life in general. Rather than waiting on a breakdown, I know when I’m in a depressed state, I can feel it. It usually follows stressful periods. During the stressful periods, I don’t sleep, my scalp begins to flake, and my stomach becomes unstable. As I sit right now, my scalp is on fire and looks like someone poured a bag of flour on it. While I see the signs, the hardest part is to stop myself before this phase goes too far. I know what happens when things get out of control. I take to my bed and eat until I’m sick. I don’t want that life anymore. I want to learn to love freely, I want to be spontaneous, I want to not be afraid to share my soul, my fears and my dreams. I want to travel with no inhibitions. All of these things require one important action… saying yes to releasing the need to always be perfect, in the box, and saying yes to living life as me, all of my me, with no filter. I’m a little odd, I know this. I’m really a rich hipster without the rich part. I’m sitting in a coffee