Think Like a Monk
After meeting the monk, Gauranga Das, in London, Jay Shetty moved to Mumbai to learn how to become a monk. After three years, Jay moved on from monk school and now enriches the community with his book, “Think Like a Monk.” Through topics such as identity, fear, and servitude, Jay provides a deep dive into different ways of breaking down these concepts for us to translate into our lives.
What motivated me most to read this book was Jay Shetty’s story and how it aligns with my ambitions. He is a global best-selling author, award-winning podcast host, and life coach! These three career areas are where I want to grow, making him a great role model to consider.
Writing Style
“Thinking Like a Monk” does not include a table of content and instead walks the reader through a spiritual journey without knowing what is to come (unless you skip ahead). Each chapter includes sections filled with stories of Jay’s time in the monk school sprinkled with analogies and activities/exercises to apply the knowledge learned.
The sections are moderate in length and are written for the reader to follow easily. They are structured with anecdotes from stories added on with additional commentary on how they can apply to your life.
Overall, Jay’s writing style was thought-provoking and engaging for most of the book. However, some sections included one too many activities than I preferred, making me skip over them.
Takeaways
Two of the main takeaways from this book were how to break down your day to make small changes towards a life you envision and how to find newness in everything.
For breaking down your day, Jay had an activity where you record where you spent your hours in a day. For example, a day could look like 8 hours of sleeping, 2 hours of eating, 4 hours of exploring outside, 4 hours of deep work, 4 hours of being on the phone, and 2 hours for routines. At the end of the week, you can see which areas you want to lessen towards other things like calling friends/family or meditation.
For finding newness in everything, Jay talked about walking down the same path you typically walk through and noticing something different. This could be something like a pebble on the ground or the structure of how a tree trunk is formed.
Using these two takeaways, you can better allocate a specific amount of time towards different activities and find newness in the same ones.
Conclusion
From stories throughout the monk school to exercises for the reader to engage with the lessons, this book is a guidebook of wisdom for anyone looking to live a more purposeful life. All in all, I rate this book 4.5/5 stars.
Want to read the book? Consider buying from the affiliate link below! This comes with no extra fee for you, and I will receive some of the profits.
