The Mountain Is You

The Mountain is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage into Self-Mastery is a book written by author Brianna Wiest. It was published on May 29th, 2020. It is a self-improvement book that discusses how individuals can overcome the "mountains" within them, which arise out of unmeet needs and a desire to be our highest self. Wiest offers a pragmatic approach to confronting self-sabotaging behaviors so individuals can become the best version of themselves.
Introduction
In the introduction of The Mountain is You, author Brianna West begins by discussing the metaphor of the mountain that she names the title of the book about. She writes that, like in nature, “our minds also go through periodic episodes of positive disintegration, or a cleansing, through which we release and renew our self-concept.” She explains, “Just as a mountain is formed when two sections of the ground are forced against one another, your mountain will arise out of coexisting but conflicting needs. Your mountain requires you to reconcile two parts of you: the conscious and the unconscious, the part of you which is aware of what you want and the part of you that is not aware of why you are still holding yourself back.” <ref name=":0" /> She argues that a breakdown precedes a breakthrough and that an individual’s mountain is not an external obstacle that presents itself, but rather an internal journey the individual must go through. This internal journey or mountain is formed through an individual’s lifetime as he or she has collected traumas and notions about his or her self-concept. Wiest argues that to reach the life that you would want to live, an individual must undergo the cleanse and face understanding of his or her true self.
Chapter Summaries
The Mountain is You:
What does Wiest define self-sabotage as?
* Brianna Wiest begins the book by crediting self-sabotage as the culprit between where individuals are and where they would like to be. However, she challenges the notion (a common disposition), that self-sabotage occurs because of an individual hating themselves or not being strong enough to commit to his or her goals.
*Rather, Wiest defines self-sabotage as “the presence of an unconscious need that is being fulfilled by the self-sabotaging behavior.” <ref name=":0" />
*Wiest gives several examples of this in this chapter:
**An individual who sabotages professional success because he/she truly has a passion for art, even if it is a less “ambitious” dream in society’s eyes
**An individual who sabotages his/her healing journey by psychoanalyzing his/her feelings - in this case the individual truly wants to heal and feel those feelings but uses the psychoanalysis to avoid feeling them
**An individual who sabotages his or her self-talk because he/she is afraid the newfound self-belief will lead to more vulnerability
*These above examples show how individuals are almost addressing their needs but not fully allowing themselves to meet them- which is what Wiest argues is the essence of self-sabotage, a “band-aid” solution to one’s innermost conflict.
What does Wiest write about the source of self-sabotage in Chapter 1?
Irrational Fears that we extrapolate on smaller scale problems and situations
*Brianna Wiest argues that the self-sabotage comes from irrational fear, specifically the “result of long-held and unexamined fears we have about the world and ourselves.” <ref name=":0" />
*She writes that as individuals, we hold onto ideas about ourselves as well as ideas and assumptions of what will happen if something occurs, as well as bigger psychological fears.
*Wiest writes that these beliefs become attachments over time but because they are large and heavy, we minimize the larger fears into everyday situations and problems out of a desire to feel “safer”. An example she provides of this is an individual’s larger fear being loss of control, and that manifesting in being afraid of sitting in the passenger seat of the car. <ref name=":0" />
Unconscious Negative Associations which we form
* “Self-sabotage is also one of the first signs that your inner narrative is outdated, limiting or simply incorrect.” <ref name=":0" />
*Brianna Wiest writes that we spend our entire lives building our self-concept and having our self-concept be shaped by our family, friends as well as others. She writes that it is difficult to adjust self-concept because our brain is consistently looking for things that affirm the confirmation bias we hold for our personal self-concept.
*She writes that self-sabotage is often because we have a negative association between “achieving the goal we aspire to and being the kind of person who has or does that thing.” <ref name":0" /> She offers the following example: “If your issue is that you want to be financially stable, and yet you keep ruining every effort you make to get there, you have to go back to your first concept of money. How did your parents manage their finances? More importantly, what did they tell you about people who had it and people who didn’t. She then offers the solution: “In order to reconcile this, you have to begin to challenge these pre-existing ideas and then adopt new ones” <ref name":0" />
Unfamiliarity
* In this section, Wiest writes about how people have the tendency to confuse the discomfort of the unknown with being “wrong” or “bad” or “ominous” but really this is a normal feeling that accompanies venturing into the unknown. Wiest argues that the individual simply needs to do psychological adjustment and almost withstand the discomfort until he/she has adapted to it. In this way the individual "expands" his or her baseline.
Belief Systems
* “What you believe about your life is what you will make true about your life.” <ref name=":0" />
How can an individual stop themselves from self-sabotage?
* She explains that to overcome the pattern of self-sabotaging, a person must figure out the source of the trauma and come to terms with emotions of it, and then brainstorm a healthier approach to fulfill the need the self-sabotage met. Wiest also urges the individual to become mindful of the way he or she thinks and shift to a perspective that is helpful to them becoming their best self.
Key Quotations
* The greatest act of self-love is to no longer accept a life you are unhappy with. It is to be able to state the problem plainly and in a straightforward manner. <ref name=":0" />

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu