Book Review: The Inner Work by The Yoga Couple

Some thoughts, reflections and recommendations

This is a bit of a change of gears from my previous tech posts but welcome to the first book review that I am doing here. As a bit of a background I suppose, I was an avid fiction reader as a child and was really into the Harry Potter books (which I believe kick started my reading journey), Hardy Boys (thanks to my dad) and other childhood classics.

Of late, I have moved myself more towards non-fiction books that generally theme around world politics, psychology, economics, business and other social issues. I had made it a goal for myself to read about a book a week (ambitious I know) last year and I came in not even close with 18/52 (to be fair some of them were pretty thick) and I have kept track of them and their reviews on my notion page so if you’re interested in the kind of books that I read, feel free to take my word for them.

The Inner Work

I have been on a bit of a journey of self-improvement and trying to take control of my life by setting some direction and routines, and being more open and honest in my communication. Reading books like “The Monk who Sold his Ferrari” and “12 Rules for Life” really kickstarted the journey by showing me that the journey to self-improvement really begins on the inside and what are the kind of steps that I have to take in order to achieve it.

The Inner Work was a TikTok book recommendation from a creator with very interesting diagrams and given his ability to explain societal and psychological behaviours with easy illustrations, I was inclined to give the book a shot.

Summary

In the first part of the book, the authors spend considerable time establishing the fact that there is the inner child (the “Self”) and a sort of filter that stands between the Self and outside world (the “Ego”). I’m not sure if this has any root in psychological literature but it does make sense to live with this premise for the rest of the book.

The Self is portrayed as the part of you that lives in the now and is curious, innocent and perfect while the Ego is the sort of villanous character that builds up defences and is obsessed with itself and thus controlling the world around it. Meanwhile we are the “observer” of sorts that are along for the ride that is life and the goal of the book is to convince you to actively dismantle the defences that the Ego has built up so that the Self can thrive so that you can reach your end goal of lasting happiness.

The authors describe something called a Theme of Consciousness which is a sort of hierarchy of psychological evolution that humans can progress through in their lifetimes. The lower half of the themes are the sort of negative behaviours that prevent us from reaching our happiness, the middle quarter are the stages of growth and the upper quarter is sagely wisdom. Almost an enlightened being so to speak.

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