In her life following her harrowing experience in Nazi’s Concentration Camps, Edith Eger became a therapist and started exploring how she, and countless others, can free herself from the shackles that tie her down. The book comprises her contemplation and understanding, bolstered by stories of her clientsto narrow down 12 mental prisons we can all put ourselves in, and how to get out of them:

1. Prison of Victimhood: “why me” and being stuck in the past is easy and tempting. We should however ask ourselves, “Is it good for me”?
2. Prison of Avoidance: To stop the pain, we can shield others or ourselves away from our feelings. However, you can’t heal what you don’t feel. We let the feelings come, let them move through, and then we let them go.
3. Prison of Self-Neglect: We box ourselves into a specific role or function to fulfill instead of being ourselves. Realizing when our childhood ends and loving ourselves more will get us closer to our true selves.
4. Prison of Secrets: Keeping secrets creat and sustain a climate of shame , and shame is the bottom line of any addiction. Freedom comes from facing and telling the truth, starting with ourselves.
5. Prison of Guilt and Shame: Guilt and shame is when we blame ourselves, that something is our fault. It keep us stuck, that we are not worthy. We always have a choice about what to do with the information life hands us. Freedom lies in accepting our whole, imperfect selves and giving up the need for perfection.
6. Prison of Unresolved Grief: Most of us suffer because we have something we don’t want or we want something we don’t have. We need to confront a life where we expect one things and get another, a life that brings us the unexpected and unanticipated.
7. Prison of Rigidity: We are often rigid in our thinking and with good intention want others to think the same. Stop denying someone else’s truth. We need to hold our truth while relinquishing the need for power and control.
8. Prison of Resentment: Resentment comes from a gap between our expectation and reality. We need strength and resiliency to overcome that towards a fuller life.
9. Prison of Paralyzing Fear: We hold on to fear, thinking vigilance will product us, but fear becomes a relentless cycle, a self-fulfilling prophecy. A better protection against suffering is to know how to love and forgive ourselves and to not punish ourselves for the mistakes, hurt and pain that are inevitable parts of life.
10. Prison of Judgment: Let of of judgment and choose compassion.
11. Prison of Hopelessness: Hopelessness can overwhelm us and poison our minds. We need to repeat, “It is temporary and we can survive this”.
12. Prison of Not Forgiving: TO forgive is not to give someone permission to keep hurting us. It was not okay that we were harmed. But it’s already done. No one but us can heal the wound.

We all want to live a life devoid of trauma, pain grief and misery but those things are inevitable. We should all learn to break free from the prison that keeps us from living the fullest extent of our lives. This book articulates many concept so brilliantly and we all should have a chance to read it and understand ourselves better so we can enjoy the gift of freedom