Sure, we’ve all heard that meditation is this great thing.
Throughout my life, I’ve tried, and mostly failed, to take up a regular meditation practice. The greatest thing I can say about his book, though, is that it inspired me to take up meditation in earnest. Yes, Brian’s book is filled with even more entertaining stories and misadventures. But somehow it works, and it even makes sense. How Brian gets from Point A to B is a bit of a magic trick. The conclusion of this episode is one of Brian’s “Keys to Happiness”: Cultivate and Follow Your Intuition. Then he has an ice cream cone at Woolworth’s. For some reason, it makes sense to Brian to leave this place and drive, all by himself, straight into a sand storm so he can practice yoga and meditate. During a cross-country trip with a friend, Brian ends up at some hot springs in Arizona, hanging out with a passed-out Native American man, several twenty-something college women, and a group of Phish roadies. Here’s an illustrative example of Brian’s wacky, but totally engaging, storytelling style. But in the case of Brian Leaf’s book, his “Eight Keys to Happiness” are not only very reasonable they are the result of lived experience. as they tend to be unhelpful and unrealistic quick-fixes to very real problems. “Five Keys to Success,” “Ten Steps to a Healthier You,” etc. I generally dislike pop-psychology or self-help lists - e.g. Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi is organized loosely around Brian’s “Eight Keys to Happiness.” Normally, this sort of thing would cause me to toss a book straight into the recycling bin. However, much of the information about a journey toward health and happiness can apply to anyone. I'm not the ideal reader for this book since I haven't done yoga in forty years. The author emphasizes that everyone has to find their own way, and find what works for them. Occasionally there can be too much information about his GI problems.
The book is entertaining, and includes many humorous or self-deprecating incidents. He also writes about his search for his authentic self instead of being the person others expect you to be. The memoir gives advice about listening to your body and quieting your mind. He spent years learning about yoga and meditation, and now teaches yoga and runs a tutoring center for students. He tells about a cross country trip with a friend where he tried out various forms of yoga, and also had some hilarious adventures along the way. He was a freshman at Georgetown University when he took his first yoga class. Brian Leaf discovered that yoga helped him with several problems due to high anxiety.
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