What If You're Right?

Colwell writes with empathy and integrity about her exploration of sickness and need, beliefs and worldviews. While you may not agree with her current state of faith or her conclusions, the journey is an interesting one.

Scripture tells us that each person is uniquely shaped in the image of God with purpose and meaning. Often the people around us try to shame and shape us into their own image. I was blessed with parents who affirmed that God was amazing and able to handle questions and doubts. Human life was a great adventure and there was a reason for the way I was made.

"Don't let anyone put you in a box," was my dad's reoccurring warning.

In this book, Colwell chronicles her journey as a doctor and adviser from the viewpoint that she gets to decide who she is and who she is becoming. I'm heartsick at the direction she's going (the universal god-squad) but interested to see how her life will be shaped by honest enquiry in the future.

"What If You're Right? by Emily Colwell is a profound exploration of shifting our perspective from one of constant self-improvement to one of self-acceptance and empowerment. Colwell skillfully dismantles the pervasive societal lens of wrongness that convinces us our anxieties and challenges are inherently flawed and need fixing from external sources.

Drawing from her personal experiences navigating chronic illness, shifting sexual orientation, and childhood trauma, Colwell shares her journey of unexpectedly falling in love with her cancerous thyroid. Through this transformative experience, she learned to embrace her anxieties and other unwanted emotions with curiosity rather than trying to suppress or escape from them.

The book offers practical insights and tools for readers to update their relationship with various aspects of their lives, including anxiety, health challenges, parenting insecurities, and body image. Colwell encourages readers to pause and tap into their inner wisdom, recognizing that relief and healing become possible when we embrace our inherent rightness.

5 stars from my side. I recommend!

This book was a helping and healing balm to me. Too many of us carry around feelings of 'wrongness' - specifically, that WE are wrong rather than we did wrong (which I believe IS something we should feel when appropriate). I felt a sigh a few times, a pressure relieved and the author's openess about her experiences were not salacious, they were freeing. My wife and I counsel people and we know the power of a shared example spoken in truth.
I can't exactly put my finger on it but this is one of the best reads I've come across for helping you learn to live with, welcome and express old 'secrets' stories etc.

I would to say one thing though. I don't agree with the idea that what is right for you is always right. I'm not saying the author says this, just that the human mind and body will always try to justify itself no matter what the belief etc. To that end, we do need a source of right and wrong and that can be found in our creator God. Otherwise, we end up with Tik Tok...

However, this isn't a religious book. I do reccomend it for the effect it is having in freeing those knotty bits of wrongness you may carry.

This book so resonates for me! Why is it that we treat our bodies so grievously? This books points out that we should be responding to our body’s blatant cues for attention of some kind. I love the concept of “lens of wrongness”! It (whatever it maybe) is not in and of itself wrong. You just perceive it to be wrong! I am having a more difficult time with the “who’s knocking” idea but I’m still working on it. I particularly liked the chapter on God. (Chapter 6?) Hard I dont knows/soft I dont knows, power questions-so many options! And micro moments are a godsend! Truthfully reading this book gave me a different perspective and made an immediate positive change to my anxiety level. Thank you Emily Colwell!

Straight forward advice and stories around why we are constantly thinking in the negative and letting anxiety and miss perception take over our lives.

Most of all, this book is a very, very validating read.
Honestly, who isn’t fed up with the non-stop narrative of how you should be improved, and be the best version of whatnot? This book takes care of it.