Drop In: Lead with Deeper Presence and Courage Book Review

Drop In: Lead with Deeper Presence and Courage

Book Review

Drop In: Lead with Deeper Presence and Courage

When it comes to the self-help field, one of my favorite types of books to read is about present moment awareness. I came to truly love this topic when I read one of my favorite books of all time, The Power of Nowby Eckhart Tolle. Please keep your eye out for a review on that one in the near future. At the brink of a new year, so many people often make comments like, “Whelp, that year flew by!” Sadly, when you live in auto-pilot mode, it will. In that mode, you often lose track of what’s most important in life. Due to deep routes of social conditioning, many people are often lost and seeking a solution that Sara Harvey Yao attempts to teach in her book Drop In: Lead with Deep Presence and Courage: presence.

In 2017, much of presence is muddled and lost in between working, exercising, dinner, hanging out with friends, meetings; the everyday actions of life. In her book, she clearly puts forth that humans have become accustomed to living their life in the eyes of content. Driven by their emotions and thoughts, people have not taken the time to reflect and realize there is something greater, deeper and more powerful than ever imagined.

The first part of her story is geared towards understanding life where the reader is at. There are reasons that have prevented the reader from dropping into presence and present moment awareness. In my opinion, this is clearly the moment that Yao stomps her feet into the tier of greatness in the industry. With thousands of authors attempting to create a self-help break through, this book has done it. With genuine stories and advice from her clients, every single reader will be able to relate to their stories. As her book progresses, she discusses several different exercises to ground and guide the reader towards a sense of presence. These exercises are constantly reinforced and encouraged through the story. Now, I would like to pinpoint, this is not a work book. However, if you plan to make a difference in your life, you need to utilize her tips, exercises and suggestions to make a difference. She will give you opportunities to write, reflect and grow.

To finish her book, she moves into teaching the reader how to utilize presence to lead their life with courage. Each sentence, chapter and story was poetry that touched my heart and soul. Her beautiful construction of the notions of context and content completely resonated – and will with many others. With that being said, this is the portion of the book where the reader will be encouraged to make a difference in their life. One aspect of this that I took away was the idea of deep-listening. This is long-lost trait that has become masked by the millions of thoughts driven by the ego.

Once you realize that time is simply an illusion of the ego, so much of life begins to change. There is a sense of power arises within your heart and soul. As Yao puts forth in her book, if you can realize the “low-mind” within, you are already one step towards presence in life. Once you begin invoking presence in your everyday life, you can begin leading your life with a deeper sense of presence and courage.

If you are interested in reading more on this topic, check out these other books: