A non fiction book that reads a little like a textbook, Sensitive is the New Strong teaches you what being an empath really is, with all its ups and downs. About expansion, liberation, and connecting with your own divinity, you can learn how to break out of your shell, and let your walls down.

Though I do feel these feelings in my own life, I had a little trouble getting into this. It's mostly about spirituality and meditation, and how to calm yourself when you're overstimulated, as empathic people tend to get overstimulated more. There are a ton of stories about people in less than savory situations, and a brickload of information to meditate too.

Although I was originally intrigued about strategies I could learn that would help me deal with being a sensitive empath, this book unfortunately didn't deliver anything that I didn't already know.

I think this would be an interesting read for someone who wasn't familiar with what an empath is, and was only starting to become self aware to their sensitivity. Although the mantras were good, they weren't eye opening enough to warrant reading an entire book.

Most empathic people consider it a weakness, but in Sensitive is The New Strong by Anita Moorjani, she discusses why being empathic is not only a strength, but is a way to help other empaths find their inner strength as well.

Anita Moorjani is the author of a book titled Dying to be Me, a book in which she tells her story about fighting cancer. In Sensitive is the New Strong, Anita tells her story of after her near-death experience, when she learns that not only is she empathic, but she is in the perfect situation to help others with their empathic abilities. Sensitive is the New Strong is a new kind of self-help book: geared toward those who absorb others’ feelings, she gives actionable tips on how to avoid the burnout that inevitably comes with these abilities.

I love so much about Sensitive is the New Strong, even if parts of it fell a little flat for me. Anita is Hindu, so much of her advice is geared toward her beliefs. I am a Christian, so many of her religious views felt wrong to me, because they didn’t jibe with my own beliefs. Luckily, I was able to take some things away from this book, such as affirmations and such, and discard the things that I couldn’t accept, such as connecting with my “inner mystic,” or my “spirit guide.”

Anita’s Writing Style
I really enjoyed the author’s writing, because of when she gives personal anecdotes to back up her advice. I especially enjoyed reading about her fight with cancer, and her decision to embrace her empathic side. As an empath myself, I was able to relate to her in quite a few different ways.

Anita’s Religious Views
As I stated before, Anita Moorjani is Hindu, and her religious beliefs are everywhere in this book, from mentioning finding her “inner mystic,” to outright stating her religious views. While I don’t agree with Hinduism in any form, as a Christian, I do believe in finding the nuggets of truth in anything, in order to live my life as well as I can. I was able to find some things in this book that didn’t outright disagree with my Christian views, so I was able to look at those objectively and use them in my own empathic journey.

I absolutely loved this author’s choice of title. Her reasoning behind it is pretty cool too. Anita believes that being sensitive to others, and being able to feel emotions and energies from others, is a sign of strength, rather than a sign of weakness. I agreed with this wholeheartedly, and it is the main reason why I kept reading this book, even after seeing her Hindu beliefs immersed in almost every word. I’ve read books before that I didn’t agree with that I wasn’t able to finish, but I thought there was enough in this book that I related to that made finishing it worth it.

This book is an interesting, and at times enlightening, examination of the experience of an empathetic individual in today's society. Moorjani's insights from her own life experiences give a new perspective on the impact that the structures of today's society has on individuals that are empathetic and the ways in which it eventually breaks them down. What was particularly insightful, was Moorjani's experienced examples of how this is done through individual relationships and societal norms around spirituality and the cult of helpfulness. I've already recommended this book to some friends and I'm sure I'll be recommending it to others in the future.

This book isn't what I expected it to be. I definitely wasn't expecting lots of info of empath's absorbing other's energy and reading people's auras. I thought it would be geared toward more "sensitive" people. While I feel like I have some empath traits, it's clearly not enough traits to feel like this book was overly beneficial to me. Might be a good read for others, but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you for sharing this book with me.
Anita Moorjani is a force!
I hope to be able to write about it for my outlets.

https://lisaniver.com/one-page/

Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World by Anita Moorjani
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Self-Help
Release Date: March 16, 2021

Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World by Anita Moorjani is a self-help book and memoir.

I found this book to be interesting. It is definitely more of a memoir than a self-help book, but I found it very inspiring.

I'm so grateful to Anita Moorjani, Atria Books, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Sensitive is the New Strong by Anita Moorjani was an interesting read.

Initially, I was very invested in the story. However, for me it became a bit repetitive and boring. This book felt more like a memoir than a self help book to me. I think more advice would be needed to not label this a memoir.

I think this book is maybe more for Empaths who do not already know their worth or what they are. I have always just kind of owned my sensitivity, so while I found some parts relatable other parts I failed to connect with as well.

I received an eARC from Atria through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

I really wanted to love this one. As an empath myself, I'm always looking for coping strategies and had big hopes for Sensitive is the New Strong. Unfortunately, it ended up mostly being personal anecdotes with very little advice and largely felt like an ego booster for the author.

This self-help book is written with empaths in mind, as Moorjani identifies as an empath and she experienced a “near death experience” in which she walked in another realm during her cancer journey. She’s a survivor. She wrote this book as an “inspirational guide for sensitive people looking to hardness their gifts of intuition and empathy”. With that in mind, I was hoping this book would give me some advice on how to deal with my own sensitivity. I may identify with some empath characteristics, but I wouldn’t say I am a complete empath after reading this book.

If anything, I felt turned off because of how it started off with her experience with a higher spiritual person telling her she’s different, and her energy is different, and he will “reset” it for her. She said no one has ever spoken to her that way. Many parts of the book was mostly about how she wants others to portray her to be or how she thinks she comes off. I felt it was stroking her ego a bit.
This is not to say that this book was poorly written but I had a hard time getting through it.

Thank you Atria/Enliven Books & Netgalley for this ARC!

I have always been sensitive and greatly affected by the moods of the people around me, but I’m not sure if I’m an empath based on this book. I think I was hoping more to learn about that particular way of living in the world and perhaps more of a practical guide, but the book was more spiritual than I felt comfortable with.

Anita Moorjani had a NDE (near death experience) – actually, she literally died – and came back. She wrote a book about that called “Dying to be Me” and is a sought after speaker. Now she has written this book about being an empath. Honestly, there’s a lot out there on empaths these days, but I haven’t seen anything exactly like this, which is pretty much a definitive guide.

Moorjani is Indian and grew up in Hong Kong; so her perspective is from the Eastern traditions and you should know that there are words here like “aura”, “nirvana”, “life force energy” and so on. I feel like this book is so valuable if you are an empath, though, that hopefully you can just translate these into your own tradition, or other language, if it doesn’t fit for you.

Moorjani starts with defining what an empath is and how they are (or really, we all are) six-sense beings. There is a 35 question quiz to help you determine where you are on a continuum of being one. Then she goes into some of the problems with being an empath and some of the “superpowers”.

Moorjani covers things such as how to deal with overwhelm; what to be wary of in spiritual communities; the body and healing; our intersection with money and success; how to say no; our filters; and gender norms.

Two very interesting things about this book for me: Moorjani discusses the “ego” and our thoughts. It’s common in yoga and eastern traditions to hear about letting go of the ego. Moorjani says that this is damaging for empaths; they already struggle with doing too much for others, giving too much, and feeling too much of others’ pain. Empaths actually need their ego dial turned UP, not down. Also, she talks a bit about our thoughts and specifically attraction theory. As a therapist, I often have people become more aware of their negative self-talk, and Moorjani claims that this only makes us think more about the negativity. The key is not to try to change our thoughts, or to make vision boards to change our lives, but more so to ask “how can I support myself better in this moment”, and just keep doing that every moment.

This book is out March 16, 2021 and I encourage you to buy it. First, so many therapists I know would at least classify themselves as highly sensitive; and some are definitely empaths. So this book is going to be handy for the therapist, just in managing their own empathic choices. But also, it would be a great book to have around for clients as well.

As an empath, I found Anita Moorjani’s “Sensitive Is the New Strong” to be reassuring and incredibly empowering. Anita’s down to earth writing style and chock-full of practical principals and strategies to navigate wisely in the world, is inspiring and liberating. I highly recommend!

I was put off by the opening of the book. I identify as an empath, but I am not, as the author writes: "weak", "chastised, bullied...flawed or ashamed", a "doormat", or a "people pleaser". Those are quite the negative stereotypes!

I stopped reading after that, so my review is based on my genuine first impression. Perhaps the author shouldn't have lumped all empaths together into a big bowl of weakness soup. I am disappointed, as I really wanted to get into this book, but I couldn't get past the initial tone. DNF.

Advanced copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.