[REVIEW] The Truth About Everything, by Brianna Wiest

96 pages, $3.99

Review by Elisabeth Wilkes

Did you ever wonder what a philosopher’s blog would look like? Answer: Brianna Wiest’s book, The Truth About Everything. It sounds like a big claim to make, but Wiest delivers by focusing on the universal themes of everyday living. No, it does not gives the reader intricate details about every nook and cranny of existence. It does, however, talk about the hardships humans face no matter what class, race, or gender they may be. The main theme is suffering and how a person must explore pain for its transformative properties. Wiest writes about truths she has learned that are transferable to anyone. In this way she goes beyond the traditional motivational book by giving her readers insightful advice, but does not take the full step of making a “systematic” approach to self-improvement as a self-help book does. It resembles the philosophy discussions of old with its complexity and richness of ideas, but explains them in the straightforward language of blogging.

I found Brianna Wiest, and eventually this book, through Thought Catalog. Thought Catalog is the Buzzfeed of practical advice and features countless talented writers. Once I began to explore the website, I always found myself unconsciously clicking on Wiest’s posts. I enjoyed that her topics and her advice went beyond the “well, duh” statements I was used to reading from blogs. When I saw that she had a book and that it was under four dollars for the Kindle version, I was excited to give it a chance. It certainly did not disappoint.

Bad self help or motivational books are everywhere, with advice ranging from generic and cliché to erroneous and idiotic. They use the same bag of tricks by insisting on the power of “positive thinking,” overdone writing exercises, mission statements, and other cheesiness. They read like a manual because they’re written by concise business-oriented people who believe in “the power of outlining.” Wiest deviates from that to write relevant ideas that translate to real life without some sort of activity book to go along with it. She does not try to mold how you interpret her ideas because she knows that whatever worked for her will not necessarily work for the reader.

Wiest writes that “the things that have bothered me the most are the things that are the most true.” Because of this she advises readers to “listen when it hurts… I like to think of pain as my heart stretching out.” This quote sums up the philosophy of the book quite nicely. In this way, she compares the way the mind heals and improves to the way pain functions in the body. Pain warns us to retract, but it also is something to push past to return to normal or to achieve excellence. By doing this, she recommends that her readers “consider the idea of vibration, energy and frequency, and how our minds create for us” in order to understand the power intellect has in our existence. Our minds can look past the situational and see art, purpose, and even use in the tragedies of life. She therefore begs the question that “if life is just a matter of perspective, can’t that instantly instill hope for every situation we’re in?” The answer to that question shows us that while we cannot make emotional pain stop hurting, we can stop it from permanently damaging us.

This is a philosophy that could do a lot of good. When hedonism fails, people are left with more pain than they know what to do with. They see suffering as a mystery to be solved and rid of, not a reality that they must live with and learn to thrive in. Wiest’s book tells readers that they are not weak for having pain or that there is something wrong with them for not being happy all the time. Wiest plucks these truths from her own life experiences and makes them simpler, all without dumbing it down. So while we all must live with suffering from time to time, Wiest gives us hope by showing us how it can be turned into a positive force.

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Elisabeth Wilkes was born in Florida, but became a Midwesterner through and through. To alleviate the boredom that comes with the Midwestern lifestyle, she reads and writes to explore worlds and ideas beyond her. She enjoys books and aspires to make her living from them one day soon.