Description:
Life presents us with hundreds of variations on a handful of interpersonal challenges. Plenty of people save these issues for therapy sessions where vulnerabilities are slowly uncovered and swaddled in layers of talk. But what if there was a swifter, more dynamic way to cut to the chase? Psychologist Marilyn Mason stumbled upon one such route when she agreed to tag along as the therapist in charge of handling sticky emotions among Minnesota medical students during a weekend introduction to rock climbing. Pushing her not-so-athletic body to find handhold after impossible handhold on the way up a crumbling wall and hanging off ropes held by others quickly brought Mason face-to-face with core issues about commitment, failure, and trust. Rock climbing, she found, "uncovered stored feelings, dormant strengths, failings and unmet truths that I had buried." Building on these revelations, Mason helped form an adventure psychology company that depended on the physical extremes of trekking, dog-sledding, rafting, and cross-country skiing to encourage people to explore the "wilderness within." In Seven Mountains, she uses a series of climbs she made in such places as Tanzania, Tibet, and the Caucuses to coach readers about commitment, endurance, and pushing past fears that tie us to unsatisfying acts and lives. Well-written journal excerpts chronicle self-doubts, and moments from various adventure trips help elucidate such points as the paradoxical generosity in holding back on offers of support to allow for the growth that comes from struggle. --Francesca Coltrera
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