Working Beneath the Surface: Attending to the Soul's "Hidden Agenda" for Wholeness, Fulfillment, and Deep Spiritual Healing

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Summary: Very deep, thoughtful and enlightening!
Review: I found the book to be very useful in helping me understand why I do things that are destructive to myself and to others. The author gives very logical and persuasive arguments along with research by other noted experts of human psychology and spirituality. It's a definite read if you are on a journey of spiritual enlightenment and personal and professional growth.

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Summary: A beautiful, soulful read.
Review: I loved this approach to helping people find their inter deamons, I cried at the 5th chapter and found that I could'nt get enough of this book. I read clear through it in 2 days. I feel this will help many, many people find their uncovered abilities and be able to far reach all their goals by carefuly reading this book again & again. Thanks Tom

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Summary: One of the best deep healing books that I have ever read!!!!
Review: I loved this approach to helping people find their inter deamons, I cried at the 5th chapter and found that I could'nt get enough of this book. I read clear through it in 2 days. I feel this will help many, many people find their uncovered abilities and be able to far reach all their goals by carefuly reading this book again & again. Thanks Tom

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Summary: THE book for people STILL striving to be effective
Review: Many of us have focused a good portion of our lives working on our principles and habits in search of balance and harmony. In program after program we are taught simply to replace unproductive and ineffective habits and thoughts with better, more empowering ones. Most of us realize at some point that something is seriously missing in this approach. In this book, Tom Riskas helps us understand why. He shows us how to work at a much deeper level, "beneath the surface," to integrate ALL of the forces at work in our lives. He tells us how to get in touch with our soul's hidden agenda -- the one that is naturally striving for wholeness, whether we realize it or not. For the first time, someone helps us integrate the productive and effective sides of our personality ALONG WITH the darker sides that we've been trying to ingnore and suppress. As a former teacher of "principles of effectiveness" he knows as well as anyone that in order to truly have the breakthroughs that help us get control of our lives on a sustained basis, we must be willing to suffer -- to do hard work at a core level to understand and work with our hidden agenda. The rewards are huge. His book is excellent. Very insightful and full of personal experience and practical advice. But for it to be of value, you have to be willing to do some intense personal work. This is not the book for the person looking for the next popular "effectivess" program.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, soulful read.
Review: When I read this book in 1997, I enjoyed it. Later, as I began to digest the information and reflect on it, a whole new world began to open up for me. The result was a complete therepeutic transformation of my life and relationships. Now, three years later, I still refer to this book on a regular basis. It has captured my imagination, and I continue to read the materials referred to in Tom's sources.

Tom's book gets to the heart of whatever it is within us that blocks or prevents us from making real, substantive and sustainable progress toward our goals. It goes deeper than the countless lifeless self-help books that leave you feeling empty or that start with good ideas but end up only cheerleading the disempowered. It cuts through the lies we tell ourselves, and the excuses or defenses we often give others, and empowers us to face the real truth by causing us to ask, "What is my true motivation--and what do I have to be afraid of by making that truth known?"

Probably the most helpful thing about this book is that it helps us handle life's ironies, paradoxes, and contradictions more creatively as we explore hidden beliefs and assumptions that often lock up our creativity and quietly sabotage our relationships and personal effectiveness.

For example, for many years my wife and I were stifled by either/or thinking. We either agreed or we didn't, and each of us was either right or wrong--which seems to make all the sense in the world, right? We both wanted the best for our marriage, but despite our best intentions things only seemed to get worse with us. It seemed that if we didn't agree 100 percent, we would ultimately have to see this play out in the real world, and someone would be disappointed and possibly resentful as a natural consequence. Also, we wondered why we couldn't simply "grow up" and allow differences of opinion to exist--and why we could never both be right, but for different reasons. The result was that whoever "won" an argument by strength of logic or manipulation (pouting or complaining) had the luxury of getting his or her way. Not until much later did we realize how damaging this had been to our relationship. After all, the person that didn't get his or her way seemed to resent it for months, feeling victimized or cheated, while the other person would soon forget about the whole thing and ask months later, "What's your problem?"--creating a whole new and ugly debate about something that seemed to be "resolved."

Tom's technique of "holding the tension"--one of the many powerful ideas in this book--offers a new perspective. Neither person is "right" or "wrong," "smart" or "stupid." Instead, the ideas of both sides are valued, even if they are apparently contradictory. It requires both people to listen more carefully--not only to what the other person is saying, but also to what hidden assumptions and beliefs lie buried in your own soul that might be uncovered as you listen. It requires each side to admit that their own motivations are not always squeeky clean, either, before judging the other person. Often, these silent motivators are hidden even to ourselves, and only through our reactions and responses to others can we glimpse them in action.

Consequently, by using some of these ideas, my wife and I have slowly improved our ability to communicate--to remain in difficult dialog without storming off, to express our strong opinions without being called out, to see an accusation or complaint as a call of the soul rather than a call to arms, and to find alternatives that demand neither compromises or battles. It has given us tools that have allowed us to increase measurably in personal effectiveness and consciousness, as well as in our maturity and relationship with each other.