How To Stop Worrying And Start Living

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Summary: This is not fluff, this works
Review: Mr. Carnegie's books are timeless. "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" began changing my life many years ago. Taking Mr. Carnegie's advice, I have reread it several times since then and am better for it. Worry, like many chronic problems, can jump back out at you when you feel as if you've already beaten it. This book allows the reader to return to it again and again. It acts like a family member or a close friend-always ready to give you some perspective or to remind you of what's important.
This book offers concrete and practical things that can help the reader escape from the destructive pattern of worry. There is no author or self-help guru out there who can provide you with a more natural or common sense approach to this issue. James Green, author of "If There's One Thing I've Learned."

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Summary: Not to worry - this is a must read
Review: I have had this book for years and can honestly say that is probably one of the best self-improvement books on the market today. The book is peppered with stories of individuals who overcame tremendous struggles and angst. Some of the stories are a bit outdated and hokey, but if you can get past that, the informational content still holds true for today. Each chapter contains practical bullet point info that anyone can use and the chapters are summarized at the end to re-iterate the main points covered. This is an invaluable guide for those of you who are ready to start living a worry free life. Worth purchasing for your home library and would be an excellent gift for a friend or family member. Also worth considering would be the audio version of this book.

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Summary: Great Book for 2005
Review: I have just completed reading this book and I'm amazed that the press of life causes me to worry to death about things that are only fleeting, at best. This is a wonderful book to get you back to some balance in your life. I will reread it again to pick-up on principles that I may have missed in the first reading. This is one of those books that make you say, "I wish I could read this again for the first time." It makes you want to change your bad habits.

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Summary: This book will tremendously improve your life
Review: Yes, this book will change your life. I believe that it is the best book since the Bible. I have bought it a number of times, and given it to people. I have several copies right now. My first one was so long ago that it only cost 35 cents! Even if you only read the first 50 pages it will tremendously improve your life. It is worth many times its purchase price. The information in every chapter is like going to a therapist. You will say, "why didn't I know that before?" Click on it right now and buy it before you miss out on this opportunity for a new and much better life from the day that you start to read it. I have no financial interest in this book and don't know the author personally. I just love the book because it has done so much for me. I have recommended it to many people and I have even given talks about this book to groups to which I belong.

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Summary: Get this book!
Review: I was given a copy of this book by my psychologist and it completely changed my life. The strength of this book is in the fact that Dale Carnegie drew upon so many sources through research, interviewing people, and so on, to write this book. I was completely surprised that somebody as pessimistic and full of worry as me could completely change in such a short time - and that the benefits have stuck with me. With the help of this book and a few others, I was able to completely stop taking anti-depressants once I realized that the strength for changing my mind was inside of me and not in a pill. No matter how bad life can get, there is always a way to fight through it and actually still look at the bright side of things. I recommend buying this so you can highlight and keep it for re-reading. It is so full of insight that you'll definitely want to return to it time and again.

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Summary: Anxious? Stressed? Here's the Ideal Bedside Companion
Review: Not long ago, when I was newly divorced mom with two teenagers, and plenty of reasons to worry, I found this little book. That year, I'd made a New Year's resolution to stop worrying. Living one day at a time sounded like a great idea. But I did not know how. How to stop worrying?

The book had actually been lying on a bookshelf in my home for a very long time. My copy was so old that the pages were yellow, and crumbling I had picked it up once, glanced through it and laid it down, thinking that my problems were just too overwhelming to listen to yet another positive-thinking guru.

This time, as I read and re-read the book, I came to love the people in it, who told their stories in such heart-felt, simple words. Because, you see, the book was written in a laboratory of human experience. For five years, as a teacher of adult education classes at the YMCA, Dale Carnegie taught a class in how to stop worrying. Each week his students, who came from all walks of life, tried his ideas out, and returned to class with honest feedback on what actually worked for them. Carnegie eventually put their stories together, including what they learned as a group. That's how the book took shape.

The stories, all true, are drawn from days when people had good reason to worry. This was the generation which lived through the Great Depression, and then World War II. Everything is covered here - war, loneliness, financial problems (even bankruptcy-one man had gone through bankruptcy three different times, due to the Great Depression), death, worry over children, health problems, fear of the future.

A number of them had come close to ending their lives due to overwhelming personal problems. Everything is described honestly, in this little book. Yet all of them learned to stop worrying. And they tell how they did it.

Some used prayer as a comfort. The book was written during the days when people weren't ashamed to admit that they found comfort in religious belief. But that isn't the main emphasis of the book. It's filled with practical, down-to-earth approaches for living day to day, happily. The answers are those found in the laboratory of real human experience - not theory, but what works.

If you're like me, prone to waking at night, anxious with what Carnegie calls the "wibber-gibbers," it's the ideal bedside companion, and a true comfort throughout life's up and downs.

Recently, during a lawsuit which caused me a significant amount of anxiety, I tore this little paperback into sections, and carried a section into court with me, to read during odd moments as I waited for the outcome of my case. This book, and the love and support of my family, carried me through.


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Summary: Islamic Compatible
Review: Islamic Compatible

The renowned Egyptian scholar Late Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali had read Arabic translation of this great work. He was so impressed to find the concepts of the book so compatible to Islamic concepts that he compared its themes with Quranic verses and the Hadith. Thus an "Islamic version" of Carnegi's English book came into existence(in Arabic), he named it as "Jaddid Hayaatak" (i.e. renew your life). I have taken up the Arabic book for translation to English. The title, instead, will be "Rekindle Your Life". A modest positive contribution in our days of misunderstandings.

Dr. Syed Bashir Ahmad Kashmiri
[e-mail]


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Summary: Take a look at Carnegie
Review: For some reason, self help books tend to be terribly expensive so before you go on a epic spending spree trying to help yourself give ole Dale Carnegie a look. He and Napoleon Hill are the granddaddies of the entire self-help industry and his book still has much to say.

The book is completely free of pyshobabble. You will not be asked to look for your inner child. You will not be asked to blame your parents. You will be encouraged to help yourself. You will be asked to let go of old hurts, hates, and bitterness. You will be told over and over again that there is hope and that you can change your life.

The first half of the book is solid gold. Dale Carnegie never presented himself as perfect. He pointed out his own anxieties and showed how he freed himself from them. He also uses examples from famous and oridinary people of the day showing how they picked themselves up. Go through the book with a highlighter, photocopy sections, write down some of the quotes and tape them to your computer or wall or bathroom mirror where you can see them everyday.

Now about the second half. Okay, it's not as good and I think Carnegie probably added it to please his publishers. It doesn't matter. The first half of the book makes up for the weakness of this section.

If you are going through a bout of the blues or if you've been a big time frantic worrier for all of your life check out How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. I'm not saying it's the ulitmate answer but it's an accessible, enjoyable and inexpensive start.

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Summary: Great, even my 9 year old loves it
Review: I love this book as it really reminds you of what is important in life.
We all have times in our lives when we worry but where does it ever get us? I have the added problem of worrying about my worrying which may seem laughable but it is very frustrating as I don't actually have anything to worry about if I remember to just live in the present. All of my fears lie in the future.
This book is able to reassure the worrying reader by reminding us time and time again how worrying doesn't get us anywhere but also that many other people (including many famous historical figures)have struggled and overcome these problems too.
Although there are many anecdotes in the book (and I have noted that other reviewers have disliked this about it) I believe that this is necessary in order to keep hitting home the fact that there are so many things that people can worry about but that there are always solutions or at least different ways to think about things.
It offers peace of mind and faith that you can pull yourself out of the rut you think yourself into without resorting to therapists or anti-depressants.
It does need to be used as a life guide so be prepared to re-read from time to time, not necessarily just when you feel all your worries getting the better of you.
To get the most out of this book you need to be prepared to take on board all that he and many others have said and to be pro-active in changing the way you handle and view your worries. I do believe that we all have the ability to do this so don't worry!