Rating: 
Summary: ~ HOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE --The Easy Way... ~
Review: *****
Generally, people are the sum total of their thoughts. "As a man THINKETH in his heart, so IS he." G.I.G.O. - cause and effect - still holds true. Most of our worries, anxieties, hatreds and hang-ups are the result of making "mental lists" of offences, injustices, and inadequacies of the past and brooding over them for years. "What To Say..." is a course on how to "burn those lists, "rip out" the old wiring and thought-patterns we have been conditioned to accept, and to replace them with NOW, up-to-date programming that we WANT and HAVE CONTROL over.
The book agrees with the Apostle Paul who said, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I DO, FORGETTING THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE BEHIND [the PAST], and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize [the GOAL]of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14)! "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are TRUE, whatsoever things are HONEST, whatsoever things are JUST, whatsoever things are PURE, whatsoever things are LOVELY, whatsoever things are of GOOD REPORT; if there be any VIRTUE, and if there be any PRAISE, THINK ON THESE THINGS" (Philippians 4:8).
This book gives you a positive plan on how to DO these things, even if you are not "religious"! In a nutshell: it works.
Get the book. You have nothing to lose... but your old way of life! :)
*****
Rating:
Summary: I would talk to myself in this way.
Review: . This is a very good book to help us achieving our goals.
. I can easily master the skill and successfully help myself.
. No one can help me better than my own self.
. Don't wait. No excuse. Do it now!
. Talk to yourself as often as possible and make it loud!
. Whatever the subject might be, always think positively.
. Knowing is nothing. You have to try it to really get it.
. Once you started, you won't stop succeeding.
. Create your own talking lists and update them frequently.
. That's it. Simple and effective.
Rating: 
Summary: Positive Affirmations and Self-Hypnosis 101
Review: This book starts out with an excellent, though very basic premise - that what we think about affects the way we behave and the results we get.
Unfortunately, at the start of Chapter 4, "New Discoveries", the author starts to go off the rails - and never wholly gets back on again. On the Human Brain:
"The brain operates very much like a personal computer." (page 36)
Wrong!
The brain is nothing like a personal computer. And the attempt to draw parallels between them finally falls apart completely on page 38 when the author goes off into a fantasy about "the brain's central control room", which has NO physiological counterpart known to man. On Motivation:
We are told (page 92) that motivational speakers are no use because: "... there is a problem with that kind of motivation: *it is external and it does not last*."
Yet on page 130 the author tells how he created "... an early, somewhat primitive form of "I can do it!" Self-Talk [tape] for a company which wanted a motivational pep-talk cassette their salespeople could listen to when their sales were down."
He also tells us that his wife lost 25 pounds through (and I quote) "eavesdropping on my cassette tapes!" So if I understand this right, external motivation doesn't work - except when your external motivator is Shad Helmstetter? On Hypnotism:
"[H]ypnosis is not effected during the normal "waking" state." (page 99)
Absolutely wrong. At this very moment, as you concentrate on your PC monitor to read these words you are in a light level of hypnosis. Yet you are fully "awake", are you not? "Hypnosis requires the subject (you) to enter what is called a "trance" state, one of several levels of consciousness which open doors to the subconscious mind." (page 99).
This "trance" element, it seems, is apparently "a bad thing" because, "With active, daily Self-Talk, you are consciously in control and in charge of every change you are making within yourself. With hypnosis you are not." Oh really? Well if *you* aren't in charge during self-hypnosis, who is?
Helmstetter never bothers to answer this question, but he does make some rather self-contradictory statements on the subject over the next few pages, thus: "If you use self-hypnosis as a tool for your own growth, and it has worked for you in the past, and if you choose to use Self-Talk as part of that tool, the combination of your own self-hypnosis and your new Self-Talk should work for you as well." (p.106).
(Does this mean that the author really does understand that you can be both "awake" AND in a light "trance" at the same time?) "Silent Self-Talk can be either a conscious or an unconscious internal dialogue." (p. 115). "Do your words paint the picture for your own subconscious mind you want it to be hearing?" (p. 120). "Since I first began to recommend that people use cassette tapes as a programming tool for the subconscious..." (p. 132). "Your subconscious mind will be busily programming in the positive new information about you whether you are consciously thinking about it or not." (p. 134). "This is the Self-Talk that directs your subconscious mind to stop doing something one way and start doing it another." (pages 150-151). And the piece de resistance: in the "Positive Self-Talk to Stop Smoking" script: "When I see a cigarette, or even think of one, I automatically hear the words, "I do not smoke" - and I don't!" (page 157).
A 'bog standard' example of a 'post hypnotic suggestion' if ever I saw one. In other words, Self-Talk is nothing but communication with your subconscious mind - which is exactly what hypnosis is all about.
The only difference is that when you are consciously bombarding yourself with Self-Talk then your conscious, critical mind is given free rein to sabotage anything it can.
The point of using self-hypnosis is that in a "trance" state you can, to a greater or lesser degree, short circuit that self-defeating critical tendency. Not surprisingly, then, of the five types of Self-"Talk" that the author describes, some are acknowledged to be more effective than others - and the more like overt self-hypnosis they are, the more successful they are likely to be! On the Use of Language:
On page 153, the author rightly points out that phrases that contain the word "should" usually result in non-action, thus: "I *should* cut down on fried apple fritters - BUT I don't." Yet at the bottom of that same page we find a recommended item of Self-Talk that goes: "I only eat what I should." Which neatly conceals the underlying route to failure as in: "I know I *should* eat yoghurt, BUT cheesecake is so much nicer!" Nor does the author appear to understand the effect of negatives in speech. Thus his "Positive Self-Talk for Freedom From Worry" starts with the phrase "I do not worry" and ends with "I never worry". Now, what do you have to think about in order to make sense of these two phrases? You have to think about WORRYING. So the script that will allegedly free us from Worry actually starts and ends by reminding us about WORRY.
Oops! In the final analysis there are some parts which - as typical examples of self-hypnosis - will undoubtedly be of use, and it comes as no surprise that many reviewers see this as having been a great help to them. Having said that, however, once we admit that this book really only covers a limited area of hypnosis/self hypnosis, the question becomes, "Why be satisfied with something that is limited and incomplete?"
Why not just buy a book that says outright what it's about and tells the whole story.
Rating:
Summary: Beware when you talk to yourself!
Review: Dr. Shad Helmstetter's book is among the best self help books. Literally, because most all of the challenges we face have more to do with how we think about ourselves in relation to things much more so than anything else. By continued practice of the Self Talk method in a short while you can literally see and feel yourself being affected by your own Self Talk,which in turn begins to make you aware of all the negative self talk going on around you and not to let your subconscious mind choose to be affected by it, or more importantly be a party to it. Excellent read, get the Self Talk CD's as well.And all the other books by Dr. Helmstetter, The Self Talk Solution and Choices.
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Summary: Maximize your brain function and use the key to healing.
Review: Every human being can benefit greatly from this easy to read and easy to understand book. The most significant revelation is contained in the simple statement in the book that "The brain simply believes what you tell it most." It does not believe what anyone else tells it. The brain is a great pretender though...when it has to be...to survive. The book shows how the brain has an uncanny ability to recognize, accept, and act on truth...when a person speaks their truth to their brain about their self. Who knows their self better than one's own being? Each person is in charge of their own brain and behavior. Few people act as if they actually know it. In the current "claim, blame and search for fame" society, it is very good and very rare to find a book of factual and actual truth.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Eye opening. Makes a lot of sense. Recommend to anyone. Quick and easy to read.
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Summary: the missing link
Review: Have you ever read an inspiring 'self-help' book or heard a tremendous motivational speaker that made you want to make significant positive changes in your life? When you tried to implement those changes, did you notice that they were temporary at best, and that you eventually fell back into the same self-defeating patterns that held you prisoner in the first place? Helmstetter rightly points out that the majority of information that our subconscious mind receives, from both external and internal sources, is negative. At any given time within our subconscious, as many as three negative thoughts are duking it out with one positive. Not knowing right from wrong, our subconscious chooses to believe the most dominant thought pattern. Unless we feed more positive messages to our subconscious, we become a prisoner to negative thought patterns. What to Say reveals a simple way to overcome the onslaught of negative thought by literally feeding positive thoughts into our subconscious through Self-Talk. More than just affirmation statements, Helmstetter shows how to get specific and attack problems at their source. This book will serve you well on its own, and will be even more effective as a catalyst to help you apply success principles from other books and speakers. This simple concept of Self-Talk will allow you to take success principles that are common knowledge, and convert them to common practice. Larry Hehn, author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory
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Summary: LIFE CHANGING.... HONESTLY
Review: I am a personal development junkie, but like Steve Chandler says in "100 Ways to Motivate Yourself," if you keep searching and reading books you'll eventually find that ONE book that changes your life. For everyone it's different, but for me it was THIS BOOK. It gives you permanent solutions to self-inflicted barriers and roadblocks to our success and well-being in life. What I learned is that it's not the economy, our upbringing, current surroundings, etc. that determines where we are in life, IT'S WHAT WE SAY TO OURSELVES THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE. Enough said, I hope this book is as much a blessing for you as it has been for me...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent. One of the very best.
Review: I am a salesman, a very good salesman. I invest time in reading sales, time management, and self help books trying in each one to find the few golden nuggets that will help me achieve my aims and goals. Most of what I read is the same plain common sense filtered through whatever is the authors theme. Much of what I read is simply impractical. I just wish I had read this book earlier in my career. It's the most immediately practical self help advice that I've read. The affirmation script for internal motivation is alone worth the price of the book. That one script is compelling and life changing. You will not waste your time reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, I read it twice
Review: I believe this book, if understood, can help anyone achieve all of their goals in life.
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