<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: If you've lost your smile you'll find it here!
Review: After a bad break-up, when I was stuck in the "I-Can't-stop-thinking-about-him" mindset, I picked up this book. After 3 months of crying, this book was like a breath of fresh air. It makes complete sense and helped me find my smile again. Now it does sort of say the same thing about 9 different ways, but this is why it works! It really works and must be read cover to cover. I've even bought this book for friends when they were low. I still use the ideas from this book everyday, and haven't lost my smile since.
Rating:
Summary: The door to sunshine and wholeness is amazingly easy to open
Review: Depression seems a dark, bottomless pit with no way out, and yet the door to sunshine and wholeness is amazingly easy to open, thanks to Richard Carlson. A few years back, after spending megabucks on counseling and anti-depressants (which ultimately made things worse!), I simply read this common-sense book and was well on the way to healing within six weeks. Just learning to recognize the triggers that start the depressive cycle gives the sufferer major power in controlling the onset of depression. Then, learning to think and act as a child, not worrying over yesterday or tomorrow - just making life great RIGHT NOW - gives us the ultimate weapon for conquering depression and giving us back control of our lives. And it really didn't take as much effort as I thought it would - I just had to WANT to heal, and be willing to do a little work to accomplish that end. Anyone who reads this book, whether suffering from depression or not, will benefit from it's common-sense approach to life in general. It's a small book, and it can help to enhance the quality of life in a GIANT way!! Thank you, Richard Carlson.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book and keep on re-reading it
Review: Dr Carlson has written many self-help books aimed at helping us to find the stable state of happiness that naturally exists within us all. He has now written this book specifically for those of us who suffer from depression. The book contains practical truths that are so obvious that most of us miss them or at least bypass them in the rush of our everyday lives. If you are suffering from depression this book will help immensely. Richard Carlson will show you how your state of depression is as much perpetuated by your own thinking as it is by any chemical imbalance that may or may not exist. I have read this book at the same time as receiving treatment with an SSRI anti-depressant (Cipralex). While I am unsure if the SSRI has benefited me at all after 6 weeks, I am certain that this book has changed my outlook completely after two weeks and that it continues to do so more and more with each re-reading. If I allow myself to slip back into my old ways of thinking, the severity of my depression rapidly returns. The good news is that it just as rapidly alleviates when I get back on track with my thinking. The book is simple to read and may seem repetitious. However, if you are one of Dr Carlson's target audience of sufferers from depression you should read this book and keep on re-reading it. You will find that on each re-reading something will leap out at you with greater meaning than it did before. I have highlighted many sentences so that I can rapidly re-read them, and have noted down the keywords on the title page. This way I can pull myself back on track quickly. The approach takes some work to put into practice but there is nothing as hard work as being in a depressed state. The hard work, by the way, is only in terms of changing your habitual modes of thinking, it does not involve making lists and analysing things as do many cognitive (i.e. thinking) approaches such as that found in Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns. I have found Dr Burns's book to be of some use also, mainly because it has helped me to identify particular types of cognitive distortion that help perpetuate depressive illness. This enables me to more accurately recognise when I should dismiss my thoughts, as Dr Carlson recommends in his approach. If you are depressed, low, angry, resentful, dissatisfied, unfulfilled, stressed, hurried, fearful or just not happy most of the time then read this book and keep re-reading it. I only wish this book had been available when I was aged twenty rather than forty.
Rating:
Summary: The Best book I've read about depression
Review: I have read all the other reviews. They are right on target; essentially this is a 5+ star book. However, like nearly all self-help books, the author repeats and repeats and repeats simple concepts (new maybe, revolutionary to the field, perhaps, but simple to understand).The basic premise is that one's thinking when it is askew gets one into trouble with depression, etc. Simple, true, great explantions, but the book could clearly have been half the size. The case studies are informative and break the monotony. I highly recommend this book, but you can skip through most of it, and more importantly start practicing the principles.
Rating:
Summary: Not just for the depressed, but for anyone who thinks...
Review: Never has something I've read had such an impact on my life as this book has. In fact, I would never have imagined that a book could have this much impact on my life!
Rating:
Summary: Our thoughts... our thoughts...
Review: This is a good companion book to his "Happiness" book. My favourites are: Our Thoughts - our thoughts are ingrained in us, through our childhood and adult experiences. We are constantly thinking. Understand that our thoughts are simply thoughts and nothing more. More importantly, our thoughts are not real! Like a river of floating leaves, our mind carries both bad and good thoughts, but as the primary "thinker" we decide which thoughts to carry. Depressed or unhappy people carry too many unhappy thoughts. We must learn to understand, experience, and more importantly dismiss thoughts when necessary. Don't overanalyze your thoughts, or as Carlson puts it analysis paralysis. Remember thoughts can't hurt you. Present moment living - there is no yesterday or tomorrow, your happiness is grounded by living in the present moment.
These and many others are sound principles of living, well worth the short read. Is it that simple? Our thoughts.. our thoughts...
<< 1 >>
|
