Rating: 
Summary: Getting Real
Review: "The important thing is to look honestly at what your need to control is designed to protect you from and whether it actually supports your well being." pg. 88 This is only one of the very valuable quotes I have typed and placed on my refrigerator door... I refer to it every day and thank Susan every day for writing Getting Real. Another of my favorites is, "If you let fear get in the way of honest communication, you lose your power to create magic". Magic is what Susan has created in this book. I give it the highest possible recommendation. Averill Bowers... former reference librarian
Rating:
Summary: A Life-Changing Book
Review: After reading Radical Honesty I quite accidentally came across this book in the library! And while I found Radical Honesty compelling and challenging, I also felt uncertain of my ability to truly practice the skills Brad Blantoon proposed.
Susan Campbell presents many of the same challenges to her readers, but gives such powerful concrete examples that I found it easier to understand and begin to apply in my own life.
The Truth Skills are clear, very comprehendable, and while simple in that way, for me living them will be a challenge.
I scored high on all of her self-assessment quizzes - and yet I did not read the book and come away feeling like I am some sort of failure as a person, just that I am indeed like most of the people roaming this earth. What makes me different is my desire to change and grow. Where I see myself failing most significantly in my life is in the area of communicating and relating in healthy ways. Learning to live in "what IS" and not what I imagine, learning to relate and not control, and to listen closely to my self-talk, to feel free to communicate and to be ABLE to communicate and to be real, for example, for me will be life changing.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
Rating:
Summary: A Life-Changing Book
Review: After reading Radical Honesty I quite accidentally came across this book in the library! And while I found Radical Honesty compelling and challenging, I also felt uncertain of my ability to truly practice the skills Brad Blantoon proposed.
Susan Campbell presents many of the same challenges to her readers, but gives such powerful concrete examples that I found it easier to understand and begin to apply in my own life.
The Truth Skills are clear, very comprehendable, and while simple in that way, for me living them will be a challenge.
I scored high on all of her self-assessment quizzes - and yet I did not read the book and come away feeling like I am some sort of failure as a person, just that I am indeed like most of the people roaming this earth. What makes me different is my desire to change and grow. Where I see myself failing most significantly in my life is in the area of communicating and relating in healthy ways. Learning to live in "what IS" and not what I imagine, learning to relate and not control, and to listen closely to my self-talk, to feel free to communicate and to be ABLE to communicate and to be real, for example, for me will be life changing.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
Rating:
Summary: In the moment
Review: Don't be deceived. Susan Campbell's latest book is easy to understand, but practicing her wisdom will be one of your most difficult undertakings. Simple, but not easy. How can we reach out and reach within simultaneously? Staying connected with yourself and with whomever you happen to be interacting with in the moment requires awareness and intention, two aspects of the human experience that are clouded by our conditioned selves. Ms. Cambell helps us know how to do this by getting real, and practice makes perfect. This is the ultimate spiritual practice that requires a commitment to stay with yourself without giving "you" up as you engage with others. Filled with wonderful insights, this jewel takes you beyond the commercial self-help books into a space of knowing how to do what you always wanted to do: be connected and stay there by accepting what is. By using Susan's guidance perhaps we can stop intellectualizing and let our hearts tell us how to proceed. Feeling good is our way of knowing that our last thought was Truth, that our last word was Wisdom, and that our last action was Love. Proceed with Love in your heart and read this book.
Rating:
Summary: In the moment
Review: Don't be deceived. Susan Campbell's latest book is easy to understand, but practicing her wisdom will be one of your most difficult undertakings. Simple, but not easy. How can we reach out and reach within simultaneously? Staying connected with yourself and with whomever you happen to be interacting with in the moment requires awareness and intention, two aspects of the human experience that are clouded by our conditioned selves. Ms. Cambell helps us know how to do this by getting real, and practice makes perfect. This is the ultimate spiritual practice that requires a commitment to stay with yourself without giving "you" up as you engage with others. Filled with wonderful insights, this jewel takes you beyond the commercial self-help books into a space of knowing how to do what you always wanted to do: be connected and stay there by accepting what is. By using Susan's guidance perhaps we can stop intellectualizing and let our hearts tell us how to proceed. Feeling good is our way of knowing that our last thought was Truth, that our last word was Wisdom, and that our last action was Love. Proceed with Love in your heart and read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: real speaking & thinking in an uncertain world
Review: Dr. Susan Campbell explains how we can get honest communications in a world of superficial chatter & white lies. In the Aftermath of September 11th, Getting Real has a lot to say about effective awareness practices. This book provides a set of simple & effective awareness practices that give you ideas on how to discover the freedom that comes from relating more & controlling less. Having said that, Getting Real will make you work - packed into 231 pages is a trunkful of baggage we carry about, shielding us, distracting us. From "How to Stop Being Right and Start Being Real" to "Experiencing What Is: To get Where You Need to Go, Be Where You Are"; from "Being Transparent: Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Hide" to "Noticing Your Intent: Is It to Relate or to Control?"; from "Welcoming Feedback: It's How We Learn" to "Taking Back Projections: Discovering Your Other Side." & so on, Dr. Campbell works us through each process with sidebars, quizzes, examples, explanations, a good Resource Guide & Index. There's so much to work on - so much to learn, some you might already know - most you won't have given a second thought to until you turn the page & find yourself murmuring: "Ahha!" I felt decades & pounds lighter after I'd worked the exercises & read the book! While Getting Real is hard work - it is good medicine! I just wish Getting Real had been bigger in size - along the lines of a cookbook with wide margins - so I could lay it flat & make notations!
Rating:
Summary: real speaking in an uncertain world
Review: Dr. Susan Campbell explains how we can get honest communications in a world of superficial chatter & white lies. In the Aftermath of September 11th, Getting Real has a lot to say about effective awareness practices. This book provides a set of simple & effective awareness practices that give you ideas on how to discover the freedom that comes from relating more & controlling less. Having said that, Getting Real will make you work - packed into 231 pages is a trunkful of baggage we carry about, shielding us, distracting us. From "How to Stop Being Right and Start Being Real" to "Experiencing What Is: To get Where You Need to Go, Be Where You Are"; from "Being Transparent: Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Hide" to "Noticing Your Intent: Is It to Relate or to Control?"; from "Welcoming Feedback: It's How We Learn" to "Taking Back Projections: Discovering Your Other Side." & so on, Dr. Campbell works us through each process with sidebars, quizzes, examples, explanations, a good Resource Guide & Index. There's so much to work on - so much to learn, some you might already know - most you won't have given a second thought to until you turn the page & find yourself murmuring: "Ahha!" I felt decades & pounds lighter after I'd worked the exercises & read the book! While Getting Real is hard work - it is good medicine! I just wish Getting Real had been bigger in size - along the lines of a cookbook with wide margins - so I could lay it flat & make notations!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!! A must-read book!
Review: Getting Real is an honest and straightforward book about freedom. Many of us, perhaps most of us, learn from early childhood experiences that it's not safe to be ourselves. We take on false beliefs that become part of our adult lives. This book shows us, step by step, how to free ourselves from the need to control how others view us and find the
freedom that comes from "relating" as opposed to "controlling." The book is organized around 10 truth skills that help us learn to communicate authentically and discover that "we are most loveable when we are most transparent." When we speak from our own experience instead of from our judments and interpretations, we enter the realm of the here-and-now. We learn to communicate our honesty with presence and compassion, instead of trying to prove ourselves right. Dr. Campbell, a corporate consultant and seminar leader, has found that when people practice these skills, their fear of speaking honestly dissolves. They develop an unshakeable sense of inner safety and security, so they no longer need to control other peoples' opinions or reactions. Indeed, Getting Real teaches us everything from how to experience reality and how to be transparent (feeling good about revealing your true self) to how to assert your wants and how to embrace silence in a relationship. Dr. Campbell writes, "Profound things happen when two people sit face-to-face and openly explore their feelings toward each other in the present." Susan Campbell, Ph.D. has, in this reviewer's opinion, given us the ability to see and appreciate our true selves!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect match
Review: I cannot speak to how this book will impact others but for myself I found that with each passing chapter I found MYSELF in those pages. I kept thinking over past relationships and how I had done almost every single thing WRONG. This book does not come off as some "new agey" kind of "I'm OK, you're OK" cra*. It just asks you to look at yourself; Look at how you are relating to the world and then suggests a different way of relating. Ask yourself, "Am I happy with my life, my relationships?" If the answer is no I think this book is worth a read. It gets especially useful if you can get family and friends to participate. That can really help you get through barriers you thought were sealed for life.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect match
Review: I cannot speak to how this book will impact others but for myself I found that with each passing chapter I found MYSELF in those pages. I kept thinking over past relationships and how I had done almost every single thing WRONG. This book does not come off as some "new agey" kind of "I'm OK, you're OK" cra*. It just asks you to look at yourself; Look at how you are relating to the world and then suggests a different way of relating. Ask yourself, "Am I happy with my life, my relationships?" If the answer is no I think this book is worth a read. It gets especially useful if you can get family and friends to participate. That can really help you get through barriers you thought were sealed for life.
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