You Can Feel Good Again: Common-Sense Therapy for Releasing Depression and Changing Your Life
Author: Richard Carlson
List Price: $11.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0452272424
Publisher: Plume (September, 1994)
Sales Rank: 76,254
Average Customer Rating: 4.87 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Our thoughts... our thoughts...
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...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Not just for the depressed, but for anyone who thinks...
This is a life changing book. It shows how our thoughts create our perception of life. Our perception of life is our experience of life. It doesn't go overboard and claim their is no objective reality outside our thoughts, as some new age teachings do. However, it does say that it's not the circumstances of our lives, but our reactions to them. It does repeat it's central ideas several times, but sometimes it takes a while for something to sink in. I really liked the chapter on wisdom. My only problem with this book is the subtitle, because I read this book when I wasn't depressed and still got tons out of it. It could be read by anyone who wants to think optimally and discover happiness in life. I am only writing this review, because I have the hope that someone might read it and get solid info about living a better life. Carlson is influenced in his writing by a school of psychology called Psychology of Mind. Psychology of Mind is based on the concepts originally presented by Sydney Banks. I think this is the most clearly written of the Psychology of Mind books. However, if you read this book and like it I would reccomend any of the books from the Psychology of Mind authors (e.g Wisdom Within by Roger Mills, Divorce Is Not The Answer by George Pransky). Also check out Sydney Banks website and books.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Read this book and keep on re-reading it
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. Similar Products
You Can Be Happy No Matter What: Five Principles Your Therapist Never Told You
Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How To Create A More Peaceful, Simpler Life From the Inside Out
What About the Big Stuff?
Shortcut Through Therapy: Ten Principles of Growth-Oriented, Contented Living
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff- and It's All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Litt
Book Index