I have never reviewed a book here on amazon before, but I feel compelled to write a short review for "Beyond Negative Thinking" because it helped me tremendously. It taught me real skills I use on a daily basis to be more productive and energetic (and thus happier), and I consider it to be the real thing as far as self-help books go. I couldn't recommend this book higher.

This book does a great job of explaining the basic ideas of cognitive-behavioral therapy, and has several excellent chapters that discuss different types of thinking patterns -- are you a masochistic thinker, an anxious thinker, an obsessive thinker, depressive, narcissistic, or combination of several?

It taught me that feeling down begins with negative thoughts that quickly turn more and more negative, and that then create heavy, painful feelings of loneliness or feeling overwhelmed, etc., and that the best way of combating this is through ACTIONS that break these thinking patterns.

The key to this book is actions. This book does not allow you to dwell in your mind, or find excuses for your feelings in your past, your parents, or your situation. It is an empowering book and it holds you responsible for your own life. It has helped me for many years now and I hope it helps you too!
March 18, 2007

One of the best of an otherwise uninspiring genre

This book uses proven cogntive techniques and touching vignettes that keep you reading. It delivers on it's promise which is what a self-help book should do!
January 01, 2007

Watch Your Thoughts!

I found this book to be not only extremely helpful in breaking depressing and negative thoughts, but fascinating as well. Many of us go through our days not realizing how we sabotage ourselves just by the way we choose to think. Thinking becomes habit and pretty soon we are caught in a web of our own making.

The book gives five basic techniques:
1. Listen in - Listen to your own thoughts.
2. Underlining. - finding the depressing, negative words
in your thoughts.
3. Stopping. -stop that thought!
4. Switching -change the content of your inner speech
5. Reorienting - direct your thinking to a different goal.

Of course, all of these techniques are a lot easier said than done and that is where the work comes in. This is not a book you just read and finish and forget about. It is something that a person must work on everyday and the authors are quick to point out that it does require lots of work to change bad habits and replace them with good ones.

Though this book was written in 1989, it is timeless in it's message. I highly recommend it to anyone who is really serious about changing the way in which they think.
April 20, 2006

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