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A Solution to Fear, Anxiety, & Panic Attacks

 Beliefs, Fear, Personal Development  3 Responses »
Nov 132012
 

Fear & Anxiety SolutionIf you follow my blog you know that I often write about fear—how it limits your personal growth blocking you from reaching full potential, and how to overcome it. So I jumped at the chance to read and review The Fear & Anxiety Solution by Friedemann Schaub, MD, PhD (Sounds True Publications, 2012).

Why is learning to deal with fear an important topic for purposeful growth? Dr. Schaub indicates that 20% of adults have anxiety disorder, which seems a very large percentage until I stop to think about the prevalence of fear and anxiety in our society.

Schaub lumps fear and anxiety together, using them interchangeably in his book. He goes on to say that one of the major reasons we are faced with fear and anxiety is that they often result from self-limiting beliefs—those beliefs we hold about self and the world which prevent us from becoming all we can be.

The Fear & Anxiety Solution: A Breakthrough Process for Healing and Empowerment with Your Subconscious Mind details Schaub’s process for working with his clients to heal their fears and anxieties. He states his process is different than others as he works with a person’s conscious, subconscious, and soul. His process takes advantage of our natural, inherent healing powers, with a focus on the subconscious as a key component.

Key Points to Consider

Dr. Schaub makes some excellent points throughout his book, one-liners that are insightful and thought-provoking, such as:

  • Emotions determine our experiences.
  • Fear and anxiety are not happening TO YOU, you’re creating them; therefore, you can un-create them.
  • Limiting beliefs eventually become self-fulfilling prophecies.
  • Fear and anxiety are just feelings your subconscious creates to reach your conscious.
  • The source of most fears: Losing something of value, Losing control, Being powerless.
  • The subconscious is your protector.
  • Two roles of the subconscious: Avoid danger and pain, Seek opportunities for pleasure and happiness.
  • Three causes of fear and anxiety: Inner conflicts within the subconscious, Suppressed stored emotions, Self-limiting beliefs.
  • Core beliefs can be your most powerful resource or greatest obstacle.
  • We’re always more than we think we are.

This is a very meaty book, filled with information sure to be useful to anyone seriously committed to living without fear and anxiety. Some of the chapters I found most interesting:

  • Chapter five on setting goals is excellent.
  • Ditto chapter six on eliminating negative self talk.
  • Chapter seven material on resolving inner conflicts, with a six step process for reintegrating conflicting personas of the subconscious and for recognizing and resolving recurring patterns of fear and anxiety.

There is much, much, more to Dr. Schaub’s total solution to fear and anxiety. Not an easy book, but one well worth taking on. Dr. Schaub works with clients at his Seattle, WA office, and reminded me he works effectively with clients all over the world via phone and Skype. If you can afford and prefer person-to-person contact, working with him may be your most effective solution to fear and anxiety.

But for the rest of us unable to meet person-to-person with Dr. Schaub, the question I had was this: Can a book such as The Fear & Anxiety Solution help someone identify and resolve issues that show up in their lives as fear and anxiety?  I emailed Dr. Schaub with that concern. Following is our exchange.

Interchange with Dr. Schaub

Jerry: Dr. Schaub, I’ve been reading The Fear and Anxiety Solution in preparation for my scheduled blog review on November 15th and have a lingering question I’d like you to address.

In reading the processes for uncovering and resolving the beliefs behind fear and anxiety, I’m struck by the feeling that this is an outstanding process which must be very helpful to many people in your professional practice. But the lingering question I have is can an individual successfully implement the solution simply by reading the book and following the detailed processes?

Do you have data that would give my readers the confidence that following your solution steps in the book, without the benefit of your personal interaction, can be successful?

Dr. Schaub: The processes described in this book have indeed helped many of my clients over the past decade to finally overcome fear and anxiety. I have found that working consciously with the subconscious mind is so effective that it takes an average of only 6 sessions for clients to achieve profound and lasting change.

When I meet with clients one-on-one, we spend some time working with the processes that are outlined in this book. For the readers we have made those processes available as an audio-program and in abbreviated versions as free downloads. In my practice individuals also receive regular homework between our sessions as a major part of the breakthrough program. While doing this homework, they implement the same techniques and tools described in the book.

Considering the additional guidance through recordings and the effectiveness of the homework, I am very confident that by going through the step-by-step program in The Fear and Anxiety Solution, individuals can gain fresh perspectives about fear and anxiety and establish new, empowering relationships with themselves.

I agree with you that a book does not necessarily replace the benefits of individual sessions. However, The Fear and Anxiety Solution comes very close and offers an effective and affordable alternative.

Jerry’s Conclusion: The free downloads Dr. Schaub references above are normally only offered to people after they subscribe to his newsletter. But Dr. Schaub has graciously provided that link to us in response to my concerns. With the added benefit of the free audios I recommend The Fear & Anxiety Solution. Isn’t it time you stopped living with the burdens of fear and anxiety?

Other Resources

Other recommended books I’ve reviewed which address the pain and suffering of fear and anxiety include:

Books from Personal Growth Resources

What is Life all About? How do I Find my Purpose? is the latest in the Personal Growth Resources series of personal growth books. Other books in the series include:

Watch for future articles on this site. Better yet, Subscribe to Your Purposeful Growth Update by email.

Jerry Lopper – Personal Growth Resources

Build your life on a foundation of purpose

Use These Stress-Reducing Shortcuts to Inner Peace

 Changing Habits, Health, Peacefulness, Personal Development, Positive Attitude  No Responses »
Nov 082011
 

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Shortcuts to Inner Peace

Image courtesy Planned TV Arts

Burdened with a stressful life? No time for yourself, no fun in your days? All the experts will tell you to meditate, take yoga classes, get a massage, become mindful, learn to deep breathe, and get centered on the present. Good advice, and it helps, but you may be among those who just can’t seem to find the time to learn meditation.

First time meditators generally are disappointed. It takes practice—lots of practice—to learn to quiet your mind and receive the stress-reducing benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices.

Author and psychotherapist Ashley Davis Bush may have the answer to a busy person’s prayers for stress relief with her new release, Shortcuts to Inner Peace: 70 Simple Paths to Everyday Serenity. With her own busy life as a professional therapist, wife, and mother of five, Bush admits she struggled to find meditation time, too.

Then she had an epiphany of sorts—doesn’t everyone, even very busy people, find the time to brush their teeth, shower, use the restroom, and all the other routines of daily life? Sure, we all find time for those necessities, they’ve become habits. So what if we had short stress-reducing activities that we could use while doing our necessary daily habits and routines?

That’s the theme of her book, resulting in 70 shortcuts you can use to prepare yourself in advance for those stressful moments in your busy day.

Before describing her shortcut strategies, let’s explore stress and why the traditional recommendations for stress relief often fail us.

What is Stress?

Stress is a reaction to a stimulating event. Most of us have automatic reactions to certain types of stimulating events, reactions which bring our minds and bodies into stress-mode; adrenalin pumps, blood pressure increases, and we focus on the fight or flight reaction built into our genetics as a survival mode. But most of the stress inducing circumstances we face are not life threatening, but health threatening.

You’re running late for work, but traffic grinds to a halt on the freeway—you’ll be late and your customer hates that. Or this scenario, you’ve just enough time to make the appointment with a crucial customer so you load your presentation on your flash drive to get underway, but your computer locks up—no presentation, late for the customer, chances of a sale go down the drain.

We’ve formed habitual responses to these types of stimulating events—anger, frustration, ranting, and blaming ourselves and the world for conspiring to bring failure into our lives. While it would be nice to stop and meditate while the computer decides whether it will free up or die, meditation takes time, the lack of which is part of the problem. What’s needed is an habitual response to potentially negative stimulating events that is quick, easy, and effective. Habitual response is the key phrase here. Unless we’ve routinely practiced responses, they won’t be habitual, we won’t remember to use them, and if we try, we won’t have practiced them enough to be effective.

The Stress-Reducing Shortcuts

What if every time you washed your hands you repeated a phrase or two, such as: “go with the flow, accept what happens and move on,” or “send my negative reactions of anger, swearing, and vindictiveness down the drain, wash them away?” How many times does a person wash their hands in a day, five, ten, twenty? Repeating these phrases ten or twenty times a day for two or three weeks will habituate a stress-reducing reaction to the next negative event. Computer freezes? Frustration goes down the drain, figure out how to get it up and running. Stuck in traffic? Anger goes down the drain and you have some time to recall your last vacation.

Shortcuts to Inner Peace offers seventy shortcuts from which to pick; all are brief and tied to everyday events to make them easy to practice. For example, Morning Glories, named after the flower which opens up each day, helps us practice starting each day with a positive expectation, welcoming a new day of being alive.

These shortcuts work because—once habituated—they interrupt the negative unconscious reactions we previously had to stressful circumstances, providing tools for redirecting us to more positive, supportive thoughts and reactions.

Bush calls this process awareness, redirection, and restoration. Awareness of our unconscious negative reactions to an event helps us see a potential downward spiral of anger or anxiety and interrupt it. Redirection results when we notice the unwelcome reaction and consciously redirect our thoughts to more positive, supportive ones. Restoration of calm and peace results.

Once you understand the process, design your own shortcuts. Each night when I climb into bed I recall three good things that happened during the day; recalling the goodness of even the most mundane event is relaxing and affirming of my appreciation of life. My wife, upon entering a local supermarket, typically overflowing with food choices, never fails to appreciate the abundance of our lives.

Tying everyday occurrences to reminders of what’s really important in our lives is a great way to stay centered and focused on the wonders of being alive. Some of Ashley Davis Bush’s shortcuts are sure to work for you.

For more information on reducing stress read these:

Strategies for Stress: How to Deal with the Stress of Bad Times

The Stress of Values Conflicts

Three Steps to Relieve the Stress of Work

Strategies for Stress: How to Deal with the Stress of Bad Times

 Changing Habits, Fear, Personal Development, Positive Attitude, Relationships  No Responses »
Sep 272011
 

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Upside of Down Times image

Image Courtesy of Planned Television Arts

While we can’t always avoid negative events in our lives—despite our best Law of Attraction efforts—we can control how we react to the bad stuff that happens to us all.

That’s the theme of Dr. Rob Pennington’s Find the Upside of the Down Times: How to Turn your Worst Experiences into your Best Opportunities! (Resource International, 2011).

Dr. Pennington catches your attention immediately with the opening sentence of his first chapter: “I was shot in the center of the chest by an unknown assailant…It was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

Most of us manage to avoid being shot, but that’s not all he’s encountered in his life. The hospital bill for his treatment back in 1982 was $36,000. Pennington was self-employed, without medical insurance. Reflecting on this financial problem, he states again, “this was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

There’s a term for people who deny negative events by casting them in a positive light—it’s called being a Pollyanna, after the main character in the 1913 best seller of the same name by Eleanor H. Porter, whose character viewed only the positive side of any event. The Pollyanna term implies naivety and a failing to face reality.

But Pennington isn’t being Pollyannaish. He doesn’t deny the hardships he underwent in facing the events mentioned above, nor in a series of other life events, such as being divorced by his first wife, being fired from his job, being targeted by the IRS in an audit, and being threatened with divorce by his second wife, later becoming her caregiver when she suffered from MS.

Instead, he’s taken the approach of facing life’s negative events with an approach of taking positive action to find opportunities for moving on. He reminds us of the saying, “When one door closes, another opens,” though he notes that finding the open door requires one to turn around and look for it.

Those who prefer remaining in the spotlight often afforded victims of bad stuff will not like Find the Upside of the Down Times. Indeed, they are likely to take offense at the implicit suggestion to get on with your life. Pennington doesn’t render judgment on those in this situation, preferring to focus his advice for those ready to move on, but unsure how to begin.

Strategies for Making the Most of Bad Times

Among the many excellent tips for turning bad events into positive opportunities are these:

  • When you’re stuck in traffic or a slow bank queue and you’re going to be late for an important appointment, why compound it by becoming angry, frustrated, and anxious? Being stuck is a fact you probably can’t change, but you don’t have to submit your body and mind to the stresses of anger. Why compound the problem by hurting yourself even more with your mental state? Instead, use these frustrating circumstances of daily life as a time for relaxation. Breathe deeply and slowly, and think of pleasant thoughts.
  • Follow this three-step process for locating the positive opportunities within negative events:

1. Capture your thoughts about the negative event, such as: If I’m late for my appointment my client will terminate our contract.

2. Identify the negative connotation words and strike them out, such as: If I’m late for my appointment my client will terminate our contract.

3. Restate the sentence with positive, believable words, such as: If I’m late for my appointment my client will initially be upset but will fully understand my unavoidable delay and will recognize the circumstances could happen to anyone. And he’ll be pleased when I back up my apology by giving him a 10% discount on his next order.

  • When you feel stress, consider that stress is your body’s signal that something must be changed. When you take any action to change the situation your stress level will naturally reduce. Pennington provides a five-step process for proactive change to reduce stress.
  • Many negative events involve relationship issues. Pennington suggests reflecting on the annoying behaviors of the other person that are affecting your relationship. Put the behaviors into two categories: Preferences and Requirements.
    • Requirements are just that, behaviors that are required for the relationship to continue. Violating requirements is a deal-breaker. Examples might be physical or verbal abuse, extra-marital affairs, or criminal behavior. If your relationship issues involve requirements, your partner must understand that continuation will dissolve the relationship.
    • Preferences are all behaviors that are not requirements. While you may strongly prefer that your partner clean up after himself, you may decide that behavior can be tolerated in light of the overall relationship benefits. But if you decide this is a requirement, it must be clearly indicated as a deal-breaker if no behavior change is made.

Upside of Down Times image

Find the Upside of the Down Times is a small book, but a powerful tool for learning to recover control when bad stuff interrupts your life. To peek inside and order your copy from Amazon click the cover. For more about Dr. Pennington, visit his website.

Pennington’s book assumes a readiness to consider moving forward. This readiness may require getting past the “why me” questions. Many times when life’s negative events drastically change the course of our lives we have a hard time understanding why, why did this happen to me when I’ve done my best to live a good life? For those struggling with these why questions, I recommend Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People (First Anchor Books, 1981).

These two books are perfect complements to each other, providing helpful insights and advice for both the “Why did this happen to me ?” and the “Now what do I do?” questions.

Your Stories

We all face challenges in life and with a bit of self-reflection you may be able to recognize how you’ve grown and benefited by some of the challenges you’ve faced. Pennington seeks your stories at his Find the Upside of the Down Times website.

Stop Unnecessary Emotional and Psychological Pain and Suffering

 Beliefs, Fear, Personal Development  No Responses »
Jul 182011
 

Inside-Out Healing coverIf you’re struggling with an issue in your life, Richard Moss’s latest book, Inside-Out Healing may help you to deal with the problem in a positive, authentic, soul-gratifying manner. Whether your issue is one of relationship, illness, or a difficult decision to be made, Moss presents a model for using your natural, internal wisdom to cope with problems without the unnecessary suffering often resulting from the ego’s stories.

I’ve found Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and Jon Kabat-Zin’s Wherever You Go There You Are very helpful in pointing out the value and benefits of appreciating that life takes place only in the present moment of Now. Moss takes the concept of living in the Now to a new level of usefulness. He points out that not only do we tend to miss out on appreciating life when we live in the past or future, but we also fail to take advantage of our natural inner-wisdom available to us only in the present moment.

The Blessing and Curse of Powerful Minds

We’re blessed with powerful minds, with the ability to think, reason, imagine, and remember. Our minds help us analyze complex data, visualize future events, recall past experiences, and turn ideas into reality. The collective human mind has brought humanity to it’s current level of technical sophistication with science-fiction-like advances in medicine, space exploration, and communication.

Unfortunately, along with tremendous scientific and technical advancement, people in today’s developed cultures suffer from alarmingly high rates of depression, suicide, divorce, and life-dissatisfaction. Moss argues that we’ve lost touch with much of primitive man’s ability to utilize inner wisdom and intuition, those knowing inclinations to take actions unsupported by current facts. He believes much human suffering is unnecessary because of the stories our minds (ego) conjure up that compound the actual problems we face.

The Blessing of Inner Wisdom

Moss claims that since the current moment of Now is the only time we can experience life, it is also the only time we can be in touch with inner wisdom and knowledge, which express themselves through emotions, not thought. It is this inner wisdom that helps guide us toward problem resolution without the burden of our ego’s stories.

Have you ever awakened in the wee hours of the morning absolutely knowing the solution to a difficult problem you’ve been struggling to resolve? Most people have had this experience. The way you know this solution stems from inner wisdom is that the solution comes to you as a complete answer, all at once when you weren’t consciously thinking of the problem.

This inner wisdom is the ability Moss recommends we use in dealing with difficult problems, such as health issues, relationship problems, and a myriad of other human ailments. He doesn’t claim that we can heal medical problems with inner wisdom, but he does emphatically state that most of our physical and emotional problems are worsened significantly by the stories we tell ourselves about the situation.

Example of the Ego’s Stories

Stories are the ego’s means of staying in control by flooding our minds with anything and everything we may have heard or experienced at one time somewhat related to a current experience. Here’s an example: My employer is struggling to remain profitable and today confided that he may need to take drastic actions to stay in business. I naturally extend that fact to include the possibility that I may lose my job.

So far, so good, as long as I rationally consider steps I should take in case I lose my job. However, the problem becomes compounded by stories I might tell myself, such as: Mom and Dad cautioned me about this job, they wanted me to stick with the safe, career-long job at the post office. What if they’re disappointed in me? What will I tell my wife? She’ll have to get a full-time job and we’ll have to put off starting our family. What if she leaves me for someone with a better future? If I lose my job, what if I can’t find another one and have to go on welfare. I’ll be humiliated in front of my friends. They’ll know I’m a failure.

This could go on and on, but you get the idea. Most of us will recognize the agony of going through a similar situation of a real problem, compounded by lots of “what-ifs.”

Richard Moss’ Inside-Out Healing

Moss’ Inside-Out Healing can be a bit difficult to follow at times, but the process—once understood—is worth it. Fortunately, he gives several real-life examples drawn from his workshops which bring the abstract ideas into clear reality.

I’ve used his process myself to ease my struggle with a minor, though troubling,  problem in my life.Inside-Out Healing cover Without going through the details of my issue, I found his process easy to use, once understood. And it really helped me to grasp the real aspects of the problem and discard the part I realized was tied to a story or two.

Serious personal growth involves deep, often difficult self-reflection. Moss’s Inside-Out Healing requires this level of introspection. But the results are worth it. I highly recommend this book and will be adding it to my list of Best Books.

The Fear-less Life

 Beliefs, Changing Habits, Fear, Personal Development  1 Response »
Apr 092011
 

“I’m tired of living my life in fear.”

Uncharacteristically, I stood in front of a hundred people at a Neale Donald Walsch workshop and said that.

“I’m tired of living my life in fear.”

For years, fear had been a constant companion, silently by my side whispering guidance: Be careful! Don’t take chances! That’ll never work! … and so many, many more fearful reminders of what could happen.

by sxc.hu user belovodchenko

 

Finally I had enough. Fear wasn’t keeping me safe, it was keeping me in place.

As with any significant life change, self-awareness is a critical first step. With that declaration I began the long journey of learning to face fear and move forward in spite of it, i.e. being courageous. Along this journey I realized that to be courageous is a component of my life purpose. This realization brought even more benefit, but that’s a blog for another day.

Becoming Fearless, the Path to Fear-less

Am I totally without fear now? No, that’s a long journey, one filled with small steps forward and a few giant steps back. But my overall progress has been forward. Once I declared my intention to stop living my life in fear, I gained control over the process for becoming fear-less. It allowed me to face my fear head-on, acknowledging the role it had been playing in my life.

Armed with that understanding, I’m now better prepared to make conscious decisions—to move forward with an idea despite the cold fear of failure—or to give-in this time and succumb to it.

This blog wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t moved on in spite of my fear of rejection, criticism, and humiliation—after all, who am I to write about personal growth? Five books and six-hundred articles later, I recognize the significant personal growth resulting from that short declaration at the Walsch workshop and my ensuing journey of study and reflection.

The rejection and failure I feared didn’t occur. I’ve met many wonderful people, learned much about myself and the psychology of people, and broadened my analytical, intuitive, and people skills. Along the way I’ve also formed strong spiritual beliefs, which are comforting and ground me to the fundamentals of life.

When doubts and fears return—they do at times—I take comfort in Marrianne Williamson’s inspiring words, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” Psychologists call this the fear of success, which you might think is an oxymoron—who would fear succeeding?—but it’s quite common.

Getting to Know Your Fear

Fear doesn’t feel good. Our bodies react to fear with significant biological change—rapid heart beat, muscle tension, dilating pupils—preparations for fight or flight, the body’s survival instinct.  This is appropriate if you’re being threatened with physical harm, but most of the time in the present world, our fears grab us after watching the evening news and hearing of the latest potential threat to health, happiness, and financial well-being. Our bodies aren’t built to deal with constant exposure to fear—it takes a toll on us.

Tips for Countering Fear and Becoming Courageous

Judith Orloff, M.D. describes the process of transforming fear to courage in Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform your Life.  She describes fear as the ultimate negative emotion, and positions fear as the direct opposite of love, the ultimate positive emotion.

To counter fear, Orloff suggests:

  • Avoid common sources of fear, such as TV news and fearful friends. Emotional Freedom
  • Avoid over-use of stimulants such as caffeine, which feed the energy of fear.
  • Learn brief calming techniques, such as slow breathing and meditation.
  • Connect with your spiritual beliefs, and other sources of loving feelings.

Adding to that list, I’ve found these tips helpful:

  • Face the fear head-on. Give it a name, say it out loud, i.e. “I’m afraid this blog post about my fear-less journey will be ridiculed, with derogatory comments about me being a wimp.” Saying it out loud seems to give me ownership and control, and seems to ease the path to move forward. If I can live with the worst result I fear, going forward is easier.
  • Keep a Fear Log, a list of the things feared in the past and whether they came true. I usually recommend a written log, though mine is in my mind. Reviewing the log reminds me how seldom my fears materialize, how much energy I’ve wasted worrying, and opportunities I’ve squandered.
  • Do the math. What we worry about is that something will happen AND if that something happens, the result will be very bad. Statisticians recognize the odds that two things will occur is less than the odds that either one will occur. Often, something we fear will be a negative result turns out to be a blessing in disguise.  So if there’s a 70% chance that something that I fear will happen and a 50% chance it will turn out to be a bad thing, the odds that the event will happen AND it will turn out bad are .70 X .50, a 35% or only a 1 in 3 chance that what I fear will occur AND it will be bad.

Life with Less Fear

My life is richer and fuller when less fear-driven. I seldom watch TV news, though major tragedies still have a way of grabbing my attention for longer than is healthy for me. Instead of watching TV news, reading about world events and threats is less fearful as my mind is more in control. I even think of fear as my friend at times because when I feel its icy grip I know that something good lies just beyond—if I have the courage to keep on.

Is Fear Your Life Companion?

What role does fear play in your life?

What have you learned to do to push past your fears?

If you’ve learned to push through your fears, please share how you’ve benefited?

How have you grown?

What have you accomplished that you otherwise wouldn’t?

Overcome Negative Emotion with Emotional Freedom

 Beliefs, Changing Habits, Fear, Love, Positive Attitude, Spiritual  6 Responses »
Feb 272011
 

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If you’re awash in a sea of negativity, Dr. Judith Orloff’s Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform your Life (Three Rivers Press), may be the life raft you need to lift yourself out of negativity and into the more healthful life of positive emotions. Emotional Freedom, just released in trade paperback, describes the processes Orloff uses to help her clients free themselves from the harmful and debilitating effects of negative emotions, such as fear, jealousy, anxiety, and depression.

A non-traditional psychologist, Orloff combines the sciences of biology and psychology with spirituality and intuitive energy to help people rid themselves of the unhealthy burdens of being buried in negative emotion.

Emotional freedom does not mean the freedom from emotion—emotion is a natural human response to circumstances and surroundings. Orloff’s definition of emotional freedom is to “Increase ability to love by cultivating positive emotions and being able to compassionately witness and transform negative emotions, whether they’re yours or anothers.”

Positive Attitudes are Healthier

Scientists know that people who tend to be positive, hopeful, and optimistic are healthier and happier than those who are negative, pessimistic, and cynical. Positivity is simply a healthier, more pleasant state of living. The idea is not to avoid all negative emotions, but to transform them into something more positive and healthful.

Emotional Freedom contains a brief, twenty question self-test to help you identify the extent to which negative emotions affect your life.

How to Deal with Negative Emotions

The process begins by recognizing a negative emotion and observing how it is affecting you. Orloff describes common negative emotions, such as fear and anxiety, and relates how they affect your biology, energy, spirituality, and psychology. Becoming aware of the four-fold impact of fear makes it easier to recognize that it has set upon you, enabling you to then choose to take action to move away from fear.

For each of nine common negative emotions shared by all of us at one time or another, Orloff describes a process of recognition, followed by suggested actions to transform the negative emotion into something more positive. For example, she demonstrates how to transform the negative emotion of fear into courage, the negative emotion of frustration into patience, and anger to compassion.

Overcome Fear—A Pervasive Negative Emotion

Emotional Freedom is worth the price just for its treatment of transforming fear to courage. Orloff calls fear the mother of all negative emotion. Fear is so widespread in our daily exposures to the media, religion, politics, government, management, and medical practices that most of us move from one state of fear to another without recognizing its harmful effects.

In the instant-culture of today, frustration is another rampant negative emotion. Witness how you feel in a long-line, awaiting your appearance before a sullen clerk gabbing and complaining to her buddy at the next checkout. Orloff shows you how to transform that frustrating experience into the calmness of patience. It’s amazing how much better you’ll feel.

The transformations recommended for nine common negative emotions: fear, anxiety, loneliness, anxiety, worry, depression, jealousy, envy, and anger make Emotional Freedom one of the terrific values in self-help books.

Orloff throws in lots of personal experiences of her own and those of her clients to illustrate her points. A section on dream interpretation seems unrelated to the main topic, but is interesting and useful.

If you recognize that your life is spent in negative emotion more than you’d like, Emotional Freedom will provide a good start toward the benefits of greater positive emotion.

Judith Orloff’s Emotional Freedom

Judith Orloff MD, a UCLA psychiatrist, presents her unique approach for viewing emotions as a path to spiritual and intuitive awakening. You’ll learn how to stop absorbing other people’s negativity and how to stay calm instead of reacting when your buttons get . Synthesizing neuroscience and intuitive/energy medicine, this book liberates you from fear—and the emotional vampires who suck you dry.

Purchase the book plus get your “Embrace Joy” gift collection at http://www.drjudithorloff.com/emotional-freedom-paperback/

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Jerry Lopper, Personal Growth Coach
Member International Positive Psychology Association
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