Change Your Thinking

I seem to have tremendous luck finding really good books at the library on the display shelves - just there for the picking! I really liked Change Your Thinking by Sarah Edelman. She outlines a number of cognitive behaviour therapy techniques to overcome stress, anxiety and depression through self-monitoring, goal setting and constructive thinking. This is not a book about positive thinking - it's about counteracting feelings with more rational ones. For example, many people suffer from negative self-talk and faulty thinking. Apparently there's quite a few irrational beliefs out there (such as "I'm a failure", "It's easier to avoid problems" or "I must be loved by everyone") that can result in poor self-esteem, procrastination, anxiety, frustration, depression, resentment, etc. The breadth of negative behavours and emotions in this book is really astounding. There are a number of ways to solve these problems, such as cost-benefit analysis, thought monitoring forms, exercise and deep relaxation. None of them are "magical" and take practice to put in place.

The only fault I could really find with this book is that a person could take some of the advice too far, such as excusing genuinely bad behaviour on the part of someone else (ie: "Sometimes Pat hits me, but I have to realize that not everyone is perfect.") As great as this book is, it's probably not for people with severely low self-esteem nor is it a complete replacement for professional help.