Showing posts with label Personal Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Development. Show all posts

Saturday, August 20, 2016

The Art of Happiness - Dalai Lama XIV and Howard C. Cutler


Nearly every time you see him, he's laughing, or at least smiling.
And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling. 
He's the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, a Nobel Prize winner, and a hugely sought-after speaker and statesman. 
Why is he so popular? 
Even after spending only a few minutes in his presence you can't help feeling happier.

If you ask him if he's happy, even though he's suffered the loss of his country, the Dalai Lama will give you an unconditional yes. 

What's more, he'll tell you that happiness is the purpose of life, and that the very motion of our life is toward happiness. 
How to get there has always been the question. 
He's tried to answer it before, but he's never had the help of a psychiatrist to get the message across in a context we can easily understand.

The Art of Happiness is the book that started the genre of happiness books, and it remains the cornerstone of the field of positive psychology.

Through conversations, stories, and meditations, the Dalai Lama shows us how to defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement. 

Together with Dr. Howard Cutler, he explores many facets of everyday life, including relationships, loss, and the pursuit of wealth, to illustrate how to ride through life's obstacles on a deep and abiding source of inner peace. 
Based on 2,500 years of Buddhist meditations mixed with a healthy dose of common sense, The Art of Happiness is a book that crosses the boundaries of traditions to help readers with difficulties common to all human beings. 
After being in print for ten years, this book has touched countless lives and uplifted spirits around the world.
 

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.13 out of 5 (54,666 Ratings; 1620 Reviews - As on Aug 20 2016)
My Rating:  4 out of 5
My Comments:  This book makes it to most of the lists of Top 10 happiness books that I found in the internet. Though Dalai Lama has been credited as the main author, the book is actually an interpretation of the views expressed by Dalai Lama when interviewed by the co-author Dr. Cutler, a psychologist.


Buying Options 
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(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Lateral Thinking - Edward de Bono

A Textbook of Creativity

THE classic work about improving creativity from world-renowned writer and philosopher Edward de Bono.
In schools we are taught to meet problems head-on: what Edward de Bono calls 'vertical thinking'. 
This works well in simple situations - but we are at a loss when this approach fails. 
What then? 
Lateral thinking is all about freeing up your imagination.
Through a series of special techniques, in groups or working alone, Edward de Bono shows how to stimulate the mind in new and exciting ways. 
Soon you will be looking at problems from a variety of angles and offering up solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. 
You will become much more productive and a formidable thinker in your own right.
 [Book Description Source: www.amazon.com]

Goodreads Rating - 3.83 out of 5 (1841 Ratings, 96 Reviews)

My Rating:  2 out of 5.  A path-breaking technique, but a very insipid treatment of the subject.

Buying Options 
  Buy from Amazon.com  Buy from Amazon.in
Buy the Kindle  version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.)



Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Brilliant Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Dr. Stephen Briers

Book Description (as in Amazon.com) 
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Brilliant  Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)  has been specially written to help give readers the insight, tools and confidence they need to understand and use CBT in their own lives.
It offers a cohesive approach to this groundbreaking therapeutic technique that unfolds in a wholly logical, accessible and practical manner whilst enabling the reader to personalize the information and apply it to their own unique situation. 
Written by an experienced and highly regarded clinical psychologist (Dr. Stephen Briers), Brilliant CBT has a conversational, accessible and personal tone which includes illustrative exercises, personality-style questionnaires and detailed checklists to provide all the information readers will need in a way they will find most simple and useful to put into practice.
 Brilliant CBT is the perfect guide for anybody who wants an effective grounding in the theory and range of practical tips and strategies designed to help them achieve authentic, lasting results when applying CBT to their own lives, or for anybody training to become a CBT practioner who wants an accessible, understandable and thorough introduction to the therapy.
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Table of Contents
1 So what’s so brilliant about CBT?
2 First principles
3 Common thinking traps – and how to avoid them
4 Grappling with negative thinking
5 Using behaviour to change your mind
6 Mapping out your problems
7 Beating the blues
8 Conquering anxiety
9 Taming anger
10 Boosting self-esteem 
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Goodreads Rating - 3.44 out of 5 ( 16 Ratings)

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My Comments: 
A fairly decent introduction to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

The book suggests some doable action items unlike some other personality development books which tell us to do somewhat impractical things. 
 
 ( Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones/ tablets/PCs.)