Synopses & Reviews
Self-help and personal development books take one of two approaches: they focus either on private life (how to improve relationships, how to overcome depression) or on work and professional skills (how to manage time effectively, how to cope with the boss). Now two leading clinicians, Gillian Butler and Tony Hope, argue that for real psychological well being, you must combine these approaches--integrating techniques of management with those of psychology, mixing feeling with action and work with play. In Managing Your Mind, they show you how, in a ground-breaking, step-by-step guide to the skills and attitudes that will help you become more effective in your work while you enjoy a more fulfilling personal life.
Just as simple measures--regular exercise, a sensible diet--can make you feel better physically, the simple strategies described in Managing Your Mind will stretch, strengthen, and tune your mind. The authors contend that without the right training, your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can sabotage important goals and cause depression and anxiety. But with the powerful, tested techniques described here, you can cope with the rigors and stresses of everyday life, keep mentally fit, and enjoy your life to the fullest. Butler and Hope show you how to
* Build self-confidence and self-esteem
* Overcome anxiety and depression
* Take positive control of your present and future
* Establish and maintain fulfilling relationships with family,
friends, and colleagues
* Free yourself from persistent fears and worries
* Break bad habits
* Manage your time
* Relieve stress
* Study effectively
* And develop your full potential
In addition, Managing Your Mind includes specific, up-to-date information on how to strengthen your memory, quit smoking, sleep better, recover from alcohol abuse, and more.
Tackling emotional problems piecemeal no more leads to lasting psychological well being than crash dieting leads to a permanent solution to a weight problem. You need techniques that you can practice for the rest of your life. Managing Your Mind gives you these techniques. It will help you develop the positive attitudes and skills that allow you to overcome problems as they arise and to lead a happier, more productive life.
Review
"If you're looking for clearly presented, basic information on managing a number of important areas of your life, this book could be the 'missing manual' that makes being human an easier job."--Metapsychology Online Reviews
Review
"Bright, readable, and insightful...offers modest goals that are bracingly achievable....Drawing on their clinical experience, [Butler and Hope] dissect and illuminate specific complaints and offer simple advice. Consider the resulting wide-ranging adviser a fitness book for the mind, rather like a Kathy Smith workout video for the sexiest, rather than the bounciest, part of your body."--
Booklist"A well-written, thoughtful guide to dealing with such topics as change, anxiety, stress, depression, and study skills....Self-help techniques and exercises are presented in a clear and helpful manner, and the section on self-help is well written."--Library Journal
Synopsis
Originally published in 1995, the first edition of
Managing Your Mind established a unique place in the self-help book market. A blend of tried-and-true psychological counseling and no-nonsense management advice grounded in the principles of CBTand other psychological treatments, the book straddled two types of self-help literature, arguing that in one's personal and professional life, the way to success is the same. By adopting the practical strategies that mental health experts Butler and Hope have developed over years of clinical research and practice, one can develop the "mental fitness" necessary to resolve one's personal and interpersonal challenges at home and work and to live a productive, satisfying life.
The first edition addressed how to develop key skills to mental fitness (e.g., managing one's time better, facing and solving problems better, keeping things in perspective, learning to relax, etc.), how to improve one's relationships, how to beat anxiety and depression, and how to establish a good mind-body balance. For this new edition, Butler and Hope have updated all preexisting material and have added five new chapters-on sexuality and intimate relationships; anger in relationships; recent traumatic events and their aftermath; loss and bereavement; and dealing with the past.
About the Author
About the Authors: Gillian Butler, Ph.D., is Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Warneford Hospital, Headington, Oxford, and is a researcher in the University of Oxford Department of Psychology. She is married with two grown-up children.
Tony Hope, M.D., a clinical psychiatrist, is leader of the Oxford Practice Skills Project at the University of Oxford and co-author, with J.M. Longmore, of The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. He is married to a physician and they have two young children.
Table of Contents
Introduction.
1. What to Expect from this Guide
2. The Scientific Background
Part One: Two Principles of Underlying Mental Fitness.
3. Valuing Yourself
4. Recognizing That You Can Change
Part Two: The Seven Basic Skills.
5. Managing Yourself and Your Time
6. Facing the Problem
7. Treating Yourself Right
8. Problem-Solving: A Strategy for Change
9. Keeping Things in Perspective: Help from Cognitive Therapy
10. Building Self-Confidence and Self-Esteem
11. Learning to Relax
Part Three: How to Improve Your Relationships.
12. The Importance of Relationships
13. The First Key to Good Relationships: Being Fair to Yourself and Others
14. The Second Key to Good Relationships: Recognizing Voices from the Past
15. The Third Key to Good Relationships: Relationships as Systems
16. Anger in Relationships (new)
17. Sexuality and Intimate Relationships (new)
Part Four: The Twin Enemies of Good Mood Anxiety.
18. Getting the Better of Anxiety and Worry, or Defeating the Alarmist
19. Overcoming Fears and Phobias
20. Stress: How to Live with the Right Amount of It
21. Dealing with Panic: Controlling the Alarm System
Depression.
22. Depression-The Common Cold of the Mind
23. Digging Yourself Out of Depression
24. How to Become Less Vulnerable to Depression
Part Five: Traumatic Experience (all new chapters).
25. Loss and Bereavement
26. Dealing with the Past
27. Recent Traumatic Events and Their After
Part Six: Mind and Body.
28. Breaking Habits and Stopping Smoking
29. Averting Problems with Alcohol
30. Overcoming Sleep Problems
31. Good Eating Habits
Part Seven: The Working Mind.
32. The Fundamentals of Effective Study
33. Key Study Skills: Reading, Taking Notes, and Using the Material
34. How to Improve Your Memory: Part 1. The Palest Ink and Other External Memory Aids
35. How to Improve Your Memory: Part 2. Internal Memory Aids
36. Making Decisions
37. Thinking Straight
Notes.
Further Reading.
Index.