Awaken Your Strongest Self: Break Free of Stress, Inner Conflict, and Self-sabotage - Softcover

Fiore, Neil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071742239 ISBN 13: 9780071742238

Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

A groundbreaking four-step program for breaking self-destructive habits, increasing productivity and creativity, and performing at your personal best.

We often make our worst decisions when we act from a weak sense of self, and our best decision when we are confident and self-assured. Using the latest research findings in neuropsychology, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Peak Performance strategies, Awaken Your Strongest Self shows you how to live with greater joy, ease, and effectiveness. Author Neil Fiore, Ph.D., provides a four-step program that involves (1)stepping back from old, ineffective patterns, (2)waking up your "new brain"--what neuroscientists call the “Executive Organizing Function” (3)awakening the five qualities of your strongest self, and (4)putting everything together to achieve your goals. Through innovative examples, case studies, and exercises, you will learn how to cope with stress, recognize early signs of inner conflict, perform at their personal best on everyday work projects, minimize feelings of being overwhelmed; and ultimately, choose healthy alternatives to replace former bad habits.

Topics include:
The Sleeper Must Awaken; Five Signs That You Are Not Your Strongest Self … Yet; Expand Your Identity Beyond Your Ego; Step Up to Your Strongest Self's Point of View; Speak Up in the Voice of Your Strongest Self; Safety Replaces Stress; Choice Replaces Inner Conflict; Presence Replaces Feeling Overwhelmed; Focus Replaces Self-Criticism; Connection Replaces Struggle; Self Efficacy and the Stages of Change: The Key to Realizing Your Dreams; Making up Your Mind; Committing to Change; Taking Action; Maintaining Long-Term Success; You Are Your Strongest Self

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Dr. Neil Fiore is the author of The Now Habit and The Road Back to Health. He has worked as a psychologist at the Counseling Center of the University of California, Berkeley and has been a lecturer for UC Berkeley Extension, California School of Professional Psychology, The Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Esalen Institute, and the Learning Annex. Dr. Fiore's seminar and training clients include AT&T, Bechtel Power Corporation, Levi Strauss & Co., Kaiser-Permanente Hospitals, Catholic Healthcare West, The Smithsonian Institute, Stanford Hospital, University of California San Francisco, and Federal Reserve Bank, San Francisco. He has appeared on CNN, NBC, CBS, KQED, NPR, Sally Jesse Raphael, and the Regis Philbin LifeTime Show, as well as hundreds of radio programs. Dr. Fiore has served as a board member of the National Speakers Association/ Northern California and The Wellness Community's Advisory Board; as a founding member of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship; and past president of Northern California Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Coping Magazine, Working Woman, and numerous newspapers and newsletters.

Dr. Neil Fiore is the author of The Now Habit and The Road Back to Health. He has worked as a psychologist at the Counseling Center of the University of California, Berkeley and has been a lecturer for UC Berkeley Extension, California School of Professional Psychology, The Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Esalen Institute, and the Learning Annex. Dr. Fiore's seminar and training clients include AT&T, Bechtel Power Corporation, Levi Strauss & Co., Kaiser-Permanente Hospitals, Catholic Healthcare West, The Smithsonian Institute, Stanford Hospital, University of California San Francisco, and Federal Reserve Bank, San Francisco. He has appeared on CNN, NBC, CBS, KQED, NPR, Sally Jesse Raphael, and the Regis Philbin LifeTime Show, as well as hundreds of radio programs. Dr. Fiore has served as a board member of the National Speakers Association/ Northern California and The Wellness Community's Advisory Board; as a founding member of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship; and past president of Northern California Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Coping Magazine, Working Woman, and numerous newspapers and newsletters.

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Awaken Your Strongest Self

BREAK FREE OF STRESS, INNER CONFLICT, AND SELF-SABOTAGE

By NEIL FIORE

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2007 Neil Fiore
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-07-174223-8

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Sleeper Must Awaken
Step 1 Step Back from Your Old, Ineffective Patterns
1 Five Signs That You Are Not Your Strongest Self ... Yet
2 Expand Your Identity Beyond Your Ego
Step 2 Step Up to Your New Brain and Your Strongest Self
3 Step Up to Your Strongest Self's Point of View
4 Speak Up in the Voice of Your Strongest Self
Step 3 Awaken the Five Qualities of Your Strongest Self
5 Safety Replaces Stress: Self in the Role of Protector
6 Choice Replaces Inner Conflict: Self in the Role of Negotiator
7 Presence Replaces Feeling Overwhelmed: Self in the Role of Leader
8 Focus Replaces Self-Criticism: Self in the Role of Teacher
9 Connection Replaces Lonely Struggle: Self in the Role of Coach
Step 4 Awaken the Leader in You to Achieve Your Goals
10 Self-Efficacy and the Stages of Change: The Key to Realizing Your 
Dreams
11 Stage I: Making Up Your Mind
12 Stage II: Committing to Change
13 Stage III: Taking Action
14 Stage IV: Maintaining Long-Term Success
15 You Are Your Strongest Self
Appendix A: Journal for Successful Change
Appendix B: Centering Exercise
Appendix C: Stress Quiz
Appendix D: Effective Self-Talk: The Voice of Acceptance
Appendix E: Effective Habit Change
Appendix F: Posttests
References
Index

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Five Signs That You Are Not Your Strongest Self ... Yet

All the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentallyunsolvable; they only fade when confronted with a new and stronger lifepassion.

—Carl G. Jung

During my twenty-five years as a psychologist and ten years as a life coach,I've discovered that if you want to reach your true potential, it's much moreeffective to ignite a new passion for life than to dwell on past problems. Webegin our process, however, by identifying five major problem areas and reactivepatterns so you can quickly replace them with the action steps, leadership, andqualities of your Strongest Self. Learning to recognize your old patterns assmall parts of a much larger self is the first essential step towardtransformative change.

The practice of observing your thoughts, feelings, and impulses awakens yourhigher brain to be conscious of lower brain automatic reactions and to exerciseits executive ability to choose how to act. By observing your thoughts,behavior, and moods, you gain some needed distance and time to choose actionsthat are congruent with your values and consistent with who you wish to become.This process also changes the structure of your brain, making it more flexibleand adaptable as you add more neural connections between your executiveorganizing functions and your ancestral brains.

The practice of meditation works in a similar way. You notice your thoughts andimpulses as they arise, and you become aware that a part of you is always calmlyobserving. As you shift your sense of self into the perspective of thatobserver, you are less likely to be pulled into distracting thoughts or reactiveimpulses. Distractions such as the familiar bells of the ice-cream truck outsideyour door automatically trigger your desire for ice cream, but you don't have tofollow your lower brain's urge to jump up, chase after the vendor, and buy someice cream. Instead, you can observe your thoughts and cravings, focus on yourbreathing, and choose to sit still. You can watch your thoughts andfeelings change and fade away.

Whenever you exercise your freedom of choice, you are doing more than justpassively observing. You are awakening and activating your uniquely humanability to override your initial, lower brain reactions in order to choose howto act.

Choosing to Face Your Fears

The ability to disidentify from your initial thoughts and reactions is whatmakes you truly human, and it only exists in your new, human brain—theprefrontal cortex whose rapid expansion has pushed the forehead into a verticalposition.

As you awaken more of your uniquely human skills, you'll be able tochoose to face fear rather than be controlled by it. Each time youchoose to face a fear, you're preventing your mammal brain from controlling yourbehavior and your life. All mammals have a fear of fire, but about two millionyears ago our early ancestor Homo erectus learned to overcome thatmammal instinct in order to harness fire for warmth and cooking. By facing afear you've been avoiding, you break free of lower brain phobias and win a fearinoculation shot that makes you more robust against future fears and challenges.Your fear inoculation shots will break the cycle of inertia, avoidance,and guilt while increasing your momentum and motivation.

Identifying Your Five Major Problem Areas

An understanding of the architecture of the human brain is useful in coping withmany of life's challenges and the five major problem areas. You can see inFigure 1.1 that the reptile brain (brain stem) is shaped like a carrotthat grows up from the top of the spinal column. The old mammal brain (limbicsystem)—found in ancient rodents and modern cats and dogs—surroundsthe reptile brain and adds to it the ability to learn and to relate within acommunity.

As you can see in Figure 1.2, most of the human brain is made of whatlooks like a piece of coral, which is about the size of a melon, that surroundsand lies atop the mammal and reptile brains. This expansion beyond the earlierbrains is called the neo-cortex, or primate brain. Because our human brain isbuilt upon—and retains many of the features of—the brains of ourancestors, the task of managing our thoughts and actions would be nearlyimpossible if it were not for our prefrontal cortex.

This uniquely human part of our brain, located in the front third of theneocortex, contains our essential executive organizing functions. It is thispart of our brain that gives us the capacity for language, organization,planning, self-regulation, and decision making. And it was the rapid growth ofthe prefrontal cortex over the last two hundred thousand years that has pushedour forehead to a near-vertical position, distinguishing it from the recedingforehead of apes and Neanderthals.

The five major problem areas that can be reduced or resolved by applying theStrongest Self program are:

1. stress and fear

2. inner conflict and procrastination

3. feeling overwhelmed and confused

4. self-criticism and self-blame

5. struggle and loneliness

Within just a few chapters, you'll be shifting your identity away from yoursymptoms and default reactions and into the perspective, roles, and voice ofyour Strongest...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: McGraw-Hill Education
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071742239
• ISBN 13: 9780071742238
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar