Stop Thinking, Start Living: Discover Lifelong Happiness (Book Artwork May Vary) Paperback – 1 Jan. 1997

This book was recommended to me and for long time I did not follow that recommendation- but I was wrong to dismiss this book.It's message is a simple but very relevant to anyone who wants to learn to 'Stop Thinking, Start Living'- the title almost says it all.I am not normally a fan of 'self help' books, mainly because they usually give impossible advice like 'Think positive' or other worthy but futile advice- if I could do that I wouldn't need the book in the first place!This book is different because it does not suggest you change your thoughts, it only suggests that you can change the way you relate to them, and in doing that reduce some of the stress and anxiety that can come from taking your thoughts too seriously.Overall a genuinely useful little book well worth reading if only because it offers the possibility of a new way to approach your own thinking which might lead to a happier life.

Dr Carlson has written many self-help books aimed at helping us to find the stable state of happiness that naturally exists within us all. He has now written this book specifically for those of us who suffer from depression. The book contains practical truths that are so obvious that most of us miss them or at least bypass them in the rush of our everyday lives. If you are suffering from depression this book will help immensely. Richard Carlson will show you how your state of depression is as much perpetuated by your own thinking as it is by any chemical imbalance that may or may not exist. I have read this book at the same time as receiving treatment with an SSRI anti-depressant (Cipralex). While I am unsure if the SSRI has benefited me at all after 6 weeks, I am certain that this book has changed my outlook completely after two weeks and that it continues to do so more and more with each re-reading. If I allow myself to slip back into my old ways of thinking, the severity of my depression rapidly returns. The good news is that it just as rapidly alleviates when I get back on track with my thinking. Another reviewer has said that the book is repetitious and simple to read and yet that Dr Carlson's approach is hard work to put into practice. I both agree and disagree with this view. The book is simple to read and may seem repetitious. However, if you are one of Dr Carlson's target audience of sufferers from depression you should read this book and keep on re-reading it. You will find that on each re-reading something will leap out at you with greater meaning than it did before. I have highlighted many sentences so that I can rapidly re-read them, and have noted down the keywords on the title page. This way I can pull myself back on track quickly. I also agree that the approach takes some work to put into practice but I think the previous reviewer misses the point that there is nothing as hard work as being in a depressed state. The hard work, by the way, is only in terms of changing your habitual modes of thinking, it does not involve making lists and analysing things as do many cognitive (i.e. thinking) approaches such as that found in Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns. I have found Dr Burns's book to be of some use also, but only in so far as it enabled me to identify particular types of cognitive distortion that help perpetuate depressive illness. This enables me to more accurately recognise when I should dismiss my thoughts, as Dr Carlson recommends in his approach. If you are depressed, low, angry, resentful, dissatisfied, unfulfilled, stressed, hurried, fearful or just not happy most of the time then read this book and keep re-reading it. I only wish this book had been available when I was aged twenty rather than forty.

I really enjoyed reading this book and attempted to apply its concept even before finishing reading it. I am prone to over analysing things and following a few unfortunate aspects of my past, have found it really hard to shake off depressive thoughts about those areas of my life.This book is based on the simple premise that we create the thoughts that go through our heads and lead to the feelings we have about things in our lives. We can choose to dwell on the negative ones and give them a 'life of their own', which often leads to longer and longer periods of time we feel down and depressed in general. The author urges that people remember that thoughts are just that, thoughts, and we are in change of choosing whether to give them our time and attention or decide to let the go. He talks about happiness as the inner healthy mentality we are all born with are is always there, even if we don't realise it. It's something we can all tap into if we choose to take our attention off the negative thoughts we have. He talks in great extend about how to deal with low moods, difficult periods in life when faced with real reasons to feel down (such as loss, terminal illness, death etc).What I loved about this approach to depression is that it puts us back in charge of our feelings. It's all to easy to forget that feelings don't just happen, they are a result of a thought/s we had about something in our lives, and we chose to harbour and analyse those thoughts to an extend they made us feel more and more down. Negative and pessimistic thinking is also a habit and as such can be reversed with a bit of foresight and consistency.The author points out that a very common mistake people who already feel down do is assume that dwelling on their negative thoughts will help them find the ever elusive solution to their problems and make them feel happier again. He states that we can all make a choice to tap into the healthy state of mind we are all born with and which is the true source of contentment and happiness. Feeling happy does not depend on external conditions, it is always accessible if we chose to seek it within ourselves. Hence it does not depend on any other aspect of our lives and conditions.I have tried to apply the principles of the book over the last 10 days and already feel calmer and more at peace about things in general. I am able to control more easily the constant train of thoughts that goes through my brain and start to notice better the true extend of negative thoughts that in the past I would have given a lot of my time and energy to analyse and dwell on. The author makes a valid point about concentrating on living and experiencing the present which is always a good start towards feeling better in general, as most negative thoughts tend to relate to the past or future.Overall, a really refreshing read and very simple but inspiring approach to depression. The book does get quite repetitive towards the end, which I have deducted a star for, but I wonder whether the author meant to write the book as a hypnotic reaffirmation. Nevertheless, a book I would happily recommend to anyone struggling with depression.