The World's Best Book Summaries
Do you sometimes feel emotions you cannot explain? Where do emotions come from? Emotions sometimes get the better of us, but we can learn to tame them and respond to emotional situations more rationally and effectively. To do that, we have to first understand what gives rise to our emotions. Keep reading to learn where our emotional responses come from and how to deal with unexpected emotions.
What exactly is “gridlock” in the context of a marriage? What are the signs that your relationship has gotten stuck in a gridlock? According to John Gottman, gridlock is the struggle to resolve an ongoing marital problem. In his book The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (along with co-author Nan Silver), Gottman explains that you can learn to live with an ongoing problem. But if you don’t, the problem will build up and grow into a gridlock. Here’s how to avoid getting into a gridlock and how to get out of it if you’re stuck.
Do you feel out of control of your life? How do you stop feeling like a victim of circumstance and start taking an active role in directing the course of your life? Many people live in constant fear and anxiety because they don’t feel in control of their lives. However, what they don’t realize is that the reason they don’t feel in control is that they aren’t willing to take control, which requires taking responsibility for their actions. Here’s how taking responsibility for your actions can help you let go of victimhood and seize control of your life.
Is your mental programming set in stone? How can you overwrite unhelpful and self-sabotaging mental programs you’ve internalized throughout the course of your life? You don’t have to accept your default mental processes as your unchanging reality. According to Ryan A. Bush, the author of Designing the Mind, the mind works like a computer, which means that you can overwrite the mental programs that don’t serve you. Here’s how you can reshape your mind by treating your thought processes like computer algorithms that can be edited.
Why are we afraid of the unknown? How does your fear of uncertainty prevent you from growing and seizing opportunities that life presents? Changing your life sometimes requires a leap of faith. Maybe parts of your life are no longer fulfilling, or your current circumstances are no longer meeting your needs. To start down a different path, you have to overcome the fear of uncertainty and trust that everything will work out. Here’s why we’re so terrified of uncertainty and how you can empower yourself to step confidently into the unknown despite your fears.
Do you consider yourself a person of integrity? What does it mean to live with integrity? Living with self-integrity means living in accordance with your values. Your values are in turn informed by your intuition and the vision of the kind of person you want to be. Keep reading to learn what self-integrity is and what it means to live according to it.
Why do most marriages fail? How can you minimize the chances of your marriage ending in divorce? In their book The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, Gottman and Silver explain that every marriage has its own culture—a shared understanding of what matters and what you’re working toward. The greater this sense of shared understanding, the more robust your marriage will be. Here’s how the lack of a shared culture destroys marriages and how couples can work toward cultivating it.
Do you want to become the master of your own mind? Do you struggle with thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that don’t align with your goals and aspirations? If so, Ryan A. Bush’s book Designing the Mind can help. Bush argues that the mind is like a computer that can be reprogrammed, and he provides a collection of strategies that will help you change the thought patterns, emotions, and behaviors that are holding you back into ones that help you become your best self. Below is a brief overview of Designing the Mind by Ryan A. Bush.
What are the most common marital problems? How do you address an ongoing problem in a marriage? While every marriage is unique, there are several problems almost all married couples have in common. Most of these problems are solvable, but many couples drag them on for too long, making them a bigger deal than they have to be. Here’s a look at some of the most common marriage problems and potential solutions for each.
Do you feel like you don’t have control over your emotions? How can you prevent negative emotions from poisoning your mind? Many people live at the mercy of their emotions, so when difficult emotions arise, they succumb to them without question. But it doesn’t have to be this way: You have the power to change your emotional responses and prevent undesirable emotions from triggering. With this in mind, here are some tips for dealing with difficult emotions.