A grounded, accessible introduction to emotional regulation for readers seeking practical tools.
A therapeutic guide to emotional regulation framed by the metaphor of riding life’s waves.
Ringhoff, a therapist, builds his approach around a deceptively simple premise: Most emotional suffering arises not from feelings themselves, but from resisting them. Using surfing as his central metaphor, the author illustrates the challenge of staying balanced and intentional as emotional waves rise and fall. The goal isn’t to eliminate negative emotions but to “stop making them worse,” which offers a more attainable aim than perpetual calm. The surfboard represents the boundary between external circumstances and internal experience—when on the board, one responds with awareness; when submerged, reactions become impulsive. Ringhoff asserts that resistance—through avoidance, suppression, or overthinking—intensifies distress, while mindful connection creates the possibility for change. Central to the model is “radical acceptance,” defined as working with reality rather than fighting it—accepting oneself, others, and circumstances without approval or resignation. The framework draws from the concept of mindfulness and accessible neuroscience. The author’s “Simple Plan”—ground yourself, relax your body and mind, engage in productive thinking—offers a clear entry point during moments that overwhelm. His discussions of neuroplasticity, cognitive behavioral therapy, and assertiveness provide practical frameworks for building new emotional patterns and responding intentionally rather than reactively. Practical application sections translate these concepts into concrete steps that emphasize repetition and intentional action, supported by clinical examples. Ringhoff’s guide offers solid tools and actionable strategies for emotional regulation, anxiety management, and building emotional resilience. The author excels at making complex psychological concepts accessible—his “Neuroscience Without the Science” chapter demystifies brain function, though it occasionally reads more like therapy session notes than a cohesive narrative. The author’s clinical experience shines through in relatable examples and his acknowledgment that change requires “effort, persistence, and practice.” The focus on assertiveness lands effectively, reinforcing the idea that small, repeated actions can reshape neural pathways and character over time. Though the final chapter’s framing doesn’t feel organically tied to the surfing metaphor, it delivers a solid message in which readers are encouraged to view challenges as transformative.
A grounded, accessible introduction to emotional regulation for readers seeking practical tools.Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2025
ISBN: 9798273949287
Page Count: 289
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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