A useful guide for readers aiming to conquer negative thinking.
An insightful self-help book that seeks to help people free themselves from the negative thoughts that prevent them from achieving success.
Everyone’s familiar with the concept of physical gravity, but in this book, debut author Epperson coins the term “Mental Gravity” to describe a constant downward tug on one’s emotions. Every person faces a struggle with negativity, he writes, and “[t]he only way to survive Mental Gravity is to be keenly aware of it, and take specific actions to moderate the effects it produces.” Unlike other books on positive thinking, this one emphasizes that positivity alone is not enough, because a well-balanced individual should be prepared for times of both levity and gravity. The author illustrates this balance by relating some of his own negative experiences—including a family car crash and personal financial collapse—and telling how he used them as opportunities to learn and grow. He also writes of his own difficult relationship with his father, and how he used it to become a better person. He warns readers that “we need to become very adept at dealing with disappointment,” as it is sure to come eventually. He also points out that his philosophy extends to the past as well; it doesn’t matter what a person’s background is, he says, because each new starting point is a gift. There are a few startling requests to “download my free report” on various topics, which feel out of place and would have been less obtrusive at the book’s end. Still, with his friendly, encouraging tone, Epperson does a fine job of offering practical ways to overcome Mental Gravity, and many of his tips can be put into action rather quickly. For example, with a hat tip to self-help guru Tony Robbins, he advises readers to pretend they’re movie producers, in order to reframe negative memories as positive ones. He also advises writing a list of at least 101 positive memories, and making it one’s goal to collect more.
A useful guide for readers aiming to conquer negative thinking.Pub Date: April 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1495236464
Page Count: 316
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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