Ten Days to Self-Esteem

The concepts in this book worked for me. I was very skeptical in the beginning but found the simple techniques to be very effective. It was hard work at times but the dividends were great. With time, I found myself looking forward to working the book. I set aside 15 minutes 5 days a week. I ended up missing some days but spending more then 15 minutes on others. Many mornings, with my cup of coffee in hand and a pencil in the other I would read a page or two then dive into the exercises. The workbook takes much longer then the ten days that the title suggests. It took me about three months to complete the ten outlined steps. Yes, this is a book you must work and write in. Don't bother buying it if you don't want to write. The book starts out with a depression checklist, anxiety inventory and relationship exercise at the beginning of each chapter. These exercises go fast. They are very helpful for doing a basic checkup and tracking any progress. At first, I saw little change but with time my scores were showing some real signs of improvement. Each week I was learning something new and eventually found it easier to get up each morning. This workbook is designed to challenge your negative thoughts and show you ways to untwist your thinking. Dr. Burns suggests fifteen practical ways to confront your self-defeating thoughts. You will learn about self-defeating beliefs and how they differ from negative thoughts. You will become skilled at accepting negative thoughts while maintaining a healthy self-esteem and balanced view of yourself. �Your thoughts create your moods. When you are upset it�s not so much what�s happening to you, but the way you think about it that causes you to feel the way you do.� Life is full of many ups and downs but if you are stuck and are looking for help get this book and work this book. The author will tell you that his research has showed that 70% of the people who used these techniques improve but 30% do not. This book is not for everyone but I can honestly say the principles in this book have helped me grow. While there is still more work ahead and more to do I feel that I am better equipped then before to tackle my problems. Thank you Dr Burns!

After reading a lot of the other reviews I will start by saying, yes the author does assume you’re not going to do the exercises in the beginning because the majority, if not all, of the people using this book have a problem with negative thinking…some worse than others, and he has to address people on every end of the spectrum while trying not lose any along the way. It’s not so distracting it deters the purpose & it actually made me more motivated to do the exercises. To each their own on that one, small potatoes. Also, some have had negative opinions of the exercises. While they do feel “extra” like it’s written for dummies, it’s probably because the behaviors we’re trying to correct with this book are pretty dumb behaviors. After living 35 years doing things my way, it took me completing 3 of the 10 steps in this “feelings for dummies” book to understand I’ve been feeling my feelings wrong and therefore inviting more negativity into my life than I wanted or needed. Just do the exercises, that’s what you bought it for. Another “challenge” was with the electronic version. I ordered two hard copies, both were commandeered by my fiancé and my teenage daughter. I ended up having to use a pdf version I found online and was able to follow along with the exercises in a spiral notebook without an issue and have actually found it to be more personal to me, like a diary. All that being said, this workbook was recommended by my therapist and gets 5 stars from me. This ended up being a family endeavor which I had not anticipated, but I’m glad it worked out that way. We were all looking to change things about our roles and dynamics within our family unit and this workbook has done exactly that. It is a commitment, we are only on step 3 after 3 weeks, but it’s not a race. If we are still working out of this book 2 years from now, I believe we will be a more loving and functional family because of it. I found it has given us common ground and more constructive things to talk about rather than blaming or judging each other. Coupled with some personal counseling, this book has been exactly what we needed so far. It’s cheap enough to just give it a try and see what happens.

The concepts and most the ideas are well exposed and explained. I loved the book, the reason I gave it 4 out of 5 is because I read it on Amazon kindle. And the format makes it hard to complete most of the exercises if not most of them. The rating would end up being for the app not the book. The exercises really helped me in my journey to self esteem and I like it that it has a way to evaluate your progress in each chapter.

Excelente livro

Il testo pare sia ormai un classico nel suo genere ed in effetti gli esercizi proposti sono interessanti ed efficaci. Il problema è che molte delle numerose tabelle e degli schemi riassuntivi sono scritti in carattere talmente piccolo che anche con la funzione di ingrandimento del kindle risultano praticamente illegibili. Perciò, se vi interessa questo testo, vi consiglio sicuramente la versione cartacea.

Great book although perhaps a little long winded. The interactive part is not for everyone although the repetitiveness of the ideas is an important factor in pushing the message home. For me personally it opened my eyes and brain to aspects of my condition that I had never thought of before. Another book in my arsenal of 'self helps' as I continue my battle with anxiety and lack of confidence.

This book is a superb follow-up to Dr. Burns' "Feeling Good" if you read that and wanted something more. It's actually Ten Steps, because each step may take more than a day. But it's all time well spent. What this book does that is different from Feeling Good is - it gives us exercises to fill in. And the great thing is that the more committed one is to do the exercises, the more benefits one gets from working with this book. This is intensive, because so many insights start going "ka-boom" in the brain that it is quite earth-shaking just to experience that. Then one gets to work on them and change them for the better, which can also be quite intensive - basically one must be willing to think and write. So it is like going to psychotherapy. It involves working on your own thinking patterns, and also improving your own understanding about emotions and how they come about and are perpetuated. Though it is focussed work, it is wonderfully rewarding.

物の見方や考え方が偏っているとは分かっていても、どうやってなおしていけばいいのだろうと悩んでいた時にこの本に出会いました。 本書を読んで、今まで自分が試したような、ひたすらアファメーションを唱えたりポジティブな未来を思い描くというような付け焼き刃な方法では、何も変わらないということが分かりました。 本書で紹介されている、 自分の考え方の癖をあぶり出す、 なぜそのような癖がついたのか突きとめる、 今の気持ちを評価する、 etc 数々のテクニックを身につけ、それを日々実践していくことで、いつか「生きづらさ」が軽減されるような気がします。 もっと早くこの本に出会っていたかったです。