Book Reviews

The book reviews below, in outline form, were written as part of my assigned On Track homework and served as a means for continuing recovery from my brain aneurysm and stroke. Knowing that I was assigned to write the reviews forced me to adhere to the traditional who, what, when, where, why while reading thereby encouraging me to be more attentive to written material. The first few book reviews were a grueling experience since often I would have to re-read the previous paragraph, page, or chapter multiple times to obtain a perspective on the current part of the book I was reading. Even though reading and writing the book reviews was initially tortuous, I thank my On Track instructor, Teri Demmon, for encouraging and pushing me to do this work.

1. Closed. Examples – sudden changes in acceleration; “knockout punch” to the chin. The brain is accelerated, decelerated, or rotated. Nerve fibers are stretched, arteries and veins may be torn.

2. Open. Scalp is cut through and brain is exposed or damaged. Examples – collisions with edge of curb, being hit by a bullet.

3. Crush. When head is caught between boat and wharf or under wheel of car. Most damaging part of incident is often to the nerves that run through the base of the skull.

1. Brain is starved of oxygen due to low blood pressure which kills cells and makes damage from first injury worse.

3. Post-traumatic hydrocephalus occurs when circulation of fluid around the brain is blocked.

1. Crack in the skull-- blow can crack the bone and ‘dent’ it pushing the bone onto the brain

2 . Fractures of forehead, nose, and eye sockets. If there is a hole, bacteria may get into brain and infect the brain causing meningitis.

5. Post-traumatic hydrocephalus occurs when circulation of fluid around the brain is blocked.

2. There is a general loss of brain power that follows multiple head injuries because reserve of brain cells that we all have becomes exhausted.

C. Injury behind the forehead results in changes in behavior, and loss of self restraint and insight.

D. In closed injuries, the nerve fibers deep in the brain are damaged which can result in coma.

E. Damage to the brain stem could affect body functions not under conscious control such as breathing, heart beat, blood pressure, and body temperature.

A. Head injured person has need to go back to living in real world, supported by family and friends and with the sense of security that this brings.

C. Second need – formal rehabilitation treatment which will get movement and balance back to normal, which will get the survivor to think properly, and to return to the occupation and skills which he had before the accident.

D. Some people with severe head injuries make little progress after leaving intensive care; they may have to be moved to another type of facility which specializes in the care required.

3. Rehabilitation team typically consists of: Physiotherapists, Occupational therapists, Speech therapists, Neuropsychologists, cognitive retraining therapists, social workers, clinical psychologists, rehabilitation officers.

1. Fatigue is one of the most limiting effects of head injury; the first effect of head injury is coma which is a very deep sort of sleep. The survivor will find that he tires much more quickly than before.

c) Concentration span – length of time person is able to concentrate on one task; this will get better as time passes.

a) Memory Steps: notice or attend to item so it can be stored for later retrieval; then remember either without hints (recall) or when a clue is given (recognition). Often memories laid down before the accident are able to be recalled. Laying down new memories may be difficult.

c) Post-traumatic amnesia – a time after the injury which the person will not be able to remember

d) Coping with a poor memory. A neuropsychologist may be necessary to help determine which parts of the memory system the person can manage. Problems could be in information storage, information retrieval, or both. Use of notepads, making lists, calendars, and diaries can increase greatly the memory capacity.

a) Ability to judge the effect of what we say and do is controlled by front parts of the brain, behind the forehead.

b) If survivors insight is poor, he may deny there are problems, may not see the need for rehabilitation, may endanger others by his actions.

c) One day he might be quite realistic, and the next day deny that he has any problems.

5. Slowed Reactions - Patient may take much longer to do even fairly simple automatic activities such as eating or cleaning his teeth.

a) Emotions not normally part of the personality may make themselves more obvious.

b) Very often the survivor loses the ability to control emotional reactions such as tears or laughter; both may appear to be severed from feelings.

c) It is quite natural for a head-injured person to become depressed as he gets better and gains more insight. Depression could be a positive sign that the survivor is getting better.

d) For some head-injured people tears and laughter seem to be severed from feelings and occur for no apparent reason.

A. Weakness. Damage to one side of the brain commonly results in weakness of the other side of the body, a “hemiplegia”, or “half-paralysis”.

1. In a stroke, when the damage is confined to one area, very little clumsiness may accompany the weakness.

2. Damage to one side of the brain commonly results in weakness of the other side of the body (hemiplegia) or (half-paralysis). The hand is usually most affected.

4. Brain cells destroyed do not grow again; new brain pathways must be set up. Repetition is the basis of most rehabilitation techniques.

5. Rehabilitation team typically consists of: Physiotherapists, Occupational therapists, Speech therapists, Neuropsychologists, cognitive retraining therapists, social workers, clinical psychologists, rehabilitation officers.

6. Walking and everyday living skills may have to be monitored and corrected if necessary.

1. Epilepsy shows itself by "fits" or "seizures". which results from scarring as a result of the brain damage. A normal EEG will not necessarily rule out epilepsy.

2. Prevention consists of making sure wounds are treated properly and giving anticonvulsant drugs.

3. Treatment consists of an anticonvulsant medication which works by reducing the tendency of the brain to become destabilized by the irritation from the scarring.

1. In most people, the ability to speak is controlled by parts of the left side of the brain. Potential speech problems include;

a) aphasia which literally means no speech and dysphasia which means damaged speech

b) when the problem is with understanding what has been said, it is called receptive aphasia or receptive dysphasia.

2. Intensive work with a therapist may be necessary for the person to understand speech.

1. Understanding what we see - survivor may neglect things he has seen or make mistakes in understanding what he has seen.

4. Other senses: taste, smell, touch and temperature. The nerves that serve taste buds on the tongue and the cells in the nose which carry sensations of smell may be out of action for a while.

6. The brain stem controls temperature and other body functions which we do not control consciously. Damage here may cause one to dress inappropriately or dangerously.

3. Caregivers need to determine stamina, memory, reaction times before return to school.

1. Might be more incapacitated, may not recover as quickly as someone in their teens or twenties.

2. Pride may make it hard to let friends or family members realize how much he has changed and he may not ask for help.

4. An elderly person is unlikely to recovery as quickly or as completely as a younger person.

D. The person with a mild head injury - A mildly injured person is unlikely to have visible evidence that he has not recovered from the injury

2. Depends on severity of injury, whether there is further brain damage, minimizing stress, effective rehabilitation, management of return to work/school.

D. It is clear that if the brain is to do the particular activity which has been damaged, that activity has to be practiced many times.

5. Survivor may complain of frequent headaches, may have more problems remembering things.

1. Work he was doing before accident; this could be a compromise since he normally will be going back to work before he has recovered fully.

2. Because he will not be able to concentrate as well as he used to, the job needs to take this into consideration.

3. If his memory is not yet working well, he needs to be given jobs where there will not be too many memory demands.

1. Work he was doing before accident; this could be a compromise since he normally will be going back to work before he has recovered fully.

2. Work he was doing before accident; this could be a compromise since he normally will be going back to work before he has recovered fully.

1. Planning for return to work or school will start before the survivor has reached the stage where the trial can begin.

2. When the survivor has made enough recovery to start back at work or school, a meeting will be set up with all of the people involved; the head-injured person, care-givers, employer or teacher, and the rehabilitation team.

3. There should be regular reviews of hours to be worked, regular contact with officials to be sure that any unexpected problems are dealt with.

1. Due to physical or psychological limitations, the survivor may need to consider changing careers. Due to potentially reduced energy levels, the survivor may wish to embark on a less demanding career.

2. Families and caregivers need to recognize that it is better for the survivor to have a job he can cope with.

A. Executives and Managers will have a longer period after injury before they can get back to work.

B. Self-employed persons may find it difficult to stay away from work as long as is desirable due to limited skills in the business.

C. The unemployed person may not have gained the necessary social skills and the ability to judge how he is presenting himself.

1. Means that you need to let go of the things from the life before the accident that are impossible for the survivor now.

3. You can cope much better with the effects of the accident once you can let go of the pre-injury personality, and accept that the survivor now reacts in a different way.

4. It is important for others to remember that the survivor sees himself as he was before his injury.

5. It is important to get the survivor to face up to the fact that the self-image he carries from the days before the accident is no longer accurate.

In this book, Dr. Claudia Osborne, a gifted young professor at a medical school, an accomplished physician and mentor of other young physicians, chronicles her rehabilitation process from the moment of her brain injury in a motor vehicle accident to the resumption of medical school teaching and research. Dr. Osborne tells her story of a triumphant personal journey from deep despair to philosophical acceptance; from perplexity and occasional incoherence to an examined life; from a greatly hampered, often short-circuited thought processes to effective reasoning and problem solving ability; and from an impatience with her less gifted intellect to a genuine empathy with her new self.

Dr. Osborne shows the effect head injury has on behavior and personality, and how thinking and problem-solving ability can be so altered that the simplest actions require extraordinary conscious effort.

A. The hospital in Detroit where Dr. Osborne practiced medicine was redecorated to create a hotel-like ambiance. Patients at this hospital were usually chronically ill; most were elderly with little money; many had end-stage diseases - cancer, failed kidneys, heart, lungs, or liver.

B. Dr. Osborne provided very encouraging moral support to a woman who had several serious medical difficulties. Dr. Osborne encouraged the patient to use prayer and think about her mother and friends.

A. Dr. Osborne's dual role of clinician and trainer of young doctors caused her days to be very intense; she enjoyed this high-intensity activity.

B. Late in the day, Ms. Phillips, who was in her 70's, arrived late Monday for her Wednesday appointment and Dr. Osborne drove her home since Ms. Phillips was intending to hitchhike home.

A. Marcia, Claudia's roommate, suggested a bike ride after dinner. Claudia made the dinner and intended to study after their bike ride for her internal medicine board exams.

B. During the bike ride, an old Chevy took a corner turn too wide. The grille of the car struck Claudia's bike full force and catapulted her over its roof and into the air causing her to land on her head. Marcia managed to jump the curb landing in a grassy tree bank and escaped the collision.

A. Claudia woke up , surprised that she was in a hospital bed thinking it must be a patient's bed. Marcia explained what had happened, however, Claudia was not able to take it in. Marcia wanted to do something to effect change to Claudia's brain but there was nothing that could be done. Claudia's brain stem had been injured.

B. In the hospital, Claudia had an IV and a CAT scan which did not show a brain bleed, although it was to early to determine if there was brain swelling. She did have a concussion. Claudia was not able to register meanings of sentences expressed by attending physicians.

C. Claudia went home, where she and Marcia shared the home, over the objections of her doctors and Marcia.

A. During the first 2 weeks following her injury, Claudia usually slept 22 hours out of every 24. Over the objection of Claudia, Marcia made an appointment with a neurologist regarding her progress. Upon her return, Claudia could not explain to Marcia the meeting results. Claudia's explanation was that her memory was fine; she was too tired to pay attention.

B. Marcia contacted a neurologist who surprisingly agreed with Claudia that Claudia was ready to return to work.

C. At home, Claudia made a few minor errors that did not impact her safety, and her mother was able to determine that Claudia did not take much in during telephone conversations with her mother. Claudia was still preoccupied with her need to get back to work.

D. Claudia did go to her office and was unable to comprehend written correspondence on her desk. She was unable to follow conversations very well. Unfortunately, both Marcia and Claudia's mother were adapting to Claudia's limitations and were beginning to support Marcia by weaving a net of delusion regarding Claudia's limitations..

E. Claudia did return to work, but was very closely supervised by other staff members; Marcia's conclusion was that Claudia was not getting better.

A. Claudia returned to work 2 months after her injury. She had considerable difficulty assimilating the barrage of information she was receiving from other members of the hospital staff. Claudia was forgetting some of the commitments she had made to other staff members.

B. Claudia nearly made a serious mistake regarding a woman who needed a leg amputated because Claudia had not checked her X-ray. Claudia realized her near-mistake and made an appointment with a neurologist who told her not to practice medicine until she was examined by the neurologist.

A. In her neuropsychological evaluation, Claudia was diagnosed was having severe and wide-ranging difficulties….., and general organizational problems.

B. Marcia found a Head Trauma Program (HTP) which required Claudia to be resident in Manhattan at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at NYU for 5 months. Claudia was very concerned about her professional life by being away from the hospital for so long. Yet, she was also concerned that she might not be accepted by NYU.

C. During initial head trauma testing at NYU, Claudia was shocked to learn she executed a test better with her left hand even though, prior to her injury, she was right-handed. Prior to the tests she did not realize her right hand was significantly impaired. Through further testing, she realized she did need their help and NYU would accept her for a 5 month program.

D. Marcia describes her loss of the former Claudia and hopes the HTP will help Claudia. Marcia admits she does not have sufficient patience to help Claudia and describes the recovery process as hell.

A. There was considerable discomfort among all of the patients beginning the Program (HTP); Claudia seemed most comfortable of the persons being admitted.

B. Claudia found it difficult to recognize people by their faces and depended more on their voices and mannerisms.

A. Claudia was registering 3 distinct emotional states during Orientation: foggy perplexity, goofy contentment, and glassy-eyed fatigue.

B. At the end of the first day, while crossing a street, Claudia's mind went blank - she was "flooding". Her thinking became painfully slow, ineffectual and she was easily confused. When she is "flooding", she became rigid, mentally and physically. Ideas did not come to mind.

A. During her first week in New York, a friend of Marcia's let Claudia use her apartment. Claudia made arrangements to use the New York apartment during the week; Marcia had made arrangements for Claudia to come home every other weekend. On alternate weekends, she intended to stay with friends and family members who lived near New York.

B. Marcia was enthralled with the availability of so many things in walking distance of her apartment: bagels, post office, dry cleaner, hardware store and a fruit and flower store.

C. Later, Claudia created a shopping list as the trainees were told to do. They were told information they knew existed independent of their ability to bring it into the foreground of their memory and apply it.

1. Claudia realized, that in Detroit, Marcia made all of the grocery decisions while Claudia pushed the cart.

2. Claudia either forgot to stop or botched her efforts to pick up food on her way home.

3. Claudia had difficulty deciding which items to put on a shopping list, where to shop, she sometimes forgot the list, and sometimes she would not buy anything since that seemed to be the easiest thing to do.

E. Claudia did have the advantage that she could be proud that she lived in the huge city without anyone to look after her; most other trainees lived with their families and could commute often accompanied by a family member.

A. Claudia was hearing the song "Dropkick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life" from a teenager's boombox in front of HTP.

B. Her coach was to be Dr. Joan Gold and Claudia was pleased with the selection made by HTP. Thoughts of going back to work was the only item on Claudia's agenda.

C. Claudia realized she had an unrealistic hope of going back to work in July when she told her family nightly that she learned X, meaning her memory was five percent better. Claudia had support in this unrealistic hope since they had little understanding of the profound extent of her deficits.

D. At HTP, Claudia was convinced she needed their help, but could not erase the feeling she was losing valuable time in her medical practice. Joan, through her remarks, was trying to help Claudia find a way to giver herself permission to be a patient.

E. Claudia knew she needed Joan to be an ally in reaching her goals of getting her thinking fixed, her memory repaired, and making her a doctor again.

F. During cognitive training sessions, puzzles, games, and computers were used to develop strategies, they were taught techniques for creating and following plans, practiced ways to set priorities, made associations between similar ideas, and increased their efficiency at performing multiple tasks.

G. It did not take Claudia long to learn the strategies, but to remember to employ them all, every time, seemed unachievable.

H. On certain items, Claudia found she would perseverate - lock compulsively on to one idea or concern and not let go.

I. Claudia was optimistic that by July 31 she would be driving herself to work; Joan suggested that Claudia focus on what she needed to do now rather than her summer plans.

A. Claudia and her associates passionately clutched their dreams, wrapping themselves in the mantle of who they used to be. Even the length of their post injury varied, ranging from virtually none to six months. Some had to relearn how to speak and walk.

B. Her classmates experiences mirrored hers, but she more readily understood the experiences they described. She couldn't make sense of her own. She did not possess the insight or imagination to see herself.

C. More men tend to have better jobs and larger incomes than women, which can also mean better medical insurance and more thorough medical care.

D. During Interpersonal Group, students were instructed to talk about their families, identify qualities they liked about themselves and others, and reflect upon pre-injury achievements.

E. Claudia was learning to write everything in her notebook - at first because they were instructed to do so, but she eventually realized she could not function without it.

A. Claudia was unable to understand the various elements of her progress report; she had difficulty making sense of an entire sentence and then holding on to the idea.

B. Claudia discounted a few things in the progress report, but was warned to not discount adynamia which signifies one is no longer active or energetic or forceful in personality. It also signifies lethargy, paucity of thought, a depletion of energy and action. She was warned that if she did not overcome it, she couldn't be self sufficient. Claudia became frightened since these characteristics were those among which she previously prided herself.

C. After a discussion with Joan, Claudia shuddered at the magnitude of her recovery, but was assured she was not wasting her time.

A. Video tapes were taken of the clients for their viewing as often as they wished. The tapes allowed them to see how they appeared to the world. The missteps were the tapes of most value. Claudia chose to talk about empathy and integrity.

B. After reviewing her tape, Claudia could not recognize anything of herself with her frozen face, staring eyes and flat speech. She could not rise to the most basic thought or follow the simplest cue.

C. Claudia's mother came to visit her in New York. Those 8 days with Marcia and her mother were marvelous. All of a sudden, as though someone had waved a magic wand, her life flowed effortlessly without mishap.

D. Claudia realized she was not adept at utilizing several strategies she had learned to help compensate for her problems

E. While with her mother, Claudia realized that what mattered was not how well she could regurgitate previously learned material or how normal she could appear to others, but how well she could actually think and reason.

F. Through Marcia's and her mother's efforts, Claudia found an apartment of her own.

A. Claudia's performance for time reminders was not consistent or flawless. She spent time with friends and found she could be productive which was something she had missed during her past vegetative year.

B. Claudia referred to an annoying repeated predicament privately as "Meltdown": She purchased frozen food from a supermarket, was careful to not set them down while waiting for a traffic signal since she had forgotten bags before at signals, she sat the groceries down in the apartment while she was going to sleep for a "minute" and woke up the following morning. The frozen food had melted and was ruined.

C. Yehuda informed Claudia she was not ready to return to work as she had hoped on July 31. She needed to come back for another 5 month cycle.

D. Claudia took solace in her interest in painting. Her painting skills improved dramatically since her accident.

A. One class member, Len, chaired a function called Community. His question to the group was "how are you coping with the fact that there are things about you that are changed and will remain changed? Claudia had a feeling of horror when she realized everyone here had lost his or her old self -- the injury was permanent.

B. Joan told her that Claudia could develop compensatory skills that would help her function at a high level. HTP was asking her for an intellectual recognition that there were parts of her that could never be the same again. No one could predict how far Marcia could go in her recovery.

A. Knowing I would not regain my former self, even with continued rehabilitation, induced waves of depression that frightened me with their intensity.

B. Claudia realized she had taken a big step forward in that her feelings were no longer anesthetized.

C. Claudia found her emotions to be unreliable. She found it unwise to trust their validity.

D. Regarding strategies: Claudia's early successes excited her as only one in braces struggles to reach the far side of the room can know. She never imagined that these cumbersome devices, these strategies, would be something she must forever own. She prayed for a six-month rental.

A. Claudia's speech expressed two ideas: The first concerned her identity. It was her first public admission that she now understood intellectually that, regardless of the outcome, she could no longer afford to put all her emotional eggs in the basket of who she had been.

B. She had to reexamine who she was and come up with a less limiting definition than physician.

A. In August, Claudia went home and did not do too well, probably due to lack of the HTP structure.

B. It had been 1 year since Claudia's injury, but she still frequently wore an absent look and drifted into long periods of silence when she did not know what was taking place around her.

C. During attendance at a wedding reception, Claudia realized she had lost her social savvy.

A. In September, Claudia went to HTP for the new term. She met some of her previous classmates plus some new members totaling 12 persons

B. Claudia had some minor difficulties resulting from forgetting her apartment key and not remembering where she b ought food during the previous term. She flooded again and called her mother who agreed to come to NY to help Claudia.

C. Claudia was musing how she and her brother were responsible latchkey kids. They earned their own money; she put herself entirely through medical school. Now, she had metamorphosed into a confused and dependent child.

D. Key objectives in the second cycle were to increase and master their strategies, as well as to gain intellectual and emotional acceptance of their new selves.

F. She put some of her fears on paper which she hoped might rob them of their power.

A. As Claudia improved, she began doing more things. The more she did, the more she discovered what she could not do well.

B. The most fragile period in a patient's emotional life is not when the illness is acute, but when the patient is getting better.

C. Claudia lacked accuracy and predictability in managing bills and her checkbook.

D. Claudia missed the point about describing the weekend which was routine for starting class. Joan coached Claudia regarding answering questions as follows:

E. Joan explained to Claudia that Claudia continued to measure her performance against her pre-injury standards. Joan believed that this behavior was getting in the way of Claudia's rehabilitation process.

F. Claudia began to think about the difficulties her parents had surmounted. Claudia concluded they could serve as beneficial role models for Claudia.

A. Joan had said Claudia would eventually over-learn some tasks to the point where she could focus on the idea behind the action - in this case, getting herself to HTP - without needing to concentrate on the mechanics.

B. Claudia was asked to prepare three half-hour-long lectures on head injury by Joan and Len who were teaching 6 veterans exclusively.

C. Claudia was still having difficulty since, on one occasion, she mailed stamps instead of the intended letters.

D. Near the mailbox, a former student, who was driving by, complimented Claudia on the amount of medicine he learned from her. She documented this encounter, then realized her words were about a person she would never be again. This caused Claudia a great amount of anguish since she believed the words were about a person she would never be again.

E. As a result of this encounter, she realized she needed a vision of an achievable future - one she wanted, not just one she could attain. Claudia wished she new what God intended for her now.

F. On her way back to Boston, several incidents stood in her way, however, Claudia successfully over came all of them which gave her a great sense of accomplishment.

A. Claudia agreed to prepare a speech for the mid term and final parties. Having to prepare a public statement about herself helped her assess her progress and dissipate some of her fears. In so doing, she felt she could move on.

B. Claudia believed her philosophy was sound, but she lacked a tangible goal. She still had no idea what jobs she could actually do or what skills she could reliably count on.

C. Claudia's last lecture scheduled for the last week in January included the following objectives for patients:

A. An injury to the brain is, first of all, a physical injury. It may affect any part of the body, not just cognitive skills and behavior. For Claudia, it was her right arm and neurogenic bladder

B. Graduation day, February 1, trainees gave speeches regarding their circumstances. Claudia found this to be therapeutic.

C. Claudia referred to Yehuda Ben-Yishay's words that head injury produced a "shattered sense of self". Rehab showed her that one could either patch the old self or construct a new image of one self.

D. Claudia attributes the peace she has acquired to that trek through the wilderness she experienced.

A. HTP assigned Claudia to work at the NYU Medical Center in the admissions office of Rusk. Her job was to interview patients and physicians and other medical personnel regarding potential benefits of being at Rusk.

C. During this time, Claudia was invited to ride horses in Maine where she fell from a horse. She was able to go to work the next Monday morning.

D. Shortly thereafter, Claudia received an interim medical report: "she has not attained the competence to resume competitive employment even in a capacity far reduced from her pre-injury status."

E. With that, Claudia understood that it was likely her ego needs would not be met through any job she was currently capable of doing.

F. A few days later, she received a job to work as a volunteer in a drug study on Alzheimer's patients.

G. While returning from a movie, she helped Marcia find her car in the parking lot -- what a role reversal!

A. Claudia created several systems to assist her in dressing appropriately where she had parked the car, handling mail, and organizing her clothes.

B. She was a safe driver, but put a note on her dash announcing her correct destination.

C. Her job at Henry Ford Hospital was going well. She had the help of other staff members. Her head injury afforded her insight into the needs and problems of the Alzheimer's patients.

D. Marcia concluded that one can achieve a healthy relationship after a successful rehabilitation if both partners have a realistic view of their changed roles and are able to ,make accommodations for each other without anger or, martyrdom by one and docility or obsequiousness by the other.

E. Claudia learned to use a new yardstick in an old word while others continued to measure her performance against their memory of her and weigh their losses.

F. Claudia understood that the efforts by the therapists at HTP and Rusk to strengthen her ego were more successful than she realized at the time. She came to value the sense of humor, self tolerance and c'est la vie approach they helped her develop.

G. Every head-injured person enters a rehabilitation program hoping to be fully restored. No such program exists.

A. After nine years since her injury and seven years after leaving HTP, Claudia continues to improve.

B. She uses organizational practices in every aspect of her life - record keeping, mail sorting, phone calls, and designing effective-action lists of what to do, buy, or fix.

C. Claudia's counsel to someone with a devastating injury is to not focus on his/her loss and what might have been, but to fully live the life he/she has now and to carve out new and achievable dreams to fit it.

D. For more information regarding Claudia's circumstances and an excellent set of additional Internet resources, please go to Claudia's Web Site.

Title: Attitude is Everything

Author: Keith Harrell

Summary:

chapter page chapter page

# # # #

	Introduction	xi	6	Warning: Attitude Hazards Ahead	111
1	Attitude Is Everything	1	7	Your Attitude Tool Kit	127
2	Attitude Is a Choice	23	8	Build You’re A-Team	155
3	Bag Your Bad Attitude	47	9	Develop a Whatever-It-Takes Attitude	175
4	Change Your Attitude for Good	67	10	Make a Mark That Cannot Be Erased	199
5	Turn Attitude into Action!	85

Book Outline

Introduction

Attitude is the foundation and support of everything we do, a key element in the process of controlling your destiny and achieving mastery in your personal and professional life. I’ve discovered that learning to monitor, control, and tap into a positive attitude is the key to every self-help process. In fact, the most valuable asset you can possess is a positive attitude toward your life. A positive attitude is not a product of genetics and heredity but, with proper training, an acquired trait. The material in this book is not merely motivational. It offers step-by-step instructions and examples of how others -- including the author – have benefited by taking responsibility for their attitudes.

· Your attitude is a powerful tool for positive action. It’s inherently interwoven into everything you do. It’s your most priceless possession.

· To transform your attitude into action, you must accept responsibility for what goes on inside your mind by monitoring your internal dialog.

· By practicing self-awareness, you will learn the 3 types of bad attitudes.

· An attitude of anger can be transformed into an attitude of gratitude and forgiveness by shifting your perspective. You will discover the power of self-forgiveness, which allows you to forgive others.

· Understanding the importance of living your life with purpose and passion - having a personal vision - is critical to achieving success.

· By developing a pre-active approach to life, you will become better prepared to handle the hazards you face in life.

· You will discover the keys to self-motivation by making use of the Attitude Tool Kit: affirmations, visualization, attitude talk, positive greetings, enthusiasm, spiritual empowerment, humor, and exercise.

· Put together you’re A-Team, those people who will help you fight off negative attitudes and build positive ones. This book will show you how to build the best defense against toxic people who try to disrupt your success.

· We’ll look at the benefits of adopting a whatever-it-takes attitude when confronted by change.

· This book shows you how you can leave a lasting legacy by making a mark that cannot be erased. You’ll learn the benefit of planting positive seeds: seeds of hope, encouragement, faith, and love.

Outline

I. Attitude Is Everything

A. Although attitude plays an important role in everyone’s life, many people don’t know its meaning or realize the influence it has on their performance at work and on their relationships.

B. The American Heritage Dictionary defines attitude as a state of mind or feeling with regard to some matter. For the author, attitude can be defined in one word: life.

C. It can be a powerful tool for positive action. Or it can be a poison that cripples your ability to fulfill your potential. Attitude determines whether you are on the way or in the way.

D. Emotionally charged changes in one’s life can throw one off course. It happens to everyone, and often during such challenging times, we develop a negative attitude without being aware of the effect it has on our actions. An attitude of defeat will drag one down.

E. The author was hoping to be drafted by the NBA as a professional basketball athlete. He then decided he wanted to pursue a career with IBM. A friend prepared the author for his first interview and told him that IBM’s 3 basic beliefs were: respect for the individual, customer service, and the pursuit of excellence. The author developed an unstoppable attitude: he was going to get hired by IBM because failure was not an option.

F. Our attitude affects everything we do. Each of us can decide to change our primary attitude. Most people get health of dental checkups once or twice a year; we also take our cars in for regular checkups. Yet, sadly, we aren’t nearly as careful about monitoring the attitudes that affect out mental health.

G. Those with positive attitudes generally enjoy better overall health. As positive thinking takes hold of your mind, your body responds accordingly.

H. Researchers have shown also that the simple act of smiling causes your brain to release a stream of chemicals that makes you feel good.

I. British researchers have gathered evidence showing a tie between negative emotions and illness.

J. A positive attitude will help eliminate stress and negative thinking which will allow you to enjoy a more positive feeling about yourself.

K. Some individuals’ attitudes propel them along, helping them to deal with challenges, overcome obstacles, and accomplish their objectives. Others have attitudes that are anchors, slowing them down or stopping them altogether.

L. What happens to us influences what goes on within us unless we master a process for taking control of our attitudes to maintain a positive approach to life even when negative events occur.

M. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and, if they can’t find them, make them.

N. What happens to you does not have to live within you. Even bad circumstances can serve as stepping-stones to your goals. Every one of us endures hardships that can bring out the worst in us or inspire the best. It all comes down to which attitude you choose.

O. The author has seen many examples in which a positive attitude makes an enormous difference in career success.

P. The world of work has become unstable. Experienced people are losing their jobs under rapidly shifting circumstances. These circumstances can lead to negative attitudes and self-defeating actions if you allow the circumstances to dictate your life.

Q. Positive attitudes in the workplace help improve communications and teamwork. Positive attitudes keep up morale and help increase productivity. The opposite can be said for negative attitudes. They dismantle teamwork, increase stress, and cripple productivity.

R. The author states that one of the most valuable gifts his parents gave him was a positive attitude. A positive attitude is perhaps more important at home than anywhere else.

S. We have a choice. We can concentrate on problems, or we can focus on solutions. The author believes in taking the positive approach. You will find that when your attitude improves, so do your circumstances.

T. You can build a strong and powerful body with exercise, but it takes commitment and hard work. You have the same power to build a positive attitude with mental exercises.

U. Things one can learn to do to build a positive attitude with mental exercises are listed below. This too takes commitment, hard work and continuous effort.

1. Focus on handling stress. The less stress you feel, the more energy you’ll have to exercise those positive-thinking muscles. Though eliminating all stress from your life is an unrealistic goal, you can add to your energy levels by leading a more balanced life.

2. Identify your negative/pessimistic thoughts. Then defeat those negative thoughts. The more you fight them with facts and rational thinking, the more positive muscle you’re building.

3. Tell a supportive person how you feel. Feelings left bottled up fester. Many studies show that social isolation is a significant risk to your health. The support and encouragement you get will give you added ammunition against negative thinking.

4. Act to settle a problem. Resolving a problem will relieve your stress more quickly and effectively than just complaining about it. Even if you don’t actually reach a solution, moving toward a solution is still less stressful than trying to ignore it. Attitude tune up:

a. what is your personal definition of attitude? What is your attitude toward life?

b. Regardless of life’s ups and downs, play with your natural-born abilities.

c. Do you positively affect the lives of those with whom you interact?

d. Think of the individuals in your life that affect you in a positive way and those who affect you in a negative way. When was the last time your attitude made a difference, bad or good?

II. Attitude Is a Choice

A. Choose to take charge of your life. Taking charge and staying in control is an attitude of choice. We all have a choice about how we react to each and every situation in our lives. Sometimes people tell you what you can’t do because they don’t see themselves achieving it.

B. Don’t let circumstances control your attitude.

C. The author believes that any time you’re going through something, you’ve always got to go inward to find out what little things you can do to bring joy to your life.

D. Toxic attitudes rub off and exposure to them, over a period of time, might damage one’s attitude.

E. What is it going to be for you: a positive attitude or a negative attitude? Exercising your power to choose your attitude and your approach to life’s challenges is one of the master keys to unlocking your greatness in life.

F. You should choose your attitude thoughtfully because it determines how you respond to the many challenges you will encounter.

G. Sometimes making no choice is the worst decision of all. It’s vital that you consciously choose the right attitude and that you choose it wisely. We have control of our destinations by the choices we make.

H. There are those who know they can control their attitudes and those who allow their attitudes to control them. The people who do best in life are those who realize they have the power to choose their attitudes, just as they have the power to choose their clothing, their cars, or their dinner companions.

I. People who are controlled by attitude tend to believe not only that they can’t control their lives but that life has it in for them.

J. With one’s attitude under control, one knows that though he may not be able to control his circumstances, he can control how he responds to them.

K. Lance Armstrong, a pro cycling champion chose a combative attitude toward cancer that spread from his testicles to his stomach, lungs, and brain. For reasons that even his doctors have not yet determined, Armstrong won and his cancer disappeared entirely.

L. The most basic, revealing question you can ask yourself is: What does it take to make me happy?

· Do you have to be happy every minute of every day?

· Does everyone have to do what you want them to do?

· Does every aspect of your work have to be fulfilling all the time?

· Do you have to be making more money than everyone else?

· Do you have to have more power than everyone else?

· Do you have to be recognized and rewarded for everything you do?

· Do you have to be loved by everyone you know?

M. We often demand too much of love and friendship, and the same is true of happiness.

N. For true happiness, it’s best to look within yourself rather than rely on others or the world around you. The root of happiness is joy, and joy lives within you. You can choose to be in a good mood, or you can choose to be in a bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live.

O. Later in life, the author learned that the strongest and most destructive voice is your own.

P. Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist, found that your attitude can be consciously changed from negative to positive by learning how to coach your inner dialog. “Becoming an optimist consists …. of learning a set of skills about how to talk to yourself when you suffer a personal defeat.”

Q. Most people allow their brains to be programmed indiscriminately. Many of us have behavior patterns today that were programmed into our brains at a very tender age. There are many people with serious learning disorders who were programmed by loving parents and caring teachers to believe they could overcome their barriers … and they did.

R. The key to ridding yourself of an attitude of helplessness is to clear your mind of negative inner conversations and replace them with more hopeful messages. The longer negative thoughts are allowed to churn in your mind, the greater the emotional buildup and the potential damage. If you don’t recognize and treat it, you could face the psychological equivalent of pneumonia – depression.

S. We like to think that our attitudes are affected by what people do and say to us, but in reality, it is what we say to ourselves that has the greatest influence on how we present ourselves to the world.

T. The loudest and most influential voice you hear is your own inner voice, your “self critic”. It can work for or against you, depending on the messages you allow. It can be pessimistic or optimistic. You control the sender and the receiver, but only if you consciously take responsibility and control of your inner conversations.

U. The author kept control of his attitude, and that sense of control gave him greater self-confidence.

V. If you set a positive tone during interaction with others, the chances of a positive outcome are very good. Below is an Attitude Tune-Up.

· What positive choices are you going to make to help put your attitude into action?

· Are you a controlled-by-attitude or an attitude-under control person?

· The root of your happiness is your joy. Don’t let anybody steal your joy.

· Program your attitude with positive internal dialogue. Remember: Garbage in, garbage stays

W. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. -- J. Martin Koh

III. Bag Your Bad Attitude

A. Identify through self-awareness the attitudes that hold you back or propel you forward.

B. Too often we focus on what we did wrong instead of what we needed to do to become better.

C. A helpful technique is to look at ourselves as to what we could become instead of what we are now.

D. The author had one coach that offered consistent negative comments about the author’s basketball playing performance. At that time, the author’s self-image and his attitude were very dependent on what his coach said.

E. Bad attitudes are heavy baggage. It’s relatively easy to spot someone with a bad attitude. If you haven’t been getting what you want out of life, if you feel stuck, overlooked, unappreciated, or unfilled, it could be that you’ve picked up an attitude that is holding you back. If your relationships with bosses, co-workers, or employees have changed for the worse, if your loved ones or friends don’t treat you the same way, maybe it’s not them. Maybe it’s you!

F. A good attitude begins with self-awareness. Self-awareness allows you to be aware of your emotions and attitudes. If you remember the experiences that trigger a bad or self-destructive attitude, you can then work to disarm those triggers and even replace the bad emotions with more constructive and empowering emotions to create a better attitude.

G. When you practice self-awareness, you give yourself far greater control of your actions.

H. If you don’t learn to control or rechannel a negative attitude, it can have a terrible impact on your life.

I. Taking responsibility for your attitude will get you our of the blame game and teach you to toss the emotional baggage and attitudes that were holding you back. Instead of beating yourself up over mistakes you’ve made or losses you’ve suffered, you resolve to learn from them and move on.

J. Three types of bad attitude baggage:

1. If-Only Baggage is often full of unfinished business, plans that went awry, or hurt feelings that have not healed. Here are some of the things you’ll typically find in the If-only baggage:

· I’d thought before I said that	· I hadn’t given into my desires
· I hadn’t had that last drink.	· I’d kept my mouth shut
· I’d listened to my parents	· I hadn’t tried to be the center of attention.
· I’d taken precautionary measures	· I’d put more effort into the relationship.
· I’d spent more time with my children	· I hadn’t taken (a loved one) for granted
· I’d let somebody else drive

2. What-Now baggage is heavy with stress and weighty expectations. The key to dealing with this negative emotional baggage, and almost any other type of recurring stress, is to focus on opportunities and solutions rather than on potentially negative consequences or problems.

3. What-If baggage is usually packed with worries about the future, which result when people think about the potential problems ahead rather than the potential opportunities. What If:

· I lose my job?	· I end up alone?
· I have a health problem?	· My spouse leaves me?
· The money runs out?	· Global warming kills us all?

4. It would be wise to consider each of these What-if questions and come up with reasonable responses to each scenario. But there is a difference between focusing on the solutions to these problems and merely focusing on the problems. When we look ahead for solutions, we are taking responsibility and some measure of control over our lives.

K. The Root Causes of A Bad Attitude

1. Low self-esteem. Do you tend to blame other people or circumstances for your mistakes?

2. Stress. Do you feel burned out? Do you become easily frustrated or irritated? Have you considered quitting your job, ending a relationship, or even suicide “just to get it over with”?

3. Fear. A fear-induced attitude can render the most efficient and effective person totally useless. Fear immobilizes you.

4. Resentment and Anger. If you have a conflict with someone you work or live with, it can cause an attitude of resentment and anger that will turn your life upside down. Resentment and anger trigger an attitude that in the end is more harmful to you than anyone else.

5. Inability to handle change. Do you feel that failure is inevitable when faced with change? Do you get a sense of panic, loss, or betrayal? All of these can affect your attitude if you are not prepared to deal with change.

L. The Basics of Attitude Awareness

1. One of the most important steps you can take toward achieving your greatest potential in life is to learn to monitor your attitude and its impact on your work performance, on your relationships, and on everyone around you.

2. People generally don’t have a high level of attitude awareness.

M. The Baggage You Carry Shapes Your Attitude

1. Often the most debilitating attitude we carry with us is the result of old baggage from our formative years. Since we’ve carried around these burdens of insecurity or low self-esteem, stress, resentment and anger, fear, and suspicion of change for so long, and since the forces behind them are buried so deep in our subconscious “basement,” they are the most difficult to understand or root out.

2. Bad attitudes accompany those burdensome emotions because we tend to think that what has happened to us in the past will continue to happen to us for the rest of our lives.

3. It takes serious work to examine the roots of a harmful attitude, but the rewards of ridding ourselves of this heavy baggage can last a lifetime.

4. The characteristics of a harmful attitude include a survivor mentality, a tendency to seek approval constantly, a powerful drive to succeed but fear of success, and difficulty in forming relationships because of low self-esteem and fear of rejection.

N. Attitude Assessment

1. On a sheet of paper, make a list of the negative attitudes that may have held you back in the past. What is the baggage and what does it contain? What past experiences? What hurt? What shame? What anger? What jealousy? Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself when examining your attitude, what influences it, and what impact it had or is having on your life now.

2. How do you respond to stressful situations?

Get angry
Become Depressed
Get energized
Throw up your arms in despair

3. Examine which of these responses is most similar to yours when you become stressed out. Then look at why you respond in that manner. What attitude drives you to respond in that way. Research reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine revealed that stress has been found to speed the spread of cancer, increase vulnerability to viral infections, enhance blockages in veins, accelerate the onset of diabetes, and trigger asthma attacks. It has also been linked to ulcers, loss of memory, and general wear and tear on the nervous system.

4. Do you tend to look at the world in a pessimistic way? Pessimism is the outward expression of a bad attitude. Pessimists are dream killers.

5. Toss the baggage and lighten the load. Only the limits of our mind-set can determine the boundaries of our future

IV. Life Is Managed; It Is Not Cured

A. Reframe your bad attitude. A change in perspective will change your attitude, which will help you turn your attitude into action.

B. You need to take responsibility for changing your attitude. If you don’t take control of your attitude and negative emotions and find a way to ease the intensity, they can cause serious mental, physical, and spiritual deterioration.

C. A survey by a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University revealed that: Nearly all of those surveyed said they were basically at the mercy of their moods. The emotion most people had the greatest difficulty controlling was anger. Some people’s lives are virtually controlled by inner rage. Their attitudes are expressions of that rage.

D. Change your attitude with a change in perspective. One case cited in the book was where someone substituted gratitude for anger, after realizing anger repeatedly provoked by his children would not last for a long time. One day his children would be gone from home to live their own lives.

E. It is up to you to assign a value or meaning to circumstances with which you are faced. You can take an attitude of defeat and anger, for example, or that you are now free to explore other options.

F. There are benefits to be found in almost anything that happens to you.

G. What you allow yourself to think about your grief or depression can either make it better or worse. You and I have very little control over what happens to us in this chaotic world, but we do have the power to control our responses to what happens and the attitudes we present to the world. We are not helpless.

H. There are 3 points to remember when faced with a major challenge. Remember that the challenge is not:

1. Permanent. It’s not going to last forever. Give yourself over to the recovery process, knowing that over time you will transform this turning point into a learning point.

2. Pervasive. It is not going to destroy your entire life. A dramatic change in the author’s life taught him how to embrace change in all areas of his life.

3. Personal. You are not the only one this happens to. Did you ever see a golf course without hazards? You won’t see a life without them either. You aren’t alone in your misery or your joy.

I. Understand that life is going to hand you challenges. You must have faith that you will overcome.

J. Whether said in love or in anger, words leave a lasting impression. Therefore you should be very mindful of things you say, particularly in anger.

K. Two of the best antidotes to a negative attitude are gratitude and forgiveness.

L. We all have a reserve of positive memories and emotions that we can tap into during challenging times. The source the author plugs into is God. For some reason, we seem to plug into negative sources more often.

M. When you stop blaming and criticizing or feeling hurt and angry, your are then free to forgive and love, to be grateful and accepting.

N. What others do to you doesn’t cause your bad attitude. Your own thoughts and the emotions you allow to live within you cause it.

O. Forgiveness of others releases you from the pain and anger of abuse. Self-forgiveness is important too. Below are some important points to consider when tapping into the power of forgiveness:

1. There is no statute of limitations on forgiveness. Negativity allowed to fester will affect all aspects of your life. It is a cancer that will grow and spread unless you learn to forgive and release the bitterness and anger.

2. Expect suspicion when you go to forgive. Approach the person in a non-threatening way. Allow the person room to maneuver and time to think.

3. If you have missed your opportunity and the other person is gone, it is still necessary to forgive.

4. Don’t deny, ignore, or try to overlook a hurtful memory. If you continue to harbor grudges, you will unconsciously carry an attitude that will reflect the hurt and anger you are holding in.

5. Understand that forgiveness may not be mutual. If the other person won’t forgive you, forgive yourself and move on.

P. Three of the strongest motivating words in the world happen to be the 3 least used: I love you.

Q. Letting go of blame, hurt, and anger and replacing those negative emotions with an attitude of forgiveness and gratitude is a powerfully healing experience. Once the blaming stops, you accept responsibility.

R. Let go of the blame, forgive, and take back the responsibility for your life. Tell yourself that you have the power to heal through forgiveness and gratitude. Be accountable.

S. Remember that your real wealth is measured not by what you have, not by where you are, but by the spirit that lives within you.

V. Turn Attitude Into Action!

A. Find your purpose and passion. It helps you create the vision, goals, and plans you need to turn attitude into action.

B. The author had done his best to fit into the company culture. But his inner dialogue was self defeating. The negative inner dialogue was the result of a poor attitude, which itself was a symptom of a deeper problem.

C. Sometimes our negative attitudes aren’t products of our past. They can also be an expression of our fear of the future.

D. When we feel trapped, bogged down, stuck in the mud, and going no place fast, we develop bad attitudes. Then we fall into the blame game. We find fault with everyone and everything around us. Once again, the enemy usually lies within.

E. Many times we get stuck because we don’t know where we want to go in the first place. Positively charged people are working on goals (purpose) while doing what they love (passion).

F. A great many people hang onto dissatisfying, dead-end jobs because they are afraid to make a move. Here’s a news flash for them: If you don’t make a move, sooner or later, life makes a move on you.

G. Have you shared your vision with those who might help you? Write down what you want to do, for whom, and for what purpose. Make a chart of how you intend to pursue your vision. People who don’t understand the importance of goals are always running into walls. See Attachment A, Attitude Assessment regarding lack of goals.

H. Goals are tools for focusing your life, taking responsibility, and getting you to take action. Achieving goals is just part of what is really important – the quality of life you experience, the person you become, and the difference you make in the lives of others as you pursue and achieve your goals.

I. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. The author claims that getting the title and the trophy wasn’t the real reward. It was the season-long experience of being with guys who played well together, improved together, and then celebrated each other’s contributions to the winning effort.

J. Some people are fortunate enough to identify a passion early on and then build their goals and their lives around pursuing that passion. The author lost his opportunity to play basketball professionally. After wandering around with an attitude of disappointment at IBM, he learned of an opportunity to speak at a high school career day. After finishing, he received a standing ovation.

K. The author was fired up about public speaking after that Career Day appearance, but I didn’t go anywhere with the passion that it stirred. I didn’t have the vision to see what I could do with my natural-born ability for public speaking. After a year, the author learned how he could channel his passion for public speaking into a purpose as a trainer at IBM.

L. Start making changes today that will get you to where you want to be tomorrow. Dare to dream, and then set deadlines for realizing those dreams. The level of your talent isn’t nearly as important as the intensity of your passion.

M. When you’ve identified your purpose and passion, put a deadline on it. Don’t make it a vague wish.

N. Once you have defined your goal or goals, make a list of smaller goals that can be achieved in the short-term. Date the smaller goals.

O. After writing down primary goals for your private life, think about the sort of person you want to be. Where would you like to live? What lifestyle would you like to have? List step-by-step goals that will help you stretch and grow along the way.

P. Next, list mini-goals that will add value and enrichment to your life, such as

1. increasing levels of fitness, mastery of personal challenges, or courses or experiences that might increase your level of understanding, awareness, or spirituality.

2. Put a deadline on each of them, starting with 1 month and then going to 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 8 years, and 10 years.

3. For each mini-goal, write a positive affirmation stating why the goal is important to you and how it will help you move closer to your primary goal.

Q. Set small, reachable goals as a defensive move to fend off an attitude of frustration and impatience.

R. Everyone needs goal models – those who have been down a path similar to the one you hope to take and achieved goals similar to those you’ve set for yourself.

S. There are 2 great moments in a person’s life. The first is when you are born. The second is when you discover why you were born. – Unknown

VI. Warning: Attitude Hazards Ahead

A. Be pre-active. This chapter helps you understand the importance of being prepared, never giving up, never quitting, knowing you will overcome. This is the mind-set you need to help you turn attitude into action.

B. The author believes there is a coach and a spirit that lives within you. When times get tough and you’re faced with the hazards of life, call on your coach.

C. Many times in life it’s the hazards of negative comments from others and what we say to ourselves that contribute to our failures, destroying the support we need to stay focused and in control.

D. You must be clear on your goals and be vigilant about maintaining a positive attitude. Learning to manage minor hazards is an important step to staying positive.

E. Our ability to maneuver through the benign as well as the traumatic changes makes all the difference. If you’re constantly stressed by the minor annoyances, chances are you’re not going to handle the catastrophic changes well.

F. The author believes in being pre-active, being prepared to take action before a situation occurs. Though major hazards are beyond our ability to control, they are definitely a part of the human experience, particularly natural disasters. Many of life’s hazards are disastrous, unpredictable, and beyond our control.

G. Whether you go through an earthquake, divorce, or any major catastrophe, you can expect aftershocks. An aftershock is a continued disruption or a major inconvenience that occurs after the initial hazard appears to be over.

H. When devastation hits and you feel as if your life is no longer yours to control, it’s important to reestablish routine. The shock may linger, the memory certainly doesn’t go away, buy you can adapt and eventually recover. How well you recover from life’s earthquakes and hurricanes determines your ability to handle the next aftershock or storm. Here is what the author’s friend did to take control of a disastrous situation:

I. Whether the hazard is major or minor, expected or unexpected, what normally surfaces and hinders our ability to take action is fear.

J. When you put your attitude into action, you start to overcome the hazards you’re facing. Once you accept that there are going to be hazards and challenges in life, you’re better prepared and able to adjust your attitude, do what you need to do to take action, and then start rejoicing, because you know your victory is on the other side. When you go through problems or hazards, have faith.

K. You can’t get through life without experiencing some type of hazard, but worrying about what lies ahead is foolish. Although there are going to be problems, remember, your victory is on the other side. Worrying about lies ahead is foolish. Stuff happens! You can’t spend your life hiding behind your fears, worries, or self-doubt.

L. How do you prepare yourself to deal with things that you can’t control? By focusing on those things that you can control, and being determined to get a positive result out of even the most negative experience.

M. Potential attitude hazards include:

· Self-doubt. I don’t know if I can really do this. It’s more complicated than I thought.

· Frustration. Why isn’t this working? What am I doing wrong?

· Fear of failure. If I don’t figure this out, I’m in trouble. They’ll kick me off the team.

· Anxiety. This is my one chance and I’m blowing it.

· Anger. Leave me alone! You’re so stupid?

· Victimization. Why me? Nobody cares what happens to me. Why am I singled out?

· Blame. It’s all your fault.

N. When you respond, you make a positive and constructive mental adjustment. When you react, it’s pure emotional and rarely does anything to improve the situation; often it makes it worse.

O. Don’t worry about what you can’t control. Remember, 92 % of your worries are for no good reason.

P. Fear cannot scare a person who is at peace with God. There is no room, opportunity, or place for fear in such a person. Remember, you must have faith.

VII. Your Attitude Control Kit

A. Discover how to motivate yourself.

B. Affirmations are statements of faith in our dreams, goals, and ability to take control of our lives. They are part of an array of helpful tools you can use to help you focus, build confidence, and eliminate self -doubt, fears, and other counter productive thoughts. Other attitude tools include self-motivation, visualization, attitude talk, powerful greetings, enthusiasm, spiritual empowerment, humor, and exercise. Affirmations repeated several times each day, every day, serve to reprogram you subconscious with positive thinking.

C. An affirmation is a method for affirming something positive in your mind. It is made up of words – words charged with power, conviction, and faith. An affirmation contains the elements of your belief, attitude, and motivation. Affirmations not only help to keep you positive, they also stir the power within you. An affirmation is something you say to take control of your thoughts, emotions, and attitudes. To work well, it should have these 5 attributes:

L. Modern studies of the psychology of peak performance have found that most great athletes, surgeons, engineers, and artists use affirmations and visualizations either subconsciously or consciously to enhance and focus their skills.

M. In Psycho-Cybernetics, Malts staged a contest between 2 teams. The players who had visualized themselves making free throws did much better than those who had actually done it.

N. Today, more and more amateur and professional athletes are spending considerable time on their mental training. They not only visualize their goals, they also imagine exactly what their bodies feel like when they make perfect vaults.

O. Phil Jackson, former coach of the Chicago Bulls, in his book, Sacred Hoops, encourages his players to use visualization to calm themselves during time-outs in games. Players say that pre-game visualization exercises help them react more quickly in game situations.

P. Nelson Mandela has written extensively on how visualization helped him maintain a positive attitude while being imprisoned for 27 years.

Q. It takes the same amount of effort to create positive visualizations and affirmations as to create negative ones, but the positive motivational tools will move you forward, and the negative will hold you back.

R. Your internal conversation—that little voice you listen to all day long—acts like a seed in that it programs your brain and affects your behavior. Attitude talk differs from affirmations in that attitude talk can only be heard by you, while affirmations are positive statements spoken out loud with power and conviction. See page 143, attached for examples of negative internal dialog and examples of attitude talk.

S. One important secret to internal motivation and being positive: When you’re feeling somewhat down-spirited, don’t tell people you feel, tell them how you want to feel.

T. Most people enjoy working and living with people who try to view life, and live life, for what it is—a beautiful gift.

U. Enthusiasm is to attitude what breathing is to life. Enthusiasm enables you to apply your gifts more effectively. It engages the spirit that moves within.

V. A friend of the author’s, Dr. Metcalf says: For me, enthusiasm is an internal spirit that speaks through your actions from your commitment and your belief in what you are doing.

W. Many people find powerful and positive motivation in their faith. All of the well-known affirmations and positive motivational tools of today sprang from the Bible.

X. Humor is a powerful motivator. The more humor and laughter in your life, the less stress you’ll have, which in turn means more positive energy to help you put your attitude into action.

Y. When you’re able to laugh at life, your body muscles expand and contract, you blood circulation increases, and your digestive system improves. The author recently read that 15 minutes a day of deep gut laughter is equivalent to 5 minutes of moderate jogging.

Z. A regular exercise routine can provide relatively quick positive feedback in the form of weight loss, muscle development, and a sense of doing something positive for your self.

AA. Attitude Tune-Up

· Count your blessings daily, and give thanks.

· Get proper rest and exercise, and start eating more healthily

· Do not let petty office or school politics have power over your personnel or professional success. Monitor what you hear, what you read, and what you say.

· Set aside personal time with family and close friends.

· Help someone less fortunate. It brings out your true spirit.

· Feed your spirit daily; read and listen to motivational books and tapes.

· Discover the motives that motivate you, and remember, motivation is not permanent.

· Reflect on your victories—things you’ve forgotten that were special. Rekindle the fire that helps you turn your attitude into action.

· Create an upbeat, positive greeting that builds enthusiasm for you and everyone around you.

· Develop a clear vision, lock into your purpose and passion, and set goals with deadlines.

BB. Don’t forget, the best coach with the strongest power over your performance is the coach that lives within you.

VIII. Build Your A-Team

A. This chapter looks at how you can build the supportive relationships you need to achieve your personal and professional success. Having the right team, with the right attitude, makes it easy to turn your attitude into action.

B. Growth comes from our ability to embrace the truth even when it is painful. Constructive feedback is invaluable and having friends and co-workers who will give it to you is important and necessary for your growth.

C. The strength of our relationships is one of the greatest measures of the quality of our lives. To build a winning attitude, you’ve got to have strong relationships with people who share your trust and interests. The author calls his supporters his Attitude Team, or simply his A-Team.

D. To build you’re a-Team, you sometimes have to let go of ego and adopt an attitude of humility, or one of service.

E. The author’s A-Team consists of the people with whom he shares the greatest trust and confidence.

F. The most powerful tool you have for building lasting and mutually beneficial relationships is a service attitude, in which your goal in every relationship is to add value to the other person’s life.

G. The people you allow to embrace your life ultimately have the greatest impact on your attitude.

H. Make a list of who’s on you’re a-Team to remind yourself of all the people who have supported you and helped you when your circumstances or attitude took a turn for the worse. Then, the next time you are tempted to think you are all alone, rid yourself of that negative thought by visualizing all the people who support you and believe in you.

I. When you are down, think: I can’t let down the people who believed in me and worked for me. It’s time I started believing in and helping myself.

J. Relationships are built on two-way streets. They have to be mutually beneficial, otherwise they will not endure.

K. Networking involves casting your net to connect with like-minded individuals and working toward establishing mutually beneficial relationships with them. Networking relationships are built upon an attitude of service and sharing.

L. The author’s values for building his A-Team are the following:

· Integrity—living with high ethical standards

· Respect—treating all people with love and dignity

· Honesty—being truthful at all costs, being a doer of your word

· Accountability—recognizing the importance of personal responsibility

· Faith—having belief in your heart and hope and confidence in your spirit

· Love—having a foundation of support and unconditional love

· Health—being free of illness and physically fit

· Wisdom—having the ability to use your knowledge

· Compassion—having a loving spirit and a sincere desire to help others

· Achievement—accomplishing a feeling of success

· Recognition—being made to feel appreciated and important

M. Behaviors that are essential to building lasting and mutually supportive relationships are:

· Accept others unconditionally

· Earn trust by being trustworthy

· Do nice things without expecting anything in return

· Be loyal, even when it may not be the popular thing to do

· Listen to others not to form judgments but to understand their point of view.

N. Remove toxic negativity from your A-Team, since pessimism:

R. Bitter to the core people are angry, belittling, resentful, and at times vindictive. Don’t let them push their poison pills on you.

S. Though we may not be able to isolate or eradicate all toxic people, we may be able to limit our exposure to them and minimize their impact on our own attitudes.

· Case Study: Noell’s father makes judgments about her friends and criticizes much of what she has done. She has adopted the attitude that she will not fall prey. She has learned to disarm and deflect his attitude rather than respond to it. She shuts out the negative and focuses on the positive aspects of their relationship. She also models the behavior and attitude she wishes her father would offer to her.

· When Charlie’s wife falls into the survivor mode, he walks her through all of the good things in her life to disarm her notion that “everything happens to me.” He then helps her develop strategies for being proactive and leads her into action, hoping that she will eventually get the sense that she can take responsibility for her own happiness and success.

T. It does no good to try and fight those in your life with negative attitudes. Your best hope is to stay centered and focused on maintaining your own positive and productive attitude.

U. It is helpful, in difficult times, to call up the positive and supportive people who are on you’re A-Team. These are the people in your life who are consistently positive and upbeat.

V. You are successful when you remember that somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a gift. That gift is what started you in the right direction. Remember that you are blessed when you pass that gift on to help someone else.

B. Any time you want to stretch and grow, you are going to have to make changes and take risks. Change is part of life, and risk is part of the change process.

C. If you’re not making changes and taking risks in some aspect of your life, you are probably in a rut. Your attitude toward all aspects of your life probably reflects that rut.

D. Aches and pains, confusion, and misgivings often accompany change. When you face a major change, you can expect that you will go through a great deal of turmoil and anxiety as you question yourself.

E. Adopt the attitude that change is to be expected, and you’ll be a lot better at dealing with it.

G. Those who resist change suffer from what the author calls changecosis, a disease that threatens your ability to enjoy life and to develop your full potential.

H. Many people have a great fear of change. Sometimes they even prefer to remain in an unpleasant or negative situation rather than leave what is known for something less familiar.

I. How do you respond to change. The type of attitude you adopt toward change determines whether you let circumstances and events control your life or whether you take control. There are four basic ways to respond to change:

· Shift into neutral. Make the assumption your life will not be touched; go into serious denial.

· Adopt a positive attitude. Look forward to the challenge, respond in an affirming manner. Set about meeting the challenge of change.

J. To overcome the fear of change, you first need to recognize the natural stages of the change process and understand that we all go through emotional and mental stress at some level when faced with change.

1. Stage One: Have I got what it takes? This is often the most tortuous period of the change process, because you actually have the opportunity to go back to the comfort zone, or at least back to the known versus the unknown. But you can’t move ahead by holding on. It is natural to feel some fear, some sense of loss, some trepidation, but you are also going to experience the exhilaration of a new experience, the rush of making a leap and pursuing new options and new opportunities.

2. Stage Two: How much is this going to hurt? Once you’ve let go and made the leap, you will experience the experience of being ungrounded, a bit lost, and even maybe a little nostalgic for the way things used to be. Understand that negative emotions and fears are going to crop up, but focus on where you are going, not where you’ve been.

3. State Three: Action produces results. When you embrace change as a natural part of life, you’ll learn to welcome new opportunities and new challenges. Your fears will diminish and your confidence will grow as you assert more and more control over your life. There may be some setbacks, but having taken risks and survived, you will feel a new self-assurance.

4. Stage Four: Whatever it takes. Maintain confidence in your ability to handle change.

1. Tap into the power of your subconscious. Take the opportunity to program your mind with a positive attitude about the ongoing change. Upon arising, spend several minutes creating a plan for the day and a strategy for dealing positively with the challenges ahead.

2. Pause to reflect. When you look in the mirror, you see the person who can do the most to improve your life, change your attitude, elevate your standards, and overcome your limitations. Visualize yourself clearing out the negativism and pessimism and replacing it with an optimistic attitude.

3. Keep your long-term goals in mind. Well-defined goals keep you focused on the end result. Visualization helps a great deal in these situations. The author believes that if you can see it in your mind, you can make it happen.

4. Avoid learned helplessness. If you don’t act on life, it will act on you. If you don’t decide where you are going, life will take you to a place you probably never wanted to be. You may not be able to stop an unwanted change from occurring in your life, but you can program yourself to take positive actions that will make the most of it.

5. Maintain a balance. Maintain a balance on the impact of a change on the various aspects of your life. Be conscious of how it affects your attitude toward work, family and loved ones, your financial security, and your faith. Work at remaining positive in your dealings in other aspects of your life.

6. Acknowledge change. Ultimately the only thing you can change is yourself, and sometimes that changes everything. Sometimes the best way to make a major leap in life is to let go and strive for something better.

7. Convert threats into opportunities. When a change seems threatening, you can reframe it as an opportunity to widen your experience and expand your knowledge.

8. Turn the change into a challenge. Challenges force you out of your comfort zone. So does change. Challenges help you realize again what is most important to you. Change can do the same.

9. Turn on the Positive Energy. In the case of a negative change, the author creates affirmations that he repeats 3 times per day. He also taps into his list of quotations on the positive power of change. Words to change by:

· I accept the reality of this change, and I intend to convert this “threat” into an opportunity for even greater accomplishment.

· I acknowledge that change is an essential part of life, and I am focused on finding solutions, now dwelling on problems caused by this change.

· I will take this change one step at a time to keep it manageable. I’ll focus first on the easiest challenges to build my confidence and a pattern of successful change management.

· I will not put off meeting the challenges of this change. I will begin today to build a better tomorrow through change. I understand that I cannot fix what I will not face.

· I will do whatever it takes to master this change and to create balance in my life.

· For every door that has closed, I will find two that have opened because of this change.

· I will make the changes within myself that are necessary to handle the changes going on around me.

· I will look to my family, friends, trusted role models, and advisers to help me through this change.

· I will be patient and let the four stages of change unfold without panicking or trying to push the process along.

· I will celebrate each small step through this change process, and I will practice gratitude for the blessings I’ve received.

10. Seek Support from members of your A-Team. The people who truly care about you want you to lean on them in difficult and challenging times because then they know you will be there for them.

L. With every change comes risk. But we lessen the risk of negative consequences when we take a positive attitude toward change. By taking that attitude, you’ll do whatever it takes to stay focused, make an impact, and deliver a positive message to others.

M. Your willingness to take risk may well determine how rewarding and fulfilling your life turns out to be. Consider these discouraging words that went unheeded with lasting results:

1. “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” -- Lord Kelvin, President Royal Society, 1895

2. “I think there is a world market for maybe 5 computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman, IBM 1943

N. Positive change often comes in giant leaps. You may have to leave many doubts and doubters behind when you take risks, but the rewards are very often the greatest of your lifetime.

X. Make a Mark That Cannot Be Erased

A. The author wants us to plant ourselves like a seed because, like a seed, the outer shell is going to die off, and when that happens you will cast off all of your past negative experiences. You’re going to become grounded in what your purpose is and what you’re supposed to do.

B. One day, you’re going to come up through the soil, you’ll start to rise, to take action, and the momentum will carry you forward. Soon you’ll be ready to plant some positive things – seeds – in other people.

C. The most important thing we can do with our lives is to understand our purpose and release our potential so that we can plant positive seeds—seeds of hope, love, encouragement, and faith—in the lives of others.

D. No matter what has happened to you in the past, no matter what state you are in at any given moment, you have the power to turn your life around and to pursue your goals and dreams by adopting an empowering attitude and taking the actions necessary to move forward.

E. According to Napoleon Hill: “Nothing bad ever happens without equal or greater benefit in return.”

F. Pain comes to teach us. If we become frustrated, we’ve lost the lesson. When we see pain as having a purpose in life, it drives us closer to our dreams.

G. Just as every one of us has the power to choose an attitude that empowers us, each of us has the ability to reach out and empower and help others by sharing our gifts, no matter what they are.

H. What matters is that you recognize you can make a difference and that God has a purpose for you.

I. Nido R. Qubein, one of the top business consultants and professional speakers in the USA, believes that life is one-third earning, one-third learning, and one-third serving.

J. Marian Wright Edelman, who founded the Children’s Defense Fund said, “Doing good for others is just the rent you pay for living on this earth.” We all have time to serve if we make time, and we should all make time as long as we have time.

K. We don’t always know the outcome or how many lives we touch, but it’s true beyond a doubt that when you extend a hand to one person, many others move forward.

L. The author has realized that the greatest rewards you can obtain in life are those that come when you forget about gathering rewards for yourself and instead look to create them for others. To be a world changer, you first have to change what is inside you.

M. If you continually practice the steps outlined in this book, you’ll notice a positive change in yourself and in the way people perceive you. Your attitude is your most priceless possession.

Emotional Fitness Conditioning is a book which assists the reader in training himself to become emotionally fit, just as the reader can become physically fit. The EFC Program will empower the reader to establish and maintain healthy relationships and gain optimal satisfaction from work. The reader will discover how to cultivate his creativity, intuition, and spirituality. EFC works from both the inside (thoughts and feelings) and outside (behavior) to create positive change.

A. One goal of book is to make Emotional Fitness to be more tangible as physical fitness now is.

1. Feelings Identification and Tolerance (FIT) refers to the ability to label or identify feelings specifically and accurately.

2. Empathy which is the ability to accurately identify and relate to the feeling state of another person with tolerance and understanding.

3. Insight pertains to understanding the impact and legacy of family of origin. It also includes the ability to look beneath the surface to the underlying reasons for behavior and emotions.

4. Assertiveness begins with a clear view of your reasonable, legitimate rights - a balanced sense of legitimate rights.

1. Fitness Focused Meditation - may reduce anxiety, focus concentration, and may produce a deeper level

3. Fitness Guided Visualization - use it for imagining desired outcomes which may help turn goals and

5. Emotional Fitness Journal - may foster insight and offer an emotional release.

1. labeling or specifying feelings and tolerance to withstand emotions and channel or express them productively

1. involves identification with the entire range of feelings, including joy and satisfaction; it not only connects one to other people; it empowers you and the people with whom you are connecting.

2. Empathy not only connects you to other people; it empowers you and the people with whom you are connecting.

3. Often the more one empathized with another persona and the less one tries to control, the more likely the other person is to make the right decisions on his own.

C. Insight - pertains to understanding the psychological and emotional forces that produce thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

D. Assertiveness - begins with a clear view of the reasonable, legitimate rights of oneself and others -- a balanced sense of entitlement.

E. The four individual Core Components of Emotional Fitness above must work together to create a state of emotional health.

2. Parenting requires trick balancing act of indulgence and discipline, closeness and separation, protection and letting go.

1. when feelings are too painful to confront, many people self-medicate with drugs or alcohol to avoid or alter their emotional states. The longer the emotions remain unnamed and ignored, the more power they will gain.

2. In EFC, the first goal is to learn to identify feelings honestly without editing. Feelings cannot harm one if one acts with empathy and appropriate assertiveness.

3. When the biochemical and muscular effects have no outlet, their effects continue to act on the body for a prolonged period. The outcome can be back pain or headache, high blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack, or a greater vulnerability to any type of illness. EFC provides one with fitness-oriented outlets for dealing with painful or unpleasant feelings, including stress.

4. When one practices meditation regularly he will enjoy a higher degree of control over his feelings and will be able to manage them more productively. Affirmations will maximize the benefits. Can help with muscle pain, headache, insomnia, panic/anxiety attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder.

B. Fitness and Guided Visualization - Has a profound effect on mind/body health. This effect may be partially due to the opportunity to visualize desirable outcomes and express positive feelings during visualization sessions.

C. Emotional Fitness Journal - The act of writing helps uncover emotions underlying your thoughts, moods, and actions. Naming these feelings can free one from their negative power.

D. FIT and Exercise for Emotional Fitness - Patients who ran consistently showed a rapid and remarkable degree and rate of improvement. Aerobic exercise can exert an antidepressant effect.

A. The ability to identify, understand, and be respectful of the feelings of another person. Sympathy and compassion involve sharing in other people's sorrow or suffering. Empathy is the ability to identify with the entire range of emotions: joy, triumph, satisfaction, and confidence as well as anger, fear, and sadness. It is open-minded and nonjudgmental.

B. Communications researchers estimate that 90 percent or more of an emotional message is expressed through nonverbal means. It helps you pick up those signals, which can be even more significant than words.

C. Empathy is key to teamwork, loyalty, and motivation. It does not necessarily entail forgiveness or acceptance.

E. Numerous research studies have found that people with supportive friends and families have much higher rates of recovery from various kinds of serious illness.

F. One must learn the difference between true empathy and projecting one's own values or ideas onto one's mate.

H. Fitness focused meditation and empathy will lower one's level of tension, frustration, and anxiety, which makes it easier to maintain an empathetic outlook.

I. Visualization will all one to personalize EFC training to develop empathy for specific people in one's life.

J. Anger and resentment block channels of Empathy. Journal writing offers a safe haven for expressing rage, pain, and other feelings that may be too damaging to verbalize. Dual viewpoint journaling will help write from both your own and the viewpoint of the other person involved in the situation.

K. Physical exercise for Empathy both helps one feel energetic and balanced plus it is so much easier to project Empathy toward others.

A. Insight is a pivotal skill involving understanding the psychological and emotional forces that produce your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It also encompasses the art of learning to understand better the connections between your past and your present.

B. Insight may lead back to your family of origin; it may give one the ability to look beneath the surface and understand why one feels and acts they you do.

C. Once one comprehends the psychological underpinnings of one's emotions and actions, one will find it easier to forgive oneself and move beyond self-reproach and guilt toward a more loving acceptance of yourself. An additional benefit is a reduction in anxiety or depressive moods.

D. In modern cognitive and behavioral therapy the emphasis is on helping clients learn how to manage difficult emotions and adjust unhealthy behavior.

E. To gain a clear comprehension of why you feel and act the way you do, you need to know how your past affects your present, and what forces are still influencing your current life.

F. One should seriously consider his personally mythology - the way he views, defines and limits himself - that one feels may restrict him from achieving his goals.

G. During EFC, Insight can empower one to modify unwanted thought patterns and behaviors on many levels.

H. Meditation can provide relief from the repetitive and distressing thoughts that often occupy our minds.

I. Journaling serves as a surrogate form of talk therapy, providing a forum for safe expression and exploration of your past and its effect on your present life.

J. The rhythmic nature of aerobic exercise, coupled with increased blood flow to your brain and throughout your body, evokes fresh ways of thinking.

A. This crucial skill begins with a realistic, balanced view of your reasonable rights and needs. It also considers other people's legitimate rights. Aggression intrudes on someone else's rights, while assertion does not.

B. Assertiveness empowers one to stand up for his legitimate rights and express feelings honestly through empathetic communication and action. Emotional Fitness requires a balance between self-love and Empathy, meaning that you are concerned about your own needs but also sensitive to the feelings and rights of other people.

C. The key to Assertiveness is a healthy sense of entitlement rather than either narcissism, which is an elevated level of entitlement, or co-dependency, which is an undeveloped sense of entitlement.

D. Assertive action entails asking for what you want and standing up for what you believe in, even if this means risking rejection, conflict, or change. Empathy will help you understand your adversary's point of view in situations that require Assertiveness.

E. Before one can assert himself appropriately, he needs a healthy sense of entitlement on the emotional level. During meditation, your affirmations specifically state what you want for yourself and believe you deserve.

F. Research has indicated that the healthiest response to anger is appropriate Assertiveness, rather than aggression or suppression.

G. During Journaling, assertiveness is about expressing the truth as you see it, in a tactful and empathetic fashion that also considers others' legitimate rights and feelings.

A. A good idea - draw up a contract with yourself, making a commitment to start the EFC Program on a certain date and to practice the Training Techniques consistently.

B. Should you postpone starting the program due to anxiety regarding your reaction to the Program, consider the following:

2. Once you have identified the feelings that the EFC Program arouses, the second element of FIT comes into play: Tolerance of Feelings.

3. Some of your associates may have a negative reaction to your participation in the Program. If that should happen, use the energy to empower yourself and let others be convinced by the example of your growth.

4. You must practice the techniques often enough to see substantial progress to allow the Fitness Reinforcement Loop to take effect. Exercise at least 3 times per week, for a minimum of 20 minutes per session.

A. Meditation meets all of the requirements of an ideal training technique. It is rhythmic and repetitive, the type of activity that instinctively satisfies the human nervous system. Meditation in itself encourages emotional wellness and spiritual growth.

B. Meditation can be used to seek enlightenment, to relax, to enhance mental capacities, to lower blood pressure, or to enhance immune system function.

C. A University of CA at Irvine found that Transcendental Meditation increased the blood flow to participants' brains by an average of 65 percent. In another study, meditators were found to have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, reduced effects of stress, and less use of alcohol and cigarettes.

D. The EFC Program has shown that there is a decrease in anxiety, anger, hostility, and depression among people who meditate or use other relaxation methods on a regular basis.

E. When you find yourself becoming distracted by thoughts, sounds, or physical restlessness, gently shift your focus back to your breath.

F. Affirmations - invent your own, frame the statements in a positive, rather than a negative, way. Affirm what you want, rather than what you do not want to achieve.

A. Visualization, which is also called imagery involves the creation of specific mental images to achieve a desired goal, response, or outcome.

B. Visualizations often revolve around relationships and personal issues, as well as achievement-oriented concerns.

D. Picture yourself with strengthened ability to tolerate and talk about feelings of anger, tenderness, excitement, helplessness, or other strong emotions.

A. Journaling offers a way to access ideas and emotions regarding a particular person or situation in your life, past, present, or future. It also provides a forum for self-dialogue about issues, struggles, and solutions that arise in your daily life connected with the Core Components.

B. Above all, journaling is a tremendous release, a safe haven for expressing your innermost thoughts and feelings. It capitalizes on the basic human urge to create a record of our inner lives. The emotional content is most important. It is imperative that you feel uninhibited when you write and absolutely certain that no one will read your entries.

C. There are 2 basic styles of writing: Free Flow and Core Component Journaling.

1. Free flow technique gives one the freedom to write about any issues, thoughts, or events that relate to

3. Core Component Journaling: you set out to write about topics related to a specific Core Component.

D. Spontaneous, free expression inherent in journaling that activates Emotional Fitness. The key is to concentrate on the emotional aspects of your experience rather than merely recording events.

A. Exercise has the ability to galvanize one's emotional energy, relieve stress, and lift your spirits. It creates stamina, resilience, and confidence.

B. Exercise also has the inherent capacity to fortify your Assertive ability. It will spark your problem-solving ability as well.

C. Exercise can influence your emotional state. It is often associated with an upswing in mood.

D. Tests undertaken by the Longevity Research Institute indicate that exercise can improve memory and other cognitive functions at any age.

A. It is highly likely that EFC will have a positive effect on the four major areas that are key elements of happiness: self-esteem, relationships, job satisfaction/performance, and physical well-being.

1. one can always deepen his capacity to understand and honor his feelings through FIT

2. One can continually spread his awareness and Emotional Fitness through greater Empathy

3. One can go on honing his knowledge of the connection between the past and present through Insight

In this book, Dr. Caroline Myss believes she may be entering the subject of healing through the back door since she is giving so much attention to why we fail to heal, but she believes that many of us are almost as afraid of healing as we are of illness. By understanding how fear and other negative emotions adversely affect healing, we may more easily identify how we are interfering, consciously or unconsciously, with our own healing process.

Dr. Myss subscribes to energy medicine where it is believed that we all have seven energy centers in our bodies, which in the Hindu system are called chakras. Each chakra, representing an energy center in our bodies, roughly corresponds to a location in the physical body. Through reading energy fields that permeate and surround the body, Dr. Myss picks up information about dramatic childhood experiences, behavior patterns, even superstitious beliefs, all of which have a bearing on a person's physical health. Dr. Myss can then make recommendations for treating conditions on both a physical and spiritual level. The intention behind using energy medicine is to treat the body and the spirit equally.

A. In late Spring of 1988, Dr. Myss arrived at the Findhorn Community in northeastern Scotland where attendees typically expected her to facilitate their healing directly by providing an individual reading and setting up a treatment regimen for them.

B. Dr. Myss is convinced that when we define ourselves by our wounds, we burden and lose our physical and spiritual energy and open ourselves to the risk of illness.

C. Many people in the midst of healing may be feeling "stuck". They are striving to confront their wounds, valiantly working to bring meaning to terrible past experiences, but they are not healing. They have redefined their lives around their wounds and the process of accepting them. They are not working to get beyond their wounds.

D. People today are more likely to be emotionally healed since in the past, speaking about emotions publicly was taboo, it is now realized that speaking about emotions is now a requirement for healing.

E. One option available to all of us is to behave parasitically with others by looking to others to boost one's self-esteem or to give one ideas of how to live, act, or think because one no longer has the energy to create one's own life. Relationships such as this typically are short-lived.

F. One should accept his current stage of life and maintain it with consciousness to avoid potential health difficulties. We may also need to let go of negative events from the past to avoid health difficulties.

G. Probably because emotional wounds are so powerful, Cultural attitudes have become hypersensitive to the claims and demands of survivors. Woundology amounts to a kind of welfare state of the soul, paying people dividends for blithely refusing to better their condition.

H. Dwelling on sad or anger-filled memories can become a habit - almost like being under a spell. Over time, we no longer even have to consciously activate our unhappy past; it is activated automatically. Learn to become conscious, as often as possible, of what you are thinking about and where your energy is.

A. Dr. Myss believes that an awareness of the innate connection between our body-mind and our spirit can catalyze a healing. In some cases, it may be Divine will that we do not heal at the physical level but learn from a chronic or terminal disease certain lessons that our soul needs to discover.

B. Five central myths about healing that can fully take charge of a persons mental and emotional strength and make healing nearly impossible:

a. Wounds are like diversionary canals that drain water and spirit out of the river of our life. Dwelling on a wound is a type of self-inflicted wound in which your consciousness is always focused on weakness and never on recovery. Emphasizing your wounds can damage your psyche as much as the original wounds did.

b. People have pulled themselves through nightmarish experiences and gone on to build not only productive lives but also joyful ones.

c. The only way to release the grip this myth has on your psyche is to take more responsibility for the quality of your life.

a. Pain is not necessarily all negative; it can also be a teacher, a messenger directing us to pay attention to our bodies or to move away from behavior and situations in which we are weak to those in which we practice integrity and strength.

b. Instead of medicating ourselves in every painful instance, we should examine why we have a pain or a pattern of physical aches and pains.

c. Pay attention to how many thoughts and attitudes you hold in yourself each day that are painful.

d. One example, Lester had experienced tremendous pain from a tumor in his leg and the subsequent surgery to remove the cancerous tissue. He began to look at his pain as a "guiding" light that, with each meditation told him where to focus his attention. Lester concluded that he felt his mind getting stronger every day and that he felt his body repairing itself.

a. Our thoughts powerfully influence the health of our minds and bodies; delving into our inner selves is essential to the healing process.

b. Healing from illness would be better served if we investigated our past for positive patterns as well as negative ones.

c. We tend to use our willpower far more to try to control others than to learn to control ourselves. We would be well served to use this willpower to break an addiction pattern or develop a daily exercise routine than by a wish to control our negative thoughts.

d. Unearthing the positive is as effective a healing process as is clearing out the negative parts of our history.

a. The reason we believe change is impossible is simple: No one likes change, and no one likes to change.

b. We cannot seek to heal an illness without first looking into what behavioral patterns and attitudes need to be altered in our life. Healing requires both internal and external change.

c. Illness is associated so closely with fears and negative patterns that we can become as frightened of healing ourselves as we are of the disease itself. The knowledge of how much and how deeply we need to change is as intimidating as it is true.

e. Again and again one needs to look inside, confront the myths in which one believes, and clear out your fears and negative patterns. This must be practiced after one heals as well.

A. Knowledge of the chakras has existed for thousands of years. According to Hindu and Buddhist metaphysical systems. Seven chakras are the traditional energy centers of the body. They are the areas of interconnection between body and spirit. When purified or opened up through the advanced practices of yoga, they lead the adept to enlightenment.

B. To a remarkable extent, the seven chakras correspond to the symbol systems of the Christian sacraments and the Tree of Life, so that taken together they constitute a journey of spiritual development. There is some correspondence between the seven chakras and the seven Christian sacraments.

A. We begin our lives saturated in Tribal or group belief patterns, starting with those of our biological tribes.

Even before we reach the age of reason (around 7), our energy circuits have been connected to Tribal belief patterns through the influence of our Tribal elders (parents, teachers, religious, and political leaders). The belief patterns are aligned with the first chakra, and then continue with those inherent in the second and third chakras.

B. As long as we remain in the sway of Tribal power, our ability to choose and our capacity to grow in self-responsibility are limited. As we take responsibility for our external actions, as well as for our thoughts and attitudes, we begin to see our energy connections to others and to the vital life-force itself.

C. Psychologist and theologian Sam Keen as said two of the most important questions for our life journey are "Where am I going?" and "Who will go with me?". These questions should be asked in that order.

D. More often than not, when we are on the journey toward self-discovery, we will be met with opposition.

F. Illness as a transformative vehicle; illness demands that we pay attention to the healing process, which alone contains the possibility of change.

G. When one's life no longer suits him, change is sometimes so frightening that many people will unconsciously sabotage their healing process rather than make changes in their emotional and psychological lives that will affect a shift in their biology. If one is able to enter into a process of change, then he maximizes his chances of healing.

H. The Power of the Awakened Self. Once you have made the transition to Individual power, you soon learn that self-discovery is not a process that ends. Self-expression and self-care become the rule rather than the exception. Individual power is a result of unlocked potential in oneself that previously been asleep and one discovers that he has abilities, perceptions, and other energy tools that one had not allowed himself to own earlier.

1. Fueled by Individual power, one comes to understand personal boundaries and what it means to protect himself from influences that don't support his growth.

2. It is important to give oneself the right of choice, self-expression, and self respect.

1. Symbolic power is by far the most potent level of insight available to us. It is our unconscious self, the part that longs to come out into the open and become a conscious ally, not drawing us away from rapture-filled contact with personal life, but giving us the freedom to embrace all that life is without fear that we are not powerful enough to know life fully.

2. Face the part of you that has always made you feel defeated and frightened. Celebrate each accomplishment you make daily, regardless of whether you think the accomplishment is big or small.

A. The joined forces of complementary medicine and spirituality promise to be more effective in helping people heal terminal and chronic illness, maintain health well into the elder years, and retard the aging process.

B. Begin working to heal your spirit. A healthy spirit is essential for a healthy body, although a healthy spirit does not guarantee a healthy body. Understanding one's spirit does hold the key to what happens to one's body and within it, however.

C. Healing requires a willingness to make changes in both one's physical and spiritual ways of life.

D. One needs to feed his spirit (through believing in a Divine force) as well as his body for healing.

E. True healing is one of the most frightening journeys anyone can undertake. For some people, illness can provide a feeling of physical safety that sometimes allows them to slow down the speed at which their lives are moving or changing.

G. We hold within us the terms upon which we will move forward with our lives, including the goal of healing an illness.

H. For all the comfort friends and family can bring, that power is diminished when the recipient does not try to help himself.

I. There are complementary treatments available. One should be open to complementary treatments such as allopathic medicine, reflexology, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture; use of vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and other vital supplements.

J. When one learns that there are several potential methods of healing, the wisest path is to keep an open mind to any positive method, whether it is allopathic or holistic.

A. It's one thing to understand intellectually the steps you need to take to heal. It's quite another to understand what you need to do on an emotional level. Awareness by itself does nothing. Create a three-column sight to for tribal, individual, and symbolic beliefs.

C. One has to get accustomed to viewing his illness the way he would view himself going back to school. Reaching a detached state of mind for even 5 minutes a day is so valuable that it can infuse one's body with the equivalent energy of six months of living in genuine hope.

D. In healing, view your circumstances as an experience through which you are passing rather than as one that controls your physical life.

E. For positive and negative beliefs, try to distinguish when a belief is merely an intellectual idea and when it actually holds authority within you. Keep in mind that negative beliefs usually result in negative behavior patterns.

F. Remind yourself as often as necessary that the time to start in the healing process is now.

G. One should see if he is committing the same kind of injustice or abuse from which he suffered.

I. Keeping your focus in a positive direction takes discipline and that level of discipline requires practice. Avoid distractions. One needs to achieve a working relationship with his inner resources to be able to quickly eclipse a negative thought with a positive one and feel the positive energy that results.

J. Healing is not quest to solve one's mysteries, but to learn how to live within them.

K. Asking why painful events occur is a waste of energy; instead focus on your healing in present time. The spirit needs nourishment to heal, just as the mind and body do. As one absorbs truths and stories that nourish the spirit, he will feel an energy released within himself. This energy can only be called grace.

L. Avoid falling into the pit of constantly "speaking pain." One person the author met referred to her illness as "a friend who has come to teach me great truths."

M. During the pain of illness, fill yourself with memories of times that made you feel in love with your life and grateful to be alive.

N. Find the words that help you distance yourself from your illness and fill you with power

O. As a preemptive action, direct your energy circuits each day into positive sources that can help you feel filled with power and light.

P. Make gratitude a practice; few practices soothe our spirits as much as gratitude.

A. The symbolism of the chakras, the Tree of Life of the Jewish Kabbalah and the seven Christian sacraments represent an internal road map, a spiritual maturation process that can lead us from the unconscious to the conscious mind, then on to the super conscious.

B. Making visualization a natural, habitual part of your consciousness will allow the healing fire to work within you even when you're not thinking about it.

1. The first chakra is the Tribal center of our bodies. Within the Christian tradition, this center is symbolically represented as the sacrament of Baptism The energy of our first chakra is meant to ground us, to make us feel that we are part of the grand universe of life but also inextricably connected to the physical dimension of life.

2. The second chakra represents the sacrament of Communion in the Christian tradition. It can be thought of as our survival center.

3. The third chakra contains the energy of endurance - the power to endure the journey. One should reflect on what he needs to do to heal physically, emotionally, and spiritually. How will letting go or hanging on affect your healing? I must put aside words and issues between me and my partner, or me and my children.

4. In the Christian tradition, the fourth chakra is aligned with the sacrament of Marriage. It is also symbolic of an internal union of body, mind, and spirit within the individual. You can also develop a personal ritual in which you take yourself into your own heart. Do something enjoyable or appreciative each day for yourself.

5. The fifth chakra combines physical and spiritual energies. The Christian counterpart is the sacrament of Confession. We encounter an energy drain when we make negative judgments about our self and our own behavior. Confess to yourself the troubles you have caused yourself and others.

6. The sixth chakra represents the ability to see clearly and compassionately and is also symbolized by a third eye. The shadow side of the sixth chakra is self doubt and the detrimental practice of comparing ourselves to others. When we lose sight of our own self-worth, we become unbalanced and regard others with hostility, envy, and negative judgments. Accept the truth that your life has purpose and meaning far beyond what you can comprehend.

7. The seventh chakra corresponds to the Christian sacrament, Extreme Unction, symbolic of the release of all that is "dead and over" in our lives. The shadow side of this chakra's energy is lack of faith and trust in the Divine and fear about any aspect of our lives, from what will become of us tomorrow to the closure of our lives on this earth. We hold onto our pasts, which continue to affect our lives adversely. We cannot see the fullness of each moment.

8. The eighth chakra contains our archetypal patterns, the universally recognized themes or images that provide an impersonal, symbolic view of our human experiences. The author believes the time has come for us to establish a dialogue with that part of ourselves that has traditionally been called our unconscious.

9. Use symbolic sight to detach your emotions from a given situation, positive or negative, and observe the details to determine the lesson or guidance they contain.

A. At the energetic level, a very real and powerful connection exists between the chakra system as developed in India and the seven sacraments within the Christian faith. Dr. Myss invited several people to a workshop in Mexico to focus on one chakra and the corresponding sacrament. The workshop was 7 days long and she presented the union between the chakra system and the sacraments.

B. Many of the people invited were lapsed Christians or who followed spiritual paths completely unrelated to the Christian tradition. She believed it would be very helpful to give the Sacraments to all of the workshop participants.

C. During these sessions, some people healed their emotional and psychological injuries, and in the following months she received reports of others who had subsequently succeeded at healing their physical illnesses.

I. We think we're hitting on something new by finally attaching our biology to emotions, but it's no accident that the physical heart has always been associated, both in myth and popular jargon with truth and love, the very elements that make up the fourth chakra.

II. Our goal is much the same as Snow White's - to get our ego to stop fighting our higher self, to unify the elements of our nature, to make friends with our seven chakras, and to wake up and take charge of our lives.

III. It goes without saying that not every healing crisis will have a "fairy-tale ending," but every effort you make, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to you, will always bring you closer to a state of spiritual and physical health.

I. Brain Injury Types	VI. Recovery Time
II. Late Effects of Head Injury	VI. Recovery Time
III. Leaving the Hospital	VII. Back to Work & Study
IV. Some Specific Consequences	VIII. Groups With Special Problems
V. Needs of Particular Groups	IX. Long-term Adjustment

Prologue March 8, 1989: New York	14. Halfway Home
1. Friday, July 8, 1998: Detroit	15. Meltdown
2. Monday, July 11, 1988	16. The Collapse of My Dreams
3. Twist of Lemon	17. Waking Up is Hard to Do
4. Monday Night	18. Recycled Brains
5. Not Adding Up the Score	19. What I did on My Summer Vacation
6. Who Is This in Here with Me?	20. I'm out of Sorts. Please Send Sorts
7. What If I Need Them and They Won't Take Me?	21. Getting Better
8. March 8, 1989: New York - I'd Rather Have a Root Canal	22. Turning Leaves
9. Mopping Up a Flood	23. Not as I Wish, but as I Am
10. There Goes the Neighborhood	24. Moving On
11. Dropkick Me, Joanie	25. Occupational Trials
12. In the Same Boat	26. Living in the Real World
13. Don't Charge the Battery, Fix the Generator	27. Gross Pointe

Introduction	VII. Starting Your Emotional Fitness Program
I. Emotional Fitness Conditioning	VIII. Fitness Focused Meditation
II. The Essential Elements of Emotional Fitness Conditioning	IX. Fitness Guided Visualization
III. Feelings Identification and Tolerance	X. The Emotional Fitness Journal
IV. Empathy	XI. Exercise for Emotional fitness
V. Insight	XII. The Impact of Emotional fitness Conditioning
VI. Assertiveness

Introduction: What is Energy Medicine	V. Finding the Right Path Through the Chaos of Healing
I. Woundology and the Healing Fire	VI. Igniting the Healing Fire Within
II. The Five Myths About Healing	VII. Visualizing the Chakras
III. The Chakras, the Astrological Ages, and the Forms of Power	VIII. Using the Chakras and the Sacraments for Healing
IV. Beginning the Journey to Individual and Symbolic Power	Epilogue: Snow White and the Seven Chakras