Manage Your Mind
Book

Manage Your Mind

The Mental Fitness Guide

Gillian Butler and Tony Hope
Oxford UP, 2007
First Edition: 1995
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Recommendation

What you put into your body has an impact on your physical health. You are in big trouble if you live on candy, chips and root beer. Similarly, what you dwell on in your mind affects your mental health. If your thoughts are self-critical, obsessive and anxious, you will not be happy. In fact, you will probably be miserable and neurotic. Fortunately, just as you can improve your physical health with diet and exercise, you can also take specific steps to improve your mental health. Cognitive therapy experts Gillian Butler and Tony Hope show you these steps and teach you how to use them to develop a healthier, happier mind. They offer sensible techniques you can use to feel more self-confident, and less anxious, stressed and fearful. This self-help guide outlines techniques for achieving your mental health goals, including chapters on beating bad habits and building decision-making and memory skills. getAbstract suggests this exemplary book to anyone who wants to be more positive, upbeat and serene.

Summary

An Effective Regimen for Mental Health

Solid mental health requires effort, but the payoffs are better relationships, a more positive mood, less obsession, fewer worries, increased physical health and more restful sleep. A “psychological fitness” regimen can help you achieve such goals. Put the following program’s techniques and principles to work. Your mind will thank you for it.

Basic Principles for Staying Mentally Fit

Mental health requires two things. First, you must feel good about yourself, and deeply value and approve of yourself. Indeed, you should feel the same deep love for yourself that parents feel toward their infants. This is a prime foundation for mental health. Without that vital sense of self-approval, your ideas and actions can undermine your mental health. Second, you must believe that you can change; in fact, your body and mind are changing constantly. You can harness that flexibility so that it works for you, not against you. Don’t think that you are stuck in a mental rut. To embark on a fruitful transition, assess where you are now. Accept the present as the canvas you will paint your future upon; forget the past, since you can’t alter...

About the Authors

Gillian Butler, Ph.D., is a psychologist and clinician. She helped found the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. Psychiatrist Tony Hope, M.D., teaches medical ethics at the University of Oxford.

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