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informative
medium-paced
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
If you picked up this book like after watching Stutz on Netflix, you might have expected a similar feel to the book. That is not the case. The co-author Barry Michels takes this book into a completely woo woo direction with "higher forces" and completely unscientific "spiritual" babble.
The annoying part is that some of the Tools do have a strong scientific backing. For example, The Grateful Flow is closely aligned with gratitude practices, which have been extensively studied and shown to improve psychological well-being. Gratitude exercises are a common and scientifically supported practice. The other is The Reversal of Desire. It aligns with principles of exposure therapy used in treating anxiety disorders. Active Love shares aspects with compassion-focused therapy, although the specific practice of penetrating the subject with love is a bit over-the-top.
Inner Authority (The Shadow) is lifted from Jung's work and repackaged, and has little to no scientific backing. The last one is Jeopardy (The Will of God or Higher Power) is so cringe-worthy it's hard to write about. It involves elements of spirituality and connecting with a higher purpose, which squashes the individual's rational mind. Michels shares a story about a dream he had about an earthquake, and exactly a year later an earthquake happens in Los Angeles and destroys his office. He took this to mean a divine or spiritual hand that is guiding events and changed his views on rationality and spirituality completely after that. If all it takes to shake his rational beliefs is one coincidental event, his views should not be taken seriously.
This is not to say that the tools do not work. Like I mentioned, gratitude has been shown to work in many scientific studies. 3/5 of the tools make sense and well worth trying. Inner Authority is iffy but if it works it works. Jeopardy as described in the book is just so unpalatable and I'm afraid it will simple turn rational people away.
Ultimately, the book could have benefited from a more balanced collaboration. Stutz's insights, when not overshadowed by Michels' more esoteric viewpoints, could appeal to a broader audience seeking practical self-help tools grounded in psychology.
The annoying part is that some of the Tools do have a strong scientific backing. For example, The Grateful Flow is closely aligned with gratitude practices, which have been extensively studied and shown to improve psychological well-being. Gratitude exercises are a common and scientifically supported practice. The other is The Reversal of Desire. It aligns with principles of exposure therapy used in treating anxiety disorders. Active Love shares aspects with compassion-focused therapy, although the specific practice of penetrating the subject with love is a bit over-the-top.
Inner Authority (The Shadow) is lifted from Jung's work and repackaged, and has little to no scientific backing. The last one is Jeopardy (The Will of God or Higher Power) is so cringe-worthy it's hard to write about. It involves elements of spirituality and connecting with a higher purpose, which squashes the individual's rational mind. Michels shares a story about a dream he had about an earthquake, and exactly a year later an earthquake happens in Los Angeles and destroys his office. He took this to mean a divine or spiritual hand that is guiding events and changed his views on rationality and spirituality completely after that. If all it takes to shake his rational beliefs is one coincidental event, his views should not be taken seriously.
This is not to say that the tools do not work. Like I mentioned, gratitude has been shown to work in many scientific studies. 3/5 of the tools make sense and well worth trying. Inner Authority is iffy but if it works it works. Jeopardy as described in the book is just so unpalatable and I'm afraid it will simple turn rational people away.
Ultimately, the book could have benefited from a more balanced collaboration. Stutz's insights, when not overshadowed by Michels' more esoteric viewpoints, could appeal to a broader audience seeking practical self-help tools grounded in psychology.
informative
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I didn't love this... if it's your first intro to spiritual psychology, then there might be some nuggets in here, but it fell flat for me. I also found it overdramatized, especially as an audiobook.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
So I went into this book curious what these mysterious “tools” were and how they helped people make immediate changes in their lives, as the authors make big claims. I realized that even though these tools are presented through the framework of psychology, they are really just energy and shadow work.
Overall, I found the tone and presentation unnecessarily self-punishing and fear-based. The authors seem to vacillate between staunch pragmatism drenched in simplistic and punishing scenarios while also denigrating new-age or “woo” practices, to then wanting you to put trust in “Higher Forces” and presenting it at the end as a spiritual path. This book was not written with enough nuance to clearly delineate their philosophy.
Maybe these tools could be life-changing for some people, especially if they are new to anything like this. But I hope that people take the ideas behind them and use them in a way that feels the best for them, and leave the rest.
A couple of the tools I really like are the ones called Inner Authority (which is pretty much shadow work) and Grateful Flow (one of the easiest, listing things you’re grateful for) in chapters 4 and 5. The other tools, while I understand the ideas behind them, I find the execution problematic and forced. In the first tool, for instance, you’re instructed to scream silently at yourself, “bring it on!” (the pain) and, “I love pain!”. I don’t think you need to force yourself to embrace pain this way, in order to challenge yourself to move out of your comfort zone.
It’s strange to me that a book professing to teach tools that work with “Higher Forces” feels so binary and old-school in some ways. But then again, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as it probably fits with the authors backgrounds, age, experience, and the audience they’re looking for.
The tools themselves are presented simply and clearly, but the case histories of patients using them feels exaggerated and overly simplistic. I do appreciate that they clearly don’t want these tools to be thought of as quick fixes, they say that you should be using them for the rest of your life, and the last tool is designed to help motivate you if you’ve stopped using the others (although I find that one just as problematic as the first two). The last two chapters explain how the tools fall in with a greater spiritual theory (interesting but I can see how this would turn some people off), and how using them can help humanity as a whole (ambitious).
In the Jeopardy chapter, describing how consumerism has us on a quest for the impossible, they go so far as to say, “you’re not really free until all hope for magic is crushed.” Excuse me?? We clearly have different definitions of magic. My definition of magic is about art, expression, love, and finding meaning through moving towards what you love (through struggle if necessary), something that I can co-create with, that doesn’t excuse me from responsibility, yet gives me the possibility for more clearly expressing myself…., in fact, somewhat like the practices that they describe in this book! Yet it feels like they’ve missed the point of what they are professing to help people do. Ah, well.
Overall, I found the tone and presentation unnecessarily self-punishing and fear-based. The authors seem to vacillate between staunch pragmatism drenched in simplistic and punishing scenarios while also denigrating new-age or “woo” practices, to then wanting you to put trust in “Higher Forces” and presenting it at the end as a spiritual path. This book was not written with enough nuance to clearly delineate their philosophy.
Maybe these tools could be life-changing for some people, especially if they are new to anything like this. But I hope that people take the ideas behind them and use them in a way that feels the best for them, and leave the rest.
A couple of the tools I really like are the ones called Inner Authority (which is pretty much shadow work) and Grateful Flow (one of the easiest, listing things you’re grateful for) in chapters 4 and 5. The other tools, while I understand the ideas behind them, I find the execution problematic and forced. In the first tool, for instance, you’re instructed to scream silently at yourself, “bring it on!” (the pain) and, “I love pain!”. I don’t think you need to force yourself to embrace pain this way, in order to challenge yourself to move out of your comfort zone.
It’s strange to me that a book professing to teach tools that work with “Higher Forces” feels so binary and old-school in some ways. But then again, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as it probably fits with the authors backgrounds, age, experience, and the audience they’re looking for.
The tools themselves are presented simply and clearly, but the case histories of patients using them feels exaggerated and overly simplistic. I do appreciate that they clearly don’t want these tools to be thought of as quick fixes, they say that you should be using them for the rest of your life, and the last tool is designed to help motivate you if you’ve stopped using the others (although I find that one just as problematic as the first two). The last two chapters explain how the tools fall in with a greater spiritual theory (interesting but I can see how this would turn some people off), and how using them can help humanity as a whole (ambitious).
In the Jeopardy chapter, describing how consumerism has us on a quest for the impossible, they go so far as to say, “you’re not really free until all hope for magic is crushed.” Excuse me?? We clearly have different definitions of magic. My definition of magic is about art, expression, love, and finding meaning through moving towards what you love (through struggle if necessary), something that I can co-create with, that doesn’t excuse me from responsibility, yet gives me the possibility for more clearly expressing myself…., in fact, somewhat like the practices that they describe in this book! Yet it feels like they’ve missed the point of what they are professing to help people do. Ah, well.
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The tools work. Excellent theory behind the tools. Could have been explained in less words.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced