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A review by debshelf
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman
4.0
3.75 stars
After having been surrounding & bombarded by the "cult/ure of positive thinking" for most of my adult life, this book was a breath of fresh air. It helped me understand a few things about myself, for instance why affirmations have never helped me and usually just end up making me feel worse, and provided me with some tools with which to approach the more distressful parts of my life. I feel like I need to spend more time with the section of the book on Buddhism and Eckhart Tolle's "discoveries" about self, because I'll admit that I got a little lost in there. The sections on the Stoics and memento mori were the most helpful and illuminating for me, personally.
After having been surrounding & bombarded by the "cult/ure of positive thinking" for most of my adult life, this book was a breath of fresh air. It helped me understand a few things about myself, for instance why affirmations have never helped me and usually just end up making me feel worse, and provided me with some tools with which to approach the more distressful parts of my life. I feel like I need to spend more time with the section of the book on Buddhism and Eckhart Tolle's "discoveries" about self, because I'll admit that I got a little lost in there. The sections on the Stoics and memento mori were the most helpful and illuminating for me, personally.