Mastery over the events of our life is key to our well-being; this book explains how to achieve that mastery.
Mastery over the events of our life is key to our well-being; this book explains how to achieve that mastery.
Healthy living, Mental health, Personal growth (general)
Our lives are conducted within a dynamic, vibrant, but often challenging context of desirable, undesirable, and even threatening life experiences. A rewarding life in the face of these experiences depends on our ability to engage and maintain a sense of personal mastery as we go through life. Psychologists have uncovered some of the key principles of mastery-infused living. This book presents many examples of some of the key distinctions among our experiences in our daily living, highlighting how our well-being is centrally based on how we engage our personal mastery beliefs and actions in navigating these varied types of life experience.
Studies show that mastery can be strengthened through training. A number of mastery-enhancing treatments have been developed in research and clinical practice and are presented here in an accessible format emphasizing how they can be adopted by the individual reader. These tests consistently show positive benefits for physical and mental health. Rethinking our lives and our experiences from a personal mastery template can be a key to a more successful life.
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This book reveals surprising laws of human nature that can be used for achieving a better life. Grounded in the most cutting edge of science, this book covers nearly everything we love and hate, inside and outside of ourselves, and is brimming over not with advice, but with insights. Insights that can be used to relieve some of our largest burdens and simplifying our complex existence so that we can spend more time on the things we value, and the people who give our life meaning. The journey through the new knowledge presented in this book is made pleasant and worthwhile by the warm personal tone and engaging interactive style of the author, John Reich. Reich brings scientific discoveries to life in a way that will change the reader. ~ Dr. Stephanie Brown, School of Medicine, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Professor John Reich takes us on a fascinating journey into the realm of personal mastery and how we can build our own templates for different kinds of events that occur in our lives. He masterfully weaves a case history approach with scientific evidence to show how personal control can have a huge impact on our lives. The reader is invited to be an active participant in understanding when to act on his or her environment and when to cognitively adapt to environmental changes. The choice is yours but paying attention to the principles enumerated in this book and implementing them is a winning recipe for enhancing the quality of your life. ~ Dr. Morris Okun, Psychology Dept., Arizona State University
In this engaging book, John Reich synthesizes 50 years of behavioral and social science research related to people's beliefs about the control they have over life experiences and their responses to those experiences, and explains how these beliefs influence health and well-being. Dr. Reich uses this extensive research base, including his own research findings and the creative interventions he's developed, to offer highly sensible recommendations for how to deal effectively with both major life events and everyday encounters. "Mastering Your Self, Mastering Your World: Living by the Serenity Prayer" is sweeping in its scope, intellectually stimulating, and full of deep wisdom about the benefits, pitfalls and potential of perceiving personal control over life's slings and arrows, when it's best to persist in the face of obstacles, and why it's advantageous to accept what can't be changed. This is a book that you won't want to put down, and one that you'll recommend to everyone you care about. ~ Dr. Howard Tennen, Professor of Community Medicine and Health, University of Connecticut Health Center
