A Smart Girl's Guide to Worry: how to feel less stressed and have more fun
American Girl nonfiction/advice books
Judy Woodburn and Nancy Holyoke, illustrated by Brenna Vaughan
ISBN: 9781609587451
Very specific and science-based (mostly CBT) techniques for conquering anxiety.
A very clear and straightforward advice book that focuses attention on the reality-warping aspects of worry and anxiety, and provides Cognitive-Behavioral-Therapy-based mental and physical techniques to counteract those negative impulses and move beyond fear-based thinking.
This isn't a match for a good therapist, but for your run-of-the-mill kiddo who is suddenly anxious about a particular subject or activity, or is growing awkward and walled-off as she grows older and feels less confident in herself, this is a great starting point, making it clear that everyone has to deal with worries, and while some people suffer more than others, there are techniques that will work over time to negate or quiet down those fearful or insecure thoughts.
Recommended.
Showing posts with label Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. Show all posts
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Nonfiction: Grit, by Angela Duckworth
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth
ISBN: 9781501111105
Half cheerleading coach and half business mentor; Duckworth explains what "grit" really is.
Interesting, but a little depressing. "Gritty" people are those who thrive on challenge, who have found what they love doing and found ways to continue to excel at doing it. Grit is also based on both heritage and nurture: you've got to teach kids to be gritty - to teach them that they're succeeding because they're TRYING, not because they're smart/natural/gifted/genius. Unfortunately, that means that those of us who were taught other things (or even worse, taught by tragedy that nothing we do matters in the face of an uncaring universe) are pretty much SoL - unless you can find a way to persuade your insurance company to cover cognitive-behavior therapy techniques to teach you to change your ingrained thought patterns.
The book is supposed to be encouraging and positive and inspirational, with lots of places to take little checklists and to compare yourself with gritty individuals and their accomplishments - but for someone who DOES suffer from depression and anxiety, her only advice is therapy (which she does kindly admit is profoundly disappointing and not particularly helpful, so at least she realizes it.) I enjoyed reading it anyway, and perhaps someday when this country (or our health system) prioritizes mental health, those of us who faced setbacks on our childhood road to grit can forge a way to become stronger and more happy too.
Angela Duckworth
ISBN: 9781501111105
Half cheerleading coach and half business mentor; Duckworth explains what "grit" really is.
Interesting, but a little depressing. "Gritty" people are those who thrive on challenge, who have found what they love doing and found ways to continue to excel at doing it. Grit is also based on both heritage and nurture: you've got to teach kids to be gritty - to teach them that they're succeeding because they're TRYING, not because they're smart/natural/gifted/genius. Unfortunately, that means that those of us who were taught other things (or even worse, taught by tragedy that nothing we do matters in the face of an uncaring universe) are pretty much SoL - unless you can find a way to persuade your insurance company to cover cognitive-behavior therapy techniques to teach you to change your ingrained thought patterns.
The book is supposed to be encouraging and positive and inspirational, with lots of places to take little checklists and to compare yourself with gritty individuals and their accomplishments - but for someone who DOES suffer from depression and anxiety, her only advice is therapy (which she does kindly admit is profoundly disappointing and not particularly helpful, so at least she realizes it.) I enjoyed reading it anyway, and perhaps someday when this country (or our health system) prioritizes mental health, those of us who faced setbacks on our childhood road to grit can forge a way to become stronger and more happy too.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Nonfiction: Happiness by Design, Paul Dolan
Happiness by Design: change what you do, not how you think
Paul Dolan, PhD
ISBN: 9781594632433
Read Sept 5, 2014
First off, it is an excellent premise, and I totally agree. We think about "being" happy, but what makes us happy (or contented, or purposeful) is what we're doing, and how we think about what we're doing. We need to figure out what we think about the most, and DO things that correlate with those thought-patterns (and also provide pleasure or purpose) to work with the architecture of our minds to become happy as a habit, or as a life-pattern, rather than trying to find interesting special occasions or special activities which take effort and often don't work as well as anticipated to impact our happiness.
Secondly (and on a much less happy note) I feel like this book wasn't as powerful as it might have been. My two main concerns are the content value, and the advice value.
For the content, it very strongly feels that this was a series of lectures or inspirational speeches that was heavily padded out into a book. There just wasn't enough substance here for me to really feel like it deserved a full book, and I was shocked at how little was actually in there. The book starts with explaining the study of happiness, the ideas of public policy, and the science behind what we do and how we think. At the halfway mark, we finally get into the "change what you do, not how you think" bit, and I was very ready for the author to get on with it. I would have liked a broader and quicker brush over the current state of affairs and why it isn't working, and a much more robust section on the neuroscience and behavior studies supporting specific ideas for maximizing happiness.
For the advice, to my surprise, even though the title practically promised concrete advice, there was actually very little there as well. In fairness, there was a lot of general advice, which perhaps was what the author preferred, but I've found that people like specifics, especially in what are essentially self-help books. If we were as savvy about our happiness as to already know what we needed to do to be happy, perhaps we would not be reading a book about it for advice, no? Despite having a very intriguing and promising premise, it gets bogged down into digressions on public policy or on attention limits and attention deficits. I think that a breakdown of his advice into more concrete, action-oriented sections, with specific suggestions for activities in each (perhaps geared towards different "personality types" to fine-tune the approach) would have made the second half of the book a lot stronger. An irony is that the author specifically and repeatedly brings up the point that we remember the last bits of something and judge the entirety by the feelings sparked by the ending.
Those are my two main quibbles, and I do think there is a lot of potential here - it just seems to me like potential that would be better met with a TED Talk or a lecture series, or perhaps a Q&A with the author to brainstorm specific ideas for happiness creation, or perhaps a judicious hard edit and restructuring.
Paul Dolan, PhD
ISBN: 9781594632433
Read Sept 5, 2014
First off, it is an excellent premise, and I totally agree. We think about "being" happy, but what makes us happy (or contented, or purposeful) is what we're doing, and how we think about what we're doing. We need to figure out what we think about the most, and DO things that correlate with those thought-patterns (and also provide pleasure or purpose) to work with the architecture of our minds to become happy as a habit, or as a life-pattern, rather than trying to find interesting special occasions or special activities which take effort and often don't work as well as anticipated to impact our happiness.
Secondly (and on a much less happy note) I feel like this book wasn't as powerful as it might have been. My two main concerns are the content value, and the advice value.
For the content, it very strongly feels that this was a series of lectures or inspirational speeches that was heavily padded out into a book. There just wasn't enough substance here for me to really feel like it deserved a full book, and I was shocked at how little was actually in there. The book starts with explaining the study of happiness, the ideas of public policy, and the science behind what we do and how we think. At the halfway mark, we finally get into the "change what you do, not how you think" bit, and I was very ready for the author to get on with it. I would have liked a broader and quicker brush over the current state of affairs and why it isn't working, and a much more robust section on the neuroscience and behavior studies supporting specific ideas for maximizing happiness.
For the advice, to my surprise, even though the title practically promised concrete advice, there was actually very little there as well. In fairness, there was a lot of general advice, which perhaps was what the author preferred, but I've found that people like specifics, especially in what are essentially self-help books. If we were as savvy about our happiness as to already know what we needed to do to be happy, perhaps we would not be reading a book about it for advice, no? Despite having a very intriguing and promising premise, it gets bogged down into digressions on public policy or on attention limits and attention deficits. I think that a breakdown of his advice into more concrete, action-oriented sections, with specific suggestions for activities in each (perhaps geared towards different "personality types" to fine-tune the approach) would have made the second half of the book a lot stronger. An irony is that the author specifically and repeatedly brings up the point that we remember the last bits of something and judge the entirety by the feelings sparked by the ending.
Those are my two main quibbles, and I do think there is a lot of potential here - it just seems to me like potential that would be better met with a TED Talk or a lecture series, or perhaps a Q&A with the author to brainstorm specific ideas for happiness creation, or perhaps a judicious hard edit and restructuring.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
How Children Succeed, Paul Tough
Perfect name for this author.
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
Author: Paul Tough
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012
ISBN: 9780547564654
Nonfiction: discussing the importance of "non-academic" skills such as "grit" and "perseverance" to success in scholastics and in life.
I like this book. I grew up very staunchly Christian, and either Christian-schooled or home-schooled, and I am very familiar with "values-based" education. I grew up surrounded by stories such as those found in the Book of Virtues and old collections of short stories that made it absoiutely clear that only people with solid character foundations would succeed in life. They also came with a hefty dose of scripture and really preachy moralizing that would put Elsie Dinsmore to shame. I've often despaired of finding any sort of scientific backing for my bone-deep conviction that character is important, or of finding resources that don't approach the issue from a overt Christian perspective.
This book is that resource. Very straightforward, and answers a few simple questions: "Why do many smart people fail at life after school?" "Why are some people bad at school, but succeed in life?" "Why is there a difference in the life-paths of people who graduate High School and people with GEDs?"
First question answered: Book smarts aren't everything. Often people who are successful at school are simply naturally good at the few skills that schools value. Without learning how to study and apply themselves (which the book successfully demonstrates are learnable skills) they flounder in situations where their natural skills don't aid them as much.
Second question answered: Book smarts aren't everything. Often people who aren't good with standardized testing or the restrictive school environment blossom when their avenues open up and they are encouraged to take advantage of their other skills, like perseverence, critical thinking, and curiosity.
Third question answered: Book smarts aren't everything. GED students look much more like dropouts than like high school graduates, and the proposed reason is that their lives are being impacted by their lack of "grit." They may gain the technical knowledge they were supposed to gain in high school, but that knowledge isn't helping them succeed. Something else is necessary.
That something is really hard to pin down with the politicized climate of education today. It's a landmine to find a good name for the non-academic skills that are important, but the individual ones will be easily recognised: Perseverance. Curiosity. Critical Thinking. Self-Honesty. Mental Toughness. Self-Discipline.
Finally (and here's the part I cheered for) the book shows several programs and pilot studies that are being worked on that are increasingly proving the idea that we can teach these "soft skills" or "character traits" to children (and to adults) to help them along in life.
Some specific programs to look into:
Tools of the Mind
KIPP Schools
Cognitive-Behavior Therapy
Excellent resource, and not a single scripture or "holier-than-thou" moment to be found.
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
Author: Paul Tough
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012
ISBN: 9780547564654
Nonfiction: discussing the importance of "non-academic" skills such as "grit" and "perseverance" to success in scholastics and in life.
I like this book. I grew up very staunchly Christian, and either Christian-schooled or home-schooled, and I am very familiar with "values-based" education. I grew up surrounded by stories such as those found in the Book of Virtues and old collections of short stories that made it absoiutely clear that only people with solid character foundations would succeed in life. They also came with a hefty dose of scripture and really preachy moralizing that would put Elsie Dinsmore to shame. I've often despaired of finding any sort of scientific backing for my bone-deep conviction that character is important, or of finding resources that don't approach the issue from a overt Christian perspective.
This book is that resource. Very straightforward, and answers a few simple questions: "Why do many smart people fail at life after school?" "Why are some people bad at school, but succeed in life?" "Why is there a difference in the life-paths of people who graduate High School and people with GEDs?"
First question answered: Book smarts aren't everything. Often people who are successful at school are simply naturally good at the few skills that schools value. Without learning how to study and apply themselves (which the book successfully demonstrates are learnable skills) they flounder in situations where their natural skills don't aid them as much.
Second question answered: Book smarts aren't everything. Often people who aren't good with standardized testing or the restrictive school environment blossom when their avenues open up and they are encouraged to take advantage of their other skills, like perseverence, critical thinking, and curiosity.
Third question answered: Book smarts aren't everything. GED students look much more like dropouts than like high school graduates, and the proposed reason is that their lives are being impacted by their lack of "grit." They may gain the technical knowledge they were supposed to gain in high school, but that knowledge isn't helping them succeed. Something else is necessary.
That something is really hard to pin down with the politicized climate of education today. It's a landmine to find a good name for the non-academic skills that are important, but the individual ones will be easily recognised: Perseverance. Curiosity. Critical Thinking. Self-Honesty. Mental Toughness. Self-Discipline.
Finally (and here's the part I cheered for) the book shows several programs and pilot studies that are being worked on that are increasingly proving the idea that we can teach these "soft skills" or "character traits" to children (and to adults) to help them along in life.
Some specific programs to look into:
Tools of the Mind
KIPP Schools
Cognitive-Behavior Therapy
Excellent resource, and not a single scripture or "holier-than-thou" moment to be found.
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