The Breakout Principle: How to Activate the Natural Trigger That Maximizes Creativity, Athletic Performance, Productivity, and Personal Well-Being [Paperback]

Herbert Benson (Author), William Proctor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2004

Would it surprise you to learn that to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem, you need to get up and leave the room? A walk in the woods will help you finish your novel? Humming can make you a better tennis player? Or completely giving up is the way to succeed?

In The Breakout Principle, the bestselling author of The Relaxation Response delivers the ultimate self-help principle -- simple instructions to activate a powerful biological trigger that converts conflict and confusion into clarity and extraordinary performance, a state athletes refer to as "the zone."

More than three decades ago, Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard Medical School began research into why some people are devastated by stress while others thrive, turning it into brilliant achievement. Now The Breakout Principle reports the discovery of an easy-to-access inner switch that increases mental function, enhances creativity and productivity, maximizes athletic performance, and enriches spiritual life. The same internal mechanism that improves a tennis serve or golf putt strengthens your speaking skills, makes you a better negotiator, and fosters inner peace and belief.

Dr. Benson and coauthor William Proctor explain the cutting-edge science behind the phenomenon in accessible language, clearly describe the four distinct phases of the Breakout, and provide simple, step-by-step instructions on how to activate the Breakout "trigger." Compelling case histories and information on how to incorporate Breakouts into daily life are woven throughout the book.

Dr. Benson's previous discoveries have helped millions reduce the harmful effects of stress. The Breakout Principle now reveals how to maximize your untapped abilities and powers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If self-help books usually fall short of delivering life changes, The Breakout Principle is a book of a different stripe: a science-based path to self-transformation. Herbert Benson, M.D. pulls together 30 years of mind-body research to describe the Breakout Principle: "a powerful mind-body impulse that severs prior mental patterns and--even in times of great stress or emotional trauma--opens an inner door to a host of personal benefits." Breakouts open the door to different kinds of peak experiences--self-awareness, creativity, productivity, athleticism, rejuvenation, and transcendence--and lead to lasting changes.

Benson explains the stages of stress/struggle, release (during which you give up unresolved destructive or negative thought patterns), breakout/peak experience, and "new-normal" state. He balances the science behind his concepts with practical, how-to tips. For example, many different activities and types of experiences can trigger your personal Breakout in the release stage, and Benson helps you figure out which ones might work for you: repetitive mental or physical activity, an absorbing personal encounter, expression of your personal belief system, "total abandon" to an intense experience, altruistic activity, or filling your mind with a dominant sensory impression. He and skillful co-author William Proctor illustrate points with case studies and personal reflections, making complex medical and philosophical issues more easily accessible.

Benson, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, is well known for his mind/body research, especially his work on the relaxation response. His other books include The Relaxation Response, Beyond the Relaxation Response: How to Harness the Healing Power of Your Personal Beliefs, and Timeless Healing. This powerful and empowering book is highly recommended as a guide for readers willing to do the work of making a life change. --Joan Price --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In this well researched follow-up to the bestselling The Relaxation Response, which was first published in 1975, Benson and his co-author Proctor detail the intricate relationship between mind and body to uncover what they call a revolutionary "fundamental self-transforming principle"-the self-help solution to end all self-help solutions. The Breakout Principle holds that through a series of practiced mental and physical activities, an individual can achieve higher levels of self-awareness, creativity, productivity, athleticism, rejuvenation and personal enlightenment, as well as escape the stress and anxiety that can often block personal progress. Not the panacea it might seem, this method is a four-step method of tackling challenging life circumstances that begins with the struggle phase, followed by a "letting go," or mental release of the problem, and then by a Breakout experience (when you're completely released from familiar but unproductive thought patterns), and ending with a "new-normal" (i.e., enhanced) state of being. Benson and Proctor give plenty of "release triggers," including meditating, jogging, folding laundry and looking at nature, that may assist in bringing readers to a mentally freeing "peak experience." Anecdotes and case studies pad the text, and fairly extensive empirical evidence gives it weight. This may not be the cure-all the subtitle promises, but it's a good resource for anyone seeking a new path to self-understanding.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (February 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743223985
• ISBN-13: 978-0743223980
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #937,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Spend an hour with it in the bookstore or library, September 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Breakout Principle: How to Activate the Natural Trigger That Maximizes Creativity, Athletic Performance, Productivity and Personal Well-Being (Hardcover)

This is an interesting book but you can tell from the big print and cheezy cover that it is not a keeper. Basically, the authors have put a name to something ("the breakout principle") which artists have been doing for centuries. For instance, Charles Dickens spent 5 hours a day at his writing desk, struggling with whatever novel he was writing. Then, after five hours, he would always stop for the day and spend the next three hours WALKING around London or engaging in some sort of physical exertions. And very often, during those off hours, the creative process would continue working and new ideas would come to him. Similarly, many artists find that after working hard for a long time, they can go to sleep and dream of a solution. Or it comes to them the next day when they aren't thinking about it or when they are taking a shower or jogging or cooking or knitting. Read any interviews with writers, musicians, novelists, you will find this process at work. STEP ONE: Work hard at the problem. STEP TWO: Step away from the problem and do something that switches the mind in another direction. STEP THREE: Allow the unconscious to percolate and present you with a new solution. That's basically what this book tells you in a nutshell. And it is VERY useful to have it presented in such a simple 1,2,3 step manner. So how come I'm not giving the book five stars? Because once you grasp its basic thesis (i.e. once you read it over in the bookstore as I did) you will NOT need to buy the book. And you can get this knowledge from many other sources as well.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NOW I UNDERSTAND, April 17, 2003

By 

Stuart C. Woodward (Vero Beach, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Breakout Principle: How to Activate the Natural Trigger That Maximizes Creativity, Athletic Performance, Productivity and Personal Well-Being (Hardcover)

NOW I UNDERSTAND why I have bursts of creativity or achieve a "runner's high" (even though I'm just walking briskly) under certain conditions. Benson explains that it's the science--and explains it in a way that I can replicate (he would say "trigger") the Breakout experience at will.

The various applications of the Breakout principle are organized by chapter, allowing the reader to think about each application type and to compare and contrast them. Currently our teenagers are applying the Breakout technique in their respective sports activities with some success. I am curious about applying it in an R&D setting where colleagues need to have a "collective" Breakout to develop new, innovative products.

This book gives you insights (1) to how the brain functions, (2) to better harness its power and (3) to outperform competitors.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book has changed the way I do my job, September 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Breakout Principle: How to Activate the Natural Trigger That Maximizes Creativity, Athletic Performance, Productivity and Personal Well-Being (Hardcover)

The Breakout Principle has completely revolutionized the way I work...I don't stay in the office for 12 hours a day before a big presentation...I prepare carefullly and thoroughly and THEN I GO HOME AND RELAX. Always, and I mean always, my presentations are clearer, have more energy, are more relaxed and creative. All that time away from your work, time I always thought of as play or even goofing off, happen to be incredibly valuable for generating new ideas and having the energy to get things done. A great book that's changed everything for me.