Customer Reviews

It's All in Your Head: Thinking Your Way to Happiness

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The premise of "It's All in Your Head" is that we already have everything we need to be happy, because the "secrets"/tools are already in our "minds" - But we have to make a choice to shine a light on them again (remember them), and then get them out of our minds and into reality (use & experience them).

Stephen Pollan shares many great insights within the covers of this book - ones that can help us to remember what it takes to be happy - a feeling that many of us strive for day after day. Some of these insights include:

1. We are responsible for our own happiness or unhappiness - so it makes absolutely no sense to blame our unhappiness on
others, or expect others to make us happy.

2. Happiness is different from pleasure - external things can
bring us pleasure, but never happiness.

3. People who are experiencing great lack & illness can still
be happy

4. Happiness is an attitude that can be cultivated - but like
most things, it takes work.

5. Taking the time to remember what you're grateful for each
day can have an amazing impact on your level of happiness

The author suggests 8 "tools" to remember & use while you're working to create an attitude of happiness, and he also includes many different journal exercises to help you out along the way.

I really enjoyed his use of personal stories to bring his thoughts/ideas/tools home - I think we can all find ourselves in at least one of these people &/or situations - which I find to be a another great way to solidify what I'm reading & learning.

Overall, I found this book to be an enjoyable, insightful, helpful read on the topic of happiness. As such, I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to increase their own level of happiness - it certainly has a lot to offer!

Are you tired of being unhappy? Are you tired of the pessimistic and cynical attitudes that pervade in today's society? Well, here's a prescription for health and happiness that is desperately called for. Stephen Pollan is America's foremost expert in the field of motivation psychology and the business of life. These are not sophist reflections that are not applicable to day to day life, but rather concrete approaches that will allow anyone...and I mean anyone, to find health and happiness right now. There are other writers that publish similar books, but the depth of their knowledge does not equal that of Stephen Pollan. He taught us how to manage our end-of-life finances in "Die Broke." Then he taught us how to "Live Rich" and to create our own "Second Acts." Now Mr. Pollan comes full circle with his guide to finding happiness. As a mental health professional working for one of the countries finest universities, I can't recommend this book more strongly to both my clients and my students. This book will change your life!

I really do not understand all the negative comments on Amazon, always the naysayers. I read the book and really enjoyed it. Can merely reading a book give you true happiness if you have a serious mental disorder? No but if you are like the majority of us happiness seeking professionals stressed by events and demands, Pollan's book is just right. Much of the self-help genre books is filled with a list of pithy quick advice from winners from "The Apprentice" with no perspective. Stephen Pollan is a successful senior executive with a successful life in business and family. (No I do not know him personally) The books rings true in so many ways. When confronted with "overwhelming" tasks living in the moment and getting "something" done is much better than agonizing about the past and the future and doing nothing. There is much more in the book to be sure. The book is well worth reading.

You can run but you can't hide: After reading this book I realized that what was holding me back wasn't my wife, my job (I'm an accountant) or my mortgage -- it was me. It's All in Your Head taught me to slow down, breathe and realize how to live my life today, enjoy it -- and appreciate it. I highly recommend it. Mr. Pollan's book inspired me to take a fresh look at myself -- I feel like I'm walking lighter. A revalation!

A friend and colleague gave me this book after I noticed him to be in a better and more efficient frame of mind at work. I read the book this weekend and have already implemented the strategy at work and home. This book is clear and concise and, yes, important to find your place in the world.

I picked up this book because I had read the author's previous works "Die Broke", and a couple from the "Life Scripts" series. I still have them in my library and readily use them for reference in all matters professional and finacial. With "It's All In Your Head", Mr. Pollan and Mr. Levine have laid out a very simple, clear path to understanding how one is very capable of living a fulfilling life with the qualities they already inherently have.And they do it in a way that reminds you of a good friend putting an arm around your shoulder and giving excellent advice. I reccomend this book highly not just to someone looking for some answers, but anyone who feels they need a little perspective on things.

This is probably the best self-help/happiness book I've ever read (and I've read many.) Some readers could be dissapointed because there's not some magical secret that the authors reveal to guarantee happiness - it's more about changing your outlook on life and appreciating what you have. But the advice and exercises the authors provide really work!

This book is written in VERY plain language. No psychobabble, you won't even find mentions of "attachments" or "enlightenment" as are present in many happiness books. Each chapter follows a similar format:
1) An introduction to the idea of the chapter.
2) Examples of three people who suffered from the problematic ways of thinking that the chapter is teaching you to overcome.
3) An in-depth analysis and description of the ideas of the chapter.
4) A follow-up to show how the three people mentioned earlier used these ideas.
5) An exercise to help you get started with this way of thinking.
6) A closing and a bulleted re-hash of the main ideas of the chapter.

The authors also pepper the chapters with MANY examples from movies or books to exemplify the ideas they're trying to explain.

The only two drawbacks I found in the book were:
- it seemed to be geared more towards a middle-aged crowd. I'm in my 20's and most of the examples were people around "mid-life crisis" age. I could still use the ideas presented in the book but many of the examples didn't really apply to my life.
- In the Introduction of the book the authors explain that their use of "God" can mean whatever you want it to (Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Life Force, etc.) But they do use a few examples from the Bible and when they speak of God they are clearly talking of the Christian God. This could be an issue for some readers and I think the authors could have left out some of the Biblical examples if they are really trying to appeal to a wider audience and if they truly stand by their disclaimer in the Introduction.

Despite those few issues I strongly recommend this book! It can really change your outlook on life, and yes, make you happier.

This book is really great. At first, I put off reading it because of the title and the bright blue and yellow cover. I'd read other similar titles and didn't feel like I got much out of them, or they presented lengthy exercises and didn't offer much real-life advice. I just thought it might be too much psycho bable for me, but I was soon presently suprised when I actually began reading Stephen Pollan's book.
This book is really amazing. It offers information anyone can understand and adapt in their daily life. Yeah, there is no ONE thing to make your life 100% better in one split second, but did you really think any similar books or this book would offer some magical tip to instantly make your life better?? If they did, it certainly would be short-lived. Instead, this book offers real life tips, amazing quotes, and actual representations of how you can put these thoughts and activities into action.
The quotes throughout the pages are probably worth the price of the book itself. I love all of them, and am planning to go back through and select a couple for other uses.
This book is really great though. I've read several other titles, and none were so straight forward, easy to understand, and easily applied as the techniques and ideas in this book. I think many people would be able to benefit this book whether you are unhappy in your life or if you've just hit a snag working towards the goals in your life. This book will inspire you, put you back on track, and show you how to find the happiness that was already inside of you to begin with. Definitely a good read! It's also really up-tp-date with information as of 2006.

Although I knew what the book had to say from the title, It did a good job of walking (having you think) you thru the steps to get you to go where they wanted you to. I especially like the summations at the end of each chapter. They are a useful way to review and refresh in your mind the discussion in each chapter. I have used the summations, and I may continue to do so.

This book is a wonderful gift to any reader. The purity of the message -- that
one can be happy in this life, right now, -- beautifully comes to life through stories and accessible, practical tools that are all based in universal wisdom. It's the power of that wisdom, and how to apply it to your everyday life, that makes this such an inspiring read.