Customer Reviews

The Love Response: Your Prescription to Turn Off Fear, Anger, and Anxiety to Achieve Vibrant Health and Transform Your Life

5 star:		(12)
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3 star:		(1)
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What I love about Dr. Selhub's book, "The Love Response," is that her work is easy-to-use self-help grounded in science and medicine. With a humor and a friendly bedside manner, Dr. Selhub teaches you techniques and practices that help you find and stay on your path to mental health and physical wellness.

I have suffered from generalized anxiety my entire adult life and have gone through extensive therapy to help me function. Dr. Selhub's book and its "prescriptions" have provided me with a new approach to bring much needed balance, clarity and calm into my life.

Thanks to this book, I am well aware of the why I am triggered by certain situations or when I am just feeling anxious or bad. Through reading "The Love Response" and using Dr. Selhub's CD's with her guided meditations, I now have tools to shift my physiology from the Stress/Fear response to Positive Physiology and The Love Response. It is truly amazing how well this works and how easy it is to do. I actually look forward each day to using the techniques I've learned. An unexpected side effect of changing my physiology was losing 8 pounds without dieting in the first 2 months of following her practice. Why? As I understand it, lower your stress levels and the pounds come off!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to feel better emotionally, physically and/or spiritually. When you feel good and are in The Love Response, the people around you respond more positively and the world somehow feels like a better place!

Just a day after getting the book, I'm about halfway through it (putting all the other books I'm reading on hold) and I'm enjoying it tremendously. Already using the SHIELD; love the exercises; love the case studies. It's basically a book about cultivating a profoundly spiritual way of life (in a craftily secular disguise) not because it's 'good' or 'noble' but because it's just plain healthy! It contains a series of powerful practices straight out of the greatest spiritual traditions in the world, made completely jargon-free and accessible. Dr Eva also provides the scientific basis for the benefits of these practices, just in case you had any doubts about their efficacy. Can't imagine a more positive, empowering message. Get one for yourself, and get a copy of each for any stressed-out loved ones you have.

Eva Selhub's book The Love Response is a beautiful read. Selhub swims against the current of mainstream medicine as she eloquently weaves together an approach to opening the heart that is both scientific and spiritual. In this gem of a book Dr. Selhub shares both her wisdom and an abundance of practical exercises designed to open the heart and activate "the love response." Eva's experiences as a physician, an energy healer, and a committed spiritual seeker, come together to create a rich and informative journey for the reader interested in healing the heart.

The author of this book, Eva Selhub, M.D., struggled with fear and anxiety throughout her medical residency and early on in her career as a primary care physician. She hated her job, felt little connection with patients or colleagues, and missed friends and family. All of the above led to Dr. Selhub feeling alone and developing panic attacks. Eventually, she quit her job and devoted herself to the study of alternative medicine. The Love Response is founded on her belief in the healing power of love. Dr. Selhub postulates that love can heal not just emotional wounds but also the physical body. She reviews the ways in which fear negatively affects one's health and general well-being, and she maintains that love the the natural antidote to this process.

Throughout the book, Dr. Selhub weaves in exercises which she states can serve to help "turn off" the Fear Response. Some of these are basic behavioral techniques common to many different psychological interventions. For example, in Chapter 2, she introduces "The Balloon Breath," which is simply another name for diaphragmatic breathing. In Chapter 4, however, Dr. Selhub delves more deeply into her Love Response technique, the foundation of which is something she calls the "SHIELD." This acronym stands for Slow down, Honor what you feel or experience, Inhale, Exhale, Listen, and Decide to shift from the Fear Response into the Love Response. Use of the SHIELD involves a visualization exercise which includes imagining the sun's divine rays encircling you, enclosing around you all those who love you. All of the additional Love Response techniques in the book build on the basic concept of the SHIELD.

Dr. Selhub expands on her Love Response, building a pyramid of Social Love and applying her "reprogramming" techniques to various emotions, not just fear but also anger, shame, and distrust. In addition, Dr. Selhub addresses self-love, particularly as it applies to issues such as attachments and addictions. The final chapters of the book incorporate Spiritual Love, or connecting to something larger than yourself, whether it be nature, God, or Spirit. In addition to exercises for Awareness, Release, and Healing, every chapter also contains detailed case examples taken directly from Dr. Selhub's patients.

As a psychologist, I found some of Dr. Selhub's techniques similar to what I would use with my own clients--for example, her "balloon breath" was nearly identical to the diaphragmatic breathing strategy I teach to virtually anyone presenting with anxiety. And I do believe that various additional techniques which she incorporates--including visualization, imagery, and free-writing--can all be powerful tools for healing. However, I think that Dr. Selhub's framework of her approach as "The Love Response" might come across as too new-agey for some readers. In addition, once I got about halfway through the book, I found that Dr. Selhub wasn't really adding any new information; rather, she simply seemed to be restating different applications of the same concepts.

This book has received several 5-star reviews, so clearly it has its fans. I believe that the appropriate audience would be those looking for a self-help book which is more spiritual and alternative in nature. Although I am certainly open to these types of approaches myself (I practice yoga 3-5 times per week), I see Dr. Selhub's Love Response as having a more narrow, limited utility, and thus my final rating is 3 1/2 stars.

I purchased Eva Selhub's CD's in addition to her book. Between the two and some other activities on my part, my heart is beginning to open again. I believe one of the most critical parts of her book was her realization that she did not love herself. I too, realized that I did not accept myself unconditionally. So like Eva, I began telling myself, "I love me." I also inserted that "God love's me."

I believe that feeling love for oneself is the key to living a full life. Without heartfelt love, nothing else matters. And one must love oneself before they can truly extend love to anyone or anything else. So, if you don't already, you must begin loving yourself in order to open up to joy and happiness. This book will help you do that.

Thank you Eva, your book is just what the doctor (in myself) ordered!

Just like the Beatles song, "All You Need Is Love", this books explains that whatever is going on in your life can be handle much better through love. The "Love Response" is a book that clearly and practically explains how to achieve this state of mind. When I practiced the meditations that Dr. Selhub describes in the book I found that it put me in a wonderfully happy and relaxed state ... like the feeling that one has when they're on vacation. In addition, the various case studies that are presented in the book also help the reader to relate to and understand how the techniques actually work. I would also recommend buying the two CD pack, "Ten Minutes to Relax: The Love Response". The cd's contain a series of meditations to accompany the book. I found that listening to these meditations was a great way to practice this work.

This book contains really important information presented in a simple, easy to understand and entertaining way. Dr. Selhub is a great communicator, and gives you tools and methods to change your life! Read this and learn how to access happiness! Both my sister and I did!

Eva's book is so inspiring. Her warm guidance, thoughtfulness and sensitivity allows me to use her techniques with ease and understanding and is teaching me to feel better emotionally and physically. I love that she uses real case studies that I can relate to and see how her techniques really work.
Eva's book is written with love, hope and compassion. The Love Response is helping to bring me to a place of healing and calmness.

Dr. Eva M. Selhub is an avid advocate of Mind/Body Medicine. She is the founder of Alight Medicine for Learning and Healing in Newton Massachusetts and is also a clinical instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She has been featured in national publications and in medical journals.



Love heals. Dr. Eva Selhub's book, The Love Response, proves it to be true. Learn how to change your body's physiology and reserve everyday fears into love. Discover how to calm and soothe the spirit, a helpful self-help guide to a healthy mind with a wonderful bedside manner and useful tips. Dr. Selhub teaches you to move smoothly with life's changes rather than resisting them. She shares her wisdom, her life experiences, and how she learned the antidote to stress and fear is love.



Controlling your emotions is the recipe to diminish all fears, worries, and stress. She helps guide readers to the most precious gift of all, how to control fears. She walks us through the secret of health and well-being. An excessive amount of fear becomes a problem if it occurs for too long. The Love Response includes various exercises and testimonies to help further explain how to banish fear and stress from your life. The simple act of replacing feelings with graciousness and love will enhance both your physical and mental health. Practicing important techniques such as the SHIELD and the Love Pyramid will aide you in the healing process.



Dr. Eva does a superb job at guiding you in the right direction. She fully explains the science behind being fearful and covers what symptoms to look out for such as: insomnia, tense muscles, and shallow breathing. She also gives you the tools to overcome the poison that causes these symptoms. A few questionnaires help assess how fear is controlling your life and an explanation to why the Fear Response acts as a warning system.



Let's face it; life can get a little stressful. This book teaches you how to avoid anger, anxiety, and fear. If you're feeling helpless, overwhelmed, or simply overtaken by anxiety or stress, this book was written for you. Let Dr. Eva Selhub teach you your own ability to heal and how to activate the Love Response rather than letting the Fear Response overtake your life. Invite peace to your mind. Restore your inner-self. Allow the Love Response to be part of your life. Your body and mind will thank you.



A worthwhile great read!


Reviewed by Martha Ramirez
Bookpleasures

Do you believe it is true that through giving and experiencing love things in your life can bring greater joy, not just to yourself but to those around you? Do you walk around heavy hearted, disturbed, overburdened by daily life, not knowing how to break out of the cycle you are in?
If so, take heart, there is help for you.

In this work by, Dr. Eva Selhub, you will find a hidden power to use to turn your life around, a power that is within every human, one that can be tapped into and released to change your world. That power is, love. Our author has taken her research, and first hand knowledge and laid out a step by step plan showing you how to plug into the human emotion of love and use it to quiet and change the stressful world around you. She explains that in doing so, your mental and physical health will improve. The doctor gives you examples of situations and helps you to be aware of shortcomings we all face, that can be destructive forces in our lives, such as trust and distrust. She takes us through some exercises to help us understand these forces and overcome them. I enjoyed this and it definitely helped me to understand myself better.

Fear, anger, and anxiety are all robbers that flood into everyone's lives on a daily basis. What can you do to stop their effects? In this book you will learn how through easy to understand steps. In these steps you will see how you are being robbed in life from your happiness and what to do to counteract the effects. Her steps are easy to understand, to follow, and definitely given in a way that frees you to have control over situations and emotions we all face daily, and help bring you through with victory instead of those emotions creating stress and sickness in your life.
Let me put it this way, Dr. Selhub weaves scientific information with spiritual and human response to bring you to a better you. One that can have more control over their lives, live more productive and happier than they ever deemed possible. I believe this book will help many. Interesting and helpful read!