The Pleasure Zone: Why We Resist Good Feelings & How to Let Go and Be Happy [Hardcover]

Stella Resnick (Author), Riane Eisler (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

Dr. Stella Resnick has been concerned about how to help people stop focusing on what's wrong in their lives and start noticing what's right since 1978 when she wrote a ground-breaking article for New Age Journal that turned the therapy world on its ear and prompted hundreds of letters asking for more. Now she has distilled her years of work and collected extensive corroborative research to show that when people don't fully enjoy their lives and loves, it is usually because they actually resist their good feelings and have a fixed ceiling on how much pleasure they can tolerate. While writers including Paul Pearsall, Deepak Chopra, Bernie Siegel, and Joan Borysenko have recently identified the benefits of pleasure, to a large extent they have been concerned mostly with positive mental attitudes and visualizations. In this groundbreaking work, Resnick takes the exploration of pleasure further by linking feeling good about ourselves, experiencing good physical health and emotional fulfillment, enjoying deeply gratifying sex, and positive aging, to our ability to fully enjoy eight core pleasures: primal, pain relief, play and humor, mental, emotional, sensual, sexual, and spiritual. Complete with inspiring stories of people who have learned to access these pleasures, each chapter concludes with a set of personal experiments designed to aid readers in gaining new skills to enjoy that pleasure more completely. The Pleasure Zone is designed to help anyone achieve a lifestyle based on positive motivation, vitality, spiritual nourishment, and loving relationships.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Our happiness, or the lack of it, is a ubiquitous concern?even the Declaration of Independence talks about it?and books on attaining that goal are likely to appeal to a number of readers. This work is no exception. Resnick writes in an appealing manner about how to enjoy nine core pleasures (primal, pain, relief, play, mental, emotional, sensual, sexual, and spiritual). The easy-to-read chapters are followed by specific exercises to help readers gain skills in various areas. Although many of Resnick's ideas seem obvious, many others are worthy of reflection and action. This is a solid choice for those relatively new to the self-help genre dealing with the normal angst of everyday life. Recommended for most public libraries.?January Adams, Franklin Twp. P.L., N.J.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Stella Resnick is a psychologist in private practice in Los Angeles. An active member of the American Psychological Association, she has written widely for journals and magazines. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573240710
• ISBN-13: 978-1573240710
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS AN AMAZING BOOK, May 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pleasure Zone: Why We Resist Good Feelings & How to Let Go and Be Happy (Hardcover)

This book proves that pleasure is not just a self-indulgent pursuit of shallow people but a very positive and profound way to approach life. Dr. Resnick gives good information substantiated by research that the better you feel the more energy you have and the better you treat others. Her writing style is clear, personal, and reads easily. Most important, I could really relate to her examples and I used her exercises at the end of the chapters to experiment with some of her suggestions. It has made a real difference in my life and all the people I have recommended the book to have also gotten a lot out of it. I can honestly say that reading The Pleasure Zone has been a powerful experience and I'm happy to pass on the good news.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Pleasure Zone: Why We Resist Good Feelings & How to Let Go and Be Happy (Hardcover)

Stella is an excellent writer and speaker. This book really encourages you to focus on yourself, and your feelings. If you really want to find out how to discover your own "pleasure zone" and enjoy life again, read this book! It's wonderful!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars changing negative behaviors to positive behaviors, January 29, 2006

By 

Karen L. Lynn (Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Pleasure Zone: Why We Resist Good Feelings and How to Let Go and Be Happy (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book. What made the book REAL for me was the fact that the author was willing to share her own personal experiences with abuse in her own childhood - very frank and courageous which made everything she wrote real and challenging to me and can be for any one who has found themselves "stuck" and looking to learn how to think "outside the box". I would recommend this book - as learning how to allow happiness and to
change the negative ways we sabotage our own personal happiness is just great and life affirming. A challenge to anyone seeking to change their life at any stage.