Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How to Create a More Peaceful, Simpler Life from the Inside Out [Hardcover]

Richard Carlson (Author), Joseph Bailey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

Ever notice that the faster you go, the "behinder" you get? Ever feel like while your life is full maybe too full of things to do, you aren't enjoying life nearly enough? Want a way off the treadmill of anxiety, worry and pressure and into real happiness?

In Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey show you how to create a more peaceful, simpler life from the inside out. In the authors' words: "This is a book about slowing down to learning to live in the moment. We are not, however, going to ask to change your lifestyle. You don't have to move to the country or to a small town in another state. You don't have to resign from your job or change your career."

"In this book, you will learn to slow down your life from the inside out. This change will result from a wiser way of being in the world, not from superficially reorganizing the externals of your life. You will discover how your quality of life is created within rather than imposed upon you by outside forces."

Carlson and Bailey help us recognize rushed thought processes and access healthy, relaxed feelings and, using the popular "psychology of mind" approach, they teach us to gain new-found abilities to stay focused on the task at hand and enhance our creativity and achievement. Illustrated with useful exercises, charts and diagrams, as well as inspiring personal reflections, Slowing Down to the Speed of Life shows us how to maintain a healthy calm in the midst of life's storm.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is the book for you if you've ever had the urge to tell off your boss, quit your job, hurl your Palm Pilot into the trash, and move to a farm. Written by bestselling stress consultant and psychotherapist Dr. Richard Carlson Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, it advocates the cultivation of a personal mindfulness and "thought navigation" to foster a sense of mental calmness and increased creativity and productivity.

With sage tips reminiscent of those in Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go, There You Are, Carlson recommends a "Psychology of Mind" approach that involves being fully present in each situation and not letting the attitudes of others ruin your day. This way, your thoughts become more organized--wiser, if you will--and you get more work done without even trying. This time management trick is what he says will improve your life--not a cell phone or an electronic scheduler or a personal assistant. Carlson's advice can be taken to heart, as he's used these techniques to improve his own life. While he was working on his Ph.D., he rose at 4 a.m. and "gulped down ten or fifteen cups of coffee" each day just to get all his work done, and would bristle if family emergencies took him away from his studying.

Not only does Carlson promise to help boost one's productivity, but he says that relationships and intimacy will improve as well. He maintains that disagreements--at home or at work--are less likely to blow up into full-fledged arguments if you're being calm and levelheaded. "A mind operating at the speed of life can see things as they really are," he writes. "Slowing down gives you needed perspective during times of transition and stress. When you operate at the speed of life and your child desires privacy, you'll probably remember that almost all teenagers go through phases of wanting space from their parents....Rather than take it personally, you'll be able to see the bigger picture. If your mind is moving too quickly, events as well as your own thoughts about events become much larger than they really are."

For anyone fed up with life's chaos, Slowing Down to the Speed of Life should prove to be an immensely helpful mental health manual. --Erica Jorgensen --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Age-old wisdom, presented in a practical, easy to understand manner, that can be utilized by everyone." -- Bernie Siegel, M. D., author of LOVE, MEDICINE & MIRACLES and PRESCRIPTIONS FOR LIVING

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062514539
• ISBN-13: 978-0062514530
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #884,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars most helpful self-help book I ever read, November 3, 1998

By 

Pat Kellim ([e-mail]) (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How To Create A More Peaceful, Simpler Life From the Inside Out (Paperback)

After months of therapy, Prozac, and reading self-help books, I read this one. WOW. I finally understood what the other books were about. This book made it all clear to me at last- how to quiet my mind and be present in the moment! My life was transformed by this incredible book! For the first time in my adult life I know HOW to relax.I do not exagerate when I say that if everyone read this book, the world would be a very different place.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too repetitive...needs more practical advice, July 18, 2000

By 

Keith F. Corso (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How To Create A More Peaceful, Simpler Life From the Inside Out (Paperback)

Do not be mislead by the title. If you are looking for tactics you can use to simplfy your live, you will not find these here. This book talks more to what is happening in you mind. The author contends that we think about things in one of two ways. We either analyze a situation or thought to death or we let the thought come and go. It is when we allow free flow thinking to guide us that we feel less rushed and more in control thus living a simpler life. The ideas in this book make a great deal of sense. However, after reading about three-quarters of the way through, you want solutions to the situations. You want to know what you can do to get into the free flow. There is a lot of theoretical stuff here that gets repeatred time and again, but very little practical advice about how to get to the desired place.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A simple and concise way of life", April 11, 2001

By 

David G. Stokes (St. George, Utah, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How To Create A More Peaceful, Simpler Life From the Inside Out (Paperback)

This book just plain made sense. I know, I know, the concepts in it borrow from Buddhism, and yet it was refreshing to read a book which did not have any religious connotations. It is the 'normal' thing to do to analyze everything that comes into our minds, but if we want to have inner peace in our lives and to have a sense of flow, we must not force our thoughts. I spent a long time reading this book because I enjoyed it so much. It is worth the effort to adopt this way of life in order to enjoy life to the fullest.