Introducing “The Power of Negative Emotion”

Issues & Debates, Review - books movies series,

How Anger, Guilt and Self Doubt are Essential to Success and Fulfillment

By Todd Kashdan & Robert Biswas-Diener
By Todd Kashdan & Robert Biswas-Diener

I bought this book from Kinokuniya bookstore, KL in September last year (price RM52.50, before 10% off for members). No doubt I picked this book up straightaway after looking at the title, as some of my regular readers would know that I’m not in favour of all those positive psychology, positive thinking, positive attitudes etc kind of approach.

One of the authors (RBD) is actually a positive psychologist – and what? He co-authored a “power of negative emotion” book? If you look through the list of books that he has authored, you will inevitably see either “positive” or “happiness” in most of the titles! So what made him write this book?

The centre point that it brings, I guess, is becoming “whole”. It is similar to ACT’s concepts (accepting the positives, negatives, everything; and make full use of them all), except that it has shown me the benefits of not being mindful and that we don’t necessarily have to be so mindful all the time.

I also like it that it’s evidence-based, many interesting research studies are cited. Despite that, I also realised that it can be biased from time to time, picking out only the points that support their views and not stating the full picture.

Overall I think it’s a good read, I’d say “anything moderate will be good for us” is quite a common sense. Such as eating fruits is good, but eating too much is never good; having stress can help to push you, but too much can collapse you; feeling angry can make you a more assertive person, but too much can cause problems etc. So the book doesn’t provide much of new perspective to me, and maybe to anyone who would pick up this book. Yet it’s a good book, because it makes you think about things you already know, and help (at least a little bit) to become whole.

“People who are able to use the whole range of their natural psychological gifts — those folks who are comfortable with being both positive and negative, and can therefore draw from the full range of human emotions — are the healthiest and, often, the most successful.“ (p. x)

精神药物的角色

Basic & General, Issues & Debates, Treatment Approaches, ,

摘自马大元医师的＜心灵影像的力量＞－

精神药物就像救生圈，当一个人掉进水里快要溺死了，这时如果指导他游泳的技巧，绝对是缓不济急。此时，他最需要的，是有人赶紧丢一个救生圈给他，让他尽快脱离溺水的痛苦与危险。

脱离溺水危机之后，这个人痛定思痛，开始下定决心学习游泳。一开始，因为没有信心，仍需一个游泳圈的辅助。等到学会游泳以后，游泳圈就是累赘了。。。你有看过奥运选手戴着游泳圈参加比赛吗？

精神药物的角色也是如此，在你最痛苦，无助的时候，可以提供最即时的协助。危机解除之后，治本之道就是学会情绪调适的技巧。在学习的过程中，游泳圈（药物）仍可以提供适当的辅助。等到你的情绪调适技巧熟练了，游泳圈（药物）就是多余的了！

很多人会以为吃了几个星期的药，比较舒服了，就擅自甚至不听劝告停药（在还没准备好的情况下，就放弃游泳圈了）。非常幸运的，可能这辈子也没再复发；比较幸运的，可能过了几年才回来了；但是大部分，在几个月内，面对重大生活巨变或压力时，就又再溺水，又需要游泳圈（药物）了。

另一种情况，病人开始服药后，就产生依赖性，习惯了游泳圈的便利与安全感的。有些倒是乐意，反正舒服，经济也能承担。有些呢，则会责怪医生责怪自己责怪家人，开始了这药，就停不下来了。问题是，药物是可以平衡头脑里的传输物质，但是你自己呢？你努力了吗？只单靠药物就能完全痊愈不再复发吗？

所以我特别觉得这篇＜游泳与游泳圈＞写得特别好。不能只靠药物，在觉得比较舒服后，就开始学习调适自己，调适情绪，调整生活步调，学习如何抗压，多做运动和参与有意义的活动等等。

Introducing “The Happiness Trap”

Basic & General, Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches, , , , ,
by Russ Harris
by Dr. Russ Harris

I completed this book in 2014. It was bought at Popular Bookstore at the price of RM34.90 (before 10% off for members). Just thought it’s really a good basic and entry book to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that I’ve been mentioning everywhere in my blog, also an easy read, and the chapters are really short. It definitely gives a grasp and basic concepts of ACT, using metaphors (so it can be a bit like reading stories!).

I’ve introduced and lent it to non-psychology backgrounds readers. What I realized is that they can usually get the ideas and benefit from them, but they don’t really know how to practice these concepts in real life (how to accept? how to defuse from my thought? etc). So if you get the ideas and are liking ACT after reading this book (just like me), you shall take a look at “Getting out of your mind and into your life: The new ACT.”

Introducing “Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance & Commitment Therapy”

Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches, , ,

Got this book from Kinokuniya, Kuala Lumpur in September 2015 (RM101.84).

By Steven C. Hayes
By Steven C. Hayes

I’ve been mentioning a lot about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, see here for all the related posts), now finally, it’s an ACT workbook.

It’s written for the general public (especially those with pain and suffering), hence considerably readable though a lot of times it may go against your common sense. It talks about human suffering (why do we suffer? If we don’t struggle with the pain, is it still pain?), why and how language leads to suffering (do the birds or dogs think that they’re suffering? Or do they just feel it?), “experiential avoidance”, acceptance and willingness (how?!!), being the observing self (I really like getting in touch with my observing self, this is something that I tried to explain to my sister when we were much younger, it was a struggle because we didn’t have a term for it back then, but she got me), values (life direction) and committed action etc.

This is a workbook so there are plenty of exercises (meditation, mindfulness, getting detached from your thoughts/feelings, letting go, metaphors etc) in it, you will almost definitely find some that you like and some that you don’t quite like.

I’d recommend it to anyone, and especially to stick to and really hands on the exercises and practices (otherwise there’s no point to just “read” a workbook). If you have some suffering/pain that you’ve really been struggling with in your life (or in your mind, in a sense), it seems easier for you to practice the workbook. Nevertheless, if you’re like me – thinking you’re fine in general – it’d still be beneficial to go through and work on it.

Watch Your Thought Come and Go

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Meditation Exercise: Leaves on the stream (by far my favourite and what I practice most)

This is an eye-closed exercise. First read the instructions and then when you are sure you understand them, close your eyes and do the exercise. (Or you can use the recordings at the end of this post)

Imagine a beautiful slow-moving stream. The water flows over rocks, around trees, descends down-hill, and travels through a valley. Once in a while, a big leaf drops into the stream and floats away down the river. Imagine you are sitting beside that stream on a warm, sunny day, watching the leaves float by.

Now become conscious of your thoughts. Each time a thought pops into your head, imagine that it is written on one of those leaves. If you think in words, put them on the leaf as words. If you think in images, put them on the leaf as an image. The goal is to stay beside the stream and allow the leaves on the stream to keep flowing by. Don’t try to make the stream go faster or slower; don’t try to change what shows up on the leaves in any way. If the leaves disappear, or if you mentally go somewhere else, or if you find that you are in the stream or on a leaf, just stop and notice that this happened. File that knowledge away and then once again return to the stream, watch a thought come into your mind, write it on a leaf, and let the leaf float away down the stream.

(It doesn’t matter how vivid or clear the imagery is, as long as the concept is there, that you notice your thoughts, and let go of your thoughts once you notice them)

Continue doing this for at least 5 minutes. If the instructions are clear to you now, go ahead and close your eyes and do the exercise.

(Continuing reading AFTER the exercise)

You can think of the moments when the stream wouldn’t flow as moments of cognitive fusion, while the moments when the stream does flow are moments of cognitive defusion. Many times we become fused to a thought without even being aware of it. Thoughts about this exercise can be especially “sticky”. If you thought “I’m not doing this right” or “this exercise doesn’t work for me,” these too are thoughts that you may become fused to quite easily. In many cases, you may not even notice them as thoughts. Other particularly sticky thoughts are emotional thoughts, comparative ones, and temporal or causal ones.

A recording of the exercise in English (starts after 5 seconds):

Leaves on the stream – 12 minutes

Leaves on the stream – 11 minutes (starts quicker, less guidance towards the end)

Leaves on the stream – 20 minutes (starts with being aware and accepting body sensation)

Leaves on the stream – 12 minutes (start directly, less instructions, suits those who are familiar with the exercise but still need some prompts)

A recording of the exercise in Mandarin: 

“河流上的飘叶”录音－ 12分钟

“河流上的飘叶”录音II －12分钟

河流上的飘叶－ 12分钟（直接开始，指示较少，适合已经熟悉这个练习的人）

（类似的内容，只是前面的指示稍微不同；5-6秒后指示才开始）

Introducing “House Rules”

Developmental Disorder, Review - books movies series
By Jodi Picoult
By Jodi Picoult

I picked up this book from the Popular RM5 Book Fiesta last year (yes, for RM5!). It is a fiction by Jodi Picoult (this is my first tasting of her book!).

The book is about a boy named Jacob Hunt, who has got Asperger’s Syndrome – the main reason I bought this book as I really want to learn more about the Syndrome. But then the second reason, is that Jacob is also brilliant in forensic analysis – this is my (hidden) interest back in the uni. Haha!

I’d say I’ve really enjoyed reading it. It gave me perspectives from different persons (including the mother who is the main caretaker, the brother who lives together, and even Jacob (how he thinks or analyzes a case for example, sometimes I’d say it all makes sense; it’s us “normal people” who are inconsistent and weird)! and some other characters as well). There’s so much details in it. I’m sure some people would find it repetitive, but this could be how living with someone with the Syndrome is like – you have to set boundaries (house rules!), be repetitive and consistent etc! So it really gives you a sense about Asperger’s Syndrome, plus a terrible murder case in which the evidence was pointing to Jacob…