Overcome Stress or Continue to Suffer

Overcome Stress or Continue to Suffer Book Review

The new book by Charles Shoten deserves to become a CLASSIC. Its simple, clear principles apply to anyone motivated to succeed. Negative self-talk may stand in the way of success more than any other single obstacle for many people. The Shoten “Ten Commitments” provide a method for intensely focus­ing the attention on the present with a clear, compassionate mind while putting aside all doubts and fears.

Insecure people preoccupied with past and potential future failures and disappointments can take new heart with the Ten Commitments. Thought Terrorist (TT) became the identifiable enemy that the Ten Commitment technique helps to destroy forever. This framework coaches the reader in the unquestion­able value of having a joyous mindset.

A whole new outlook can result by systematically identifying and destroying the insidious negative think­ing of a lifetime of poor self-esteem. Gratefully enjoying the new, liberated frame of mind may have a ripple effect on others.

A wonderful potential exists, the book tells us, for the community to embrace these concepts and com­municate them to other’s through the increasingly popular new technologies available today. The principles deserve study and practice. The admirably short length of the book will encourage the potential reader. The concepts described seem reminiscent of Steven Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, as well as the meditative notion of mindfulness with focus on the positive present exis­tence.

The classic “thought-stopping” technique developed by Albert Ellis, Ph.D., one of the fathers of cognitive-behavioral therapy, has similarities to the Shoten method of stopping the Thought Terrorists. A simple but effective intervention, the thought stopping technique involves putting a rubber band around the wrist and snapping it against the skin while emphatically thinking “STOP!” to get rid of distressing thoughts. This might help those suffering from intrusive thoughts of disappointments to bridge the gap until mastering the Ten Commitments.

The thorough reader will come out a winner.

Karen L. Cruey, M.D.
Adult, Adolescent, and Child-Psychiatry/Psychotherapy.
Court Ordered Assessments and Independent Medical Evaluations.