Today’s Book of the Day is The Self-Talk Workout, written by Rachel Goldsmith Turow in 2022 and published by Shambhala.
Dr. Rachel Goldsmith Turow is a psychotherapist, a researcher, an adjunct faculty member at Seattle University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and a mindfulness teacher.
She is a renowned expert in teaching how to use mindfulness, self-compassion, and cognitive behavioral skills to help people get rid of their negative talk and grow. She is also a speaker and an author of books and scientifical articles.
I have chosen this book because I very often deal with Self-Criticism in my daily consulting and coaching job. People are stuck by their own, self-created negative ideas about themselves and this negatively impacts their personal and professional life and growth.
Almost everyone today knows that self-talk is responsible for most of our negative thoughts, yet, finding effective methods to get rid of it and improve not always is an easy challenge.
I witness almost daily that many people struggle with dealing with self-criticism. Some are even convinced that being hard on themselves is an inherent part of their personality and that this is the life they have to deal with.
Of course, all of this causes an endless series of personal and professional issues. Plus, it can also bring clinically relevant problems such as depression.
In this excellent book, Rachel Goldsmith Turow shares with the readers her deep knowledge of the matter, based on scientifical research and teaching practice. The book is a sort of practical tool, a how-to guide that will help most readers to quickly improve.
Bringing to the table more than twenty years of professional experience in helping people dealing with negative self-talk, the author developed what she calls a “self-talk workout”.
This workout is composed of six practical and effective exercises that everyone can do to replace self-criticism with a positive mindset.
The thing I appreciated most is that these exercises are literally doable in just a few minutes every day and you can also combine two or more of them to increase the effectiveness of the results. Each chapter of the book describes one of these exercises with scientific evidence that supports its use and some stories about people who used it with positive outcomes.
I loved this book, and I cannot hide it.
The style is engaging and the author makes an excellent job of mixing an engaging narrative with state-of-the-art scientifical evidence, thus offering a solid base to the readers who want to engage in practicing the workout.
I recommend reading the book, even if you think you are self-confident, as I am sure everyone can find something interesting in it.
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