Review: Getting out of our own way
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 21, 2013
How to Stop Negative Thinking is a useful book for helping change the patterns and kinds of thinking we do which end up making us miserable.  Steve Norton is a British therapist who has written this book based on his own therapy techniques, and what jumps out to me is his belief that we need to learn strategies and use them in order to pursue happier lives, rather than becoming dependent on therapists and continually feeding the therapy economy. I can trust a therapist who thinks therapy should be short term and effective leading us to living our lives fully and independently rather than being a continuous process because we are hopelessly broken and will never be able to stand alone.  Norton writes the book as if he is talking to you personally, explaining as he goes and giving examples that are easy to understand and relate to. He focuses on the difference between conscious-mind thinkers, who inevitably live in their heads, and who judge and stop themselves (negative thinking) as well as reflect on the world as an unkind, unfair place, and those who work more from the subconscious and trust themselves to move about in the world, learning from mistakes and pushing forward rather than hesitating and self-punishing.  There is a lot of wisdom in Norton's words, and I found myself examining my thought patterns and testing out his mantras as I went, with encouraging results.The reason I’m giving 4 rather than 5 stars is although I do believe in Norton’s methods, the introduction to the book is somewhat hyperbolic, and makes it feel more like a self-help guru approach, rather than the well thought out, grounded process it actually is. Norton’s conversational style works very well in the rest of the book, and I understand he has to convince the reader in the beginning to give it all a go, but the approach and ideas are great in  themselves and really can stand without that push.  I am going to use this book whenever I feel myself spiraling back into negative thinking, and I think most readers will find it extremely useful.