Wednesday, May 29, 2013

My Book Review: "The Myth of Stress" by: Andrew Bernstein



This happened to be one of the most enlightening books I have ever read. I am ecstatic to be sharing Andrew Bernstein’s “The Myth of Stress” with you today. From beginning to end Bernstein did a very good job at capturing and holding my attention, while not putting me to sleep with portions that were heavy on scientific lingo.

Bernstein’s assertion is simple yet has profound impacts. In short he states that most stress in our daily lives comes from within and does not originate from external forces/entities. Our boss can scream at us, our loved ones can overburden us, but at the end of the day it is our thoughts about these types of things that are the driving force behind the daily stress in our lives.

I certainly agree with Bernstein’s assessment and the examples he walks through in the book were very well put together. Working through them myself, I actually felt like I had my therapist in front of me as I worked from exercise to exercise.

Perhaps what is even more important is that this book had a lasting impact on me. The exercises that I now run through in my mind when the internal stress bubble starts to build, actually puts me in a process to logically find empathy. It should be clear though that Bernstein, in the book, did not advocate or condone horrendous actions such as abuse, drug use or the like. But instead, especially in tough areas of my past, I found empathy and love rather than hurt and anger when working through Bernstein’s exercises.
The book deals with a lot of hard hitting topics including stressful views of life and death, weight loss and drug abuse. I found the material to be hard hitting and really enlightening to step outside of myself and see how I view, react and generally feel when immersed in negative and hard pressing situations. Trust me, I would love to work through an example here, but I think it would just spoil the fun for when you pick this book up yourself J.


“The Myth of Stress,” is an absolute must read and it comes with my highest recommendation!

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