We’re trained as a society to expect, even demand, immediate gratification. And we have an extraordinary ability to rationalize this weakness. Instead of admitting we’re avoiding pain, we tell ourselves we’re being virtuous; Vinny had convinced himself he was refusing to “sell out.” We end up with a distorted worldview that makes avoidance seem right, even brave and idealistic. This is the worst sin of all—lying to ourselves. It makes change impossible.” The Reversal of Desire: Uses the force of Forward Motion to directly face pain instead of attempting to avoid it by hiding in a comfort zone.

It doesn't matter what an institution or an authority tells you about the spiritual world. What matters is what you can experience for yourself.”

Drawing insights from their decades of psychotherapeutic practice, their lived experience, and their moving and generous understanding of our interconnectedness, Michels and Stutz have created a paradigm-shifting guide to achieving optimal mental health and spiritual well-being. Each of these tools involves visualization through which you can see immediate results, but they're really meant to be practiced regularly until they become habits for life. Even though it took me just about a week to take my time with The Tools on Kindle, I liked it so much I actually bought a physical version too to properly study and highlight. Tap into the life force to deepen your emotional and spiritual experience and realize your full potential with this transformative book by the New York Times bestselling authors of The Tools(and the resident shrinks on Goop). All that aside, I cannot bring myself to strongly endorse a book that is as philosophically and methodologically problematic as this one. First and foremost, the authors establish the legitimacy of their method by stating that they have tried The Tools in their practice and it works. This is a huge red flag for anyone trained in the social sciences. This particular problem (relying on the clinicians judgment to gauge the effectiveness of the treatment) plagued psychotherapy for its first century. In their book _The Tools_, Phil Stutz and Barry Michels share the tools that have worked for them (and their clients) in dealing with this painful existential given. Their fours tools (and the “higher forces” which power them) are:

What a gift! A riveting exploration of four (bone-chillingly relatable) modern ailments and their thrillingly practical solutions . . . Barry and Phil have written a manual for moving beyond impulsivity, exhaustion, demoralization, and victimhood, toward a life of self-control, vitality, optimism, and resilience. Singular in its approach and deeply spiritual in its concerns, Coming Alive is a book I’ll be pressing onfriends and foes alike.” —Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Today Will Be DifferentAfter you struggle with implementing a couple of suchlike principles in your life, what they tell you is: now, please accept it that you'll always have to struggle (with it or just generally), life will never be quite nice. I definitely see the truth of this, I know this deep inside, but on the other hand, all I ever want is, you know, to be healthy, happy, and rich :) The four vital tools in Coming Alive help you connect to the Life Force—a wellspring of positive energy that is the source of creativity, renewal, confidence, and engagement—and harness the energy and will to combat Part X. Drawing insights from their decades of psychotherapeutic practice, their lived experience, and their moving and generous understanding of our interconnectedness, Michels and Stutz have created a paradigm-shifting guide to achieving optimal mental health and spiritual well-being. So what are the Tools? Conceptually, Stutz describes each of them as a simple step, an action or a bit of forward motion. They can change your inner state almost immediately, according to Stutz, taking unpleasant experiences and thoughts and transforming them into opportunities. Stutz says his Tools “turn problems [in]to possibilities,” and give people the propulsive feeling that they can make big changes. In practice, the Tools are visualization exercises. In Stutz, each Tool is accompanied by cards with hand-drawn illustrations that, according to Stutz, render even the biggest, most complicated concepts into something manageable.