Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart

Rating:
Summary: A blessing
Review: I found this book to be very helpful and informative with getting down to the core of why we do what we do and our own emotional patters. It helps to understand ourselves and what we can do to change them, how to help heal ourselves. Also helpful with calming the mind and re-centering ourselves.
Very good.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best self-help books I've read!
Review: I have spent years working through my psychological problems, and I have ordered -- and read -- many self-help books from Amazon.com in the process. Almost every one of those books has contributed a piece of the puzzle, but this one delivers a whole chunk of it. It helps organize "tough-nut-to-crack" psychological issues into patterns and shows how to tackle them. It also shows how meditative mindfulness can help. I am only half-way through the book and already I am seeing -- and approaching -- my own life and my relationship with my husband differently. Thank you, Tara Bennett-Goleman, for sharing your powerful understanding! In my library, this ranks right up there with Passionate Marriage by David Schnarch as a book that provides far-reaching, actionable insights.

Rating:
Summary: The right mix of Buddhism and psychology
Review: I thought this was a wonderful book, and very helpful. Surprised by the negative comments about its length, I found almost everything very helpful and not too redundant. The author's clear explication of Buddhist theory and practice was truly an excellent addition to the book.

I was troubled a tiny tiny bit by her anthropomorphizing of schemas, as if they were evil beasts dwelling within us and pulling our strings. But that's okay. It is just a metaphor.

Rating:
Summary: Very good, wish it had been trimmed a little
Review: It has a forward by the Dali Lama, enough said.

Buy this book for whatever makes you crazy. Well worth reading twice. No, it's not for someone who is educationally challenged, there is an academic flair here, but for those only remotely familiar with psychology 101 or the basic methods of Buddhism, this book is a winner.

Bennett-Goleman breaks down the reasons why we get tripped up and trapped by our emotions in a way that I haven't seen presented this clear since "Awakening the Buddha Within," by Lama Surya Das. She takes the tenets of Buddhism one step beyond peace to tie it in with why we respond to life as we do, and how to change the automatic pilot of our negative emotional reactions. I found this book to be thorough in explanation, deeply insightful, comprehensive, very well written, very well framed, and extremely helpful to understanding myself and those I love. I'm buying a copy for every member of my dysfunctional family!

Rating:
Summary: Read and enjoy
Review: Tara Bennett-Goleman introduces us into the hidden world of destructive schemas which unconsciously rules our lives. What is new in this book is that the author connects these schemas with mindfulness (awareness) and offers the mindfulness as a tool for recognising and changing these destructive unconscious habits When you are overwhelmed by your schemas you will find it difficult to recognise what are rational and what are irrational thoughts (irrational thoughts always seem rational to a person who is under spell of their schemas). Therefore, at the beginning of trying to understand your thoughts it is easier for you to be aware of your thoughts, not trying to react on them or suppress them, and just recognize that a schema is happening, that thinking is happening. This choice of non-reaction is the beginning of changing your way of thinking, feeling and behaving. Although you will understand your schemas and how they rule your life intellectually, as Bennett-Goleman says, it takes years of practicing mindfulness to change your emotional mind which develops before intellectual mind, and that is way changing is so much difficult and one cannot expect great improvement in short time or just after reading this book. But understanding this opens new perspectives for personal growth and liberation.

The descriptions of the mind functioning are profound and written in easy-to-understand style. I really enjoyed reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: Turned My Life Around!
Review: This book is amazing! While it is true, as another reviewer noted, that this book may not tell you anything you've never heard before, it's the way Ms. Goleman delivers it that makes such an impact. I'd read and heard about mindfulness, about schemas and all that, but I never "got it" until I read THIS BOOK. And it changed my life! It got me to change my thinking about people and what they do and say, and my relationships, especially my marriage, improved tremendously. I was miserable with much of my life before I studied this book, and now, well, I've never been happier! (If you don't believe me, just ask my husband!:)) Thank you Ms. Goleman, for a brilliant book. I hope many, many more people will benefit from it as much as I have.

Rating:
Summary: A Helpful Book
Review: This book was recommended to be at a time when I was going through some personal difficulties and it it was able to teach me to be mindful of all the powerful emotions I was going through, and to hold on to them long enough to turn strong emotions into insights, and insights into solutions.

What the book needs though is a re-edit. I always appreciate material written with an economy of words better. Nonetheless, this one's worth buying, and keeping.

Rating:
Summary: Insight and understanding
Review: This is a book holding a very strong transforming ability if you take it's lessons to heart. Tara Bennett-Goleman melds eastern and western ideas into a theroy of self revelaion that is at once simple in it's statements yet deep and meaningful the more you probe the questions and ideas posed. She writes in a very approchable manner and I never once felt talked down to. She first offers an in-depth explanation of her ideas of inner peace and how to achive it, then shows you how to apply it to every day issues like breaking bad habits, relationships, findig out where some of your emotions come from, death and spirituality. There is a wonderful introduction by the Dalai Lama included that sets the stage for the ideas to come. On a superficial (yet telling) note, the book has a very subdued dust cover, but underneath it comes to life in color and grandeuer. A marvel to look at!

I've gained much insight from this book and am sure to be referring to it again and again. This is a book everyone should read, but especially if you're interested in growing as a human being and learning just what makes YOU tick. Are you up to the challenge?

Rating:
Summary: Informative but dull and uninspiring
Review: This type of a book is not read for its entertainment value, that it obvious. The depth of the content is a primary consideration, and in the case of this book, the material is not lacking in depth, borrowing from a subject as rich and profound as the human mind itself - Buddhist phychology. However, the message of healing through mindfulness gets lost in the hopeless wandering aroung in circles, without ever really getting anywhere. Where is this book going? By page 130 it was still not very clear. This seems more like a dry psychology textbook, filled with chapter after chapter of research results, case histories and impressive technical "buzzwords", than an inspiring and sympathetic Buddhist teaching on how to heal the emotions. I peronally have found Tich Nhat Hanh's wrtitings much more "Buddhist", in a sense, because they are warm, non-technical, practical and consise. The Dalai Lama himself has written a number of excellent books on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Resource for Self Discovery
Review: Years ago I attended one of Tara and her husband Daniel's weekend seminar on meditation. I remember feeling a lightness and ease in myself after this seminar. I found a similar experience with reading Tara's book, Emotional Alchemy. Through Western psychology and Buddhist mindfulness Tara guides the reader in self discovery. According to Tara "Mindfulness means seeing things as they are, without trying to change them." I had not previously heard of the practice of mindfulness, but it rang true for me. I feel I will revisit Tara's book again and again as it is a great resource for personal transformation.

I you enjoyed this book, I highly recommend reading another book called "Working on Yourself Doesn't Work" by Ariel and Shya Kane. The Kane's approach to modern day enlightenments is based on simple awareness where mechanical behavior can transform enabling you to lead an authentic life, one with meaning and satisfaction. Thanks to all the authors of these two wonderful books!