Creating Optimism: A Proven, Seven-Step Program for Overcoming Depression: A Proven, 7-Step Program for Overcoming Depression - Hardcover

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Bob Murray, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist who consults with multinational companies and government organizations on team building and relationships. He lives in San Francisco, Tampa, and Sydney.

Alicia Fortinberry, M.S., is a psychotherapist, writer, and Feldenkrais (learning through movement) practitioner. She has lectured extensively on her own healing from "treatment resistant" depression. She lives in San Francisco, Tampa, and Sydney .

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Depression and pessimism have been around since the Stone Age. But as the psychological and physical stressors of modern life have steadily increased, the healing mechanisms of our ancestors have virtually disappeared. As a result, depression has reached an unprecedented rate in today's society. Many are cut off from what makes us truly human--a network of supportive people, rewarding work, interaction with nature, and a connection to the sublime. But now there is a revolutionary new approach to overcoming depression that has proven far more effective--with a 94 percent success rate based on follow-up questionnaires--than drugs, psychotherapy, or both combined.

Based on the authors' more than twenty years of research and practice sponsored by the University of South Florida and a recipient of a grant from the distinguished Ford Foundation, Creating Optimism offers a unique, seven-step program, challenging the conventional wisdom that healing occurs from the inside out. It shows that real change comes from building healthier relationships with others, our own bodies, nature (including other animals), and spirituality. The program can be used either without medications or in conjunction with them and includes new techniques and insights for mind/body healing, including movement exercises that significantly combat depression and anxiety by stimulating the brain to learn new ways of thinking.

Drawing upon the latest research in neurobiology, psychiatry, and fascinating evolutionary psychology, the authors lay bare common myths about depression--what it really is and what causes it. Here you will discover:

• The real secrets of how to feel increasingly good about yourself and achieve more in every aspect of your life
• Proven techniques for identifying and changing dysfunctional behavior
• A step-by-step process for establishing and maintaining healthy relationships
• Valuable charts, written exercises, and self-tests that help identify behavior patterns and remove obstacles
• Rules, roles, and rituals to bind families, friends, and coworkers together in a healthy interconnectedness
• Ways to avoid the false values engendered by modern society--and find lasting fulfillment
• The link between depression and many physical ailments, including diabetes, some forms of cancer, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, and even eye diseases

Once you are armed with the tools to triumph over depression and helplessness, Creating Optimism also shows you how to prevent relapse, further expand your personal empowerment, achieve work success, and continue to create a solid basis for happiness and healthy spirituality--the most powerful antidepressants known.

A revolutionary new approach to beating depression through lasting, supportive relationships

This fascinating and prescriptive book offers a wonderful new proven approach to overcoming the state of despair and pessimism that plagues hundreds of millions of people around the world today. University-sponsored and recipient of a grant from the renowned Ford Foundation, this powerful seven-step program is practical, revolutionary--and based on the healing mechanisms that buoyed our ancient ancestors through the trials of primitive life, as well as the latest research in neurobiology, psychiatry, and evolutionary psychology. With a stunning ninety-four percent success rate based on follow-up questionnaires, this program shows you how to:

• Heal from depression
• Cultivate your natural inclination toward happiness and positivity in a society that has come to foster powerlessness, isolation, materialism, and unsatisfying overwork
• Create the eight fundamentals of happiness: connection to others, autonomy, self-esteem, competence, purpose, and connection to your body, nature, and spirit
• Identify your functional needs and get them met in your current relationships--and meet new people who are right for you
• Negotiate, set clear boundaries, and avoid harmful codependence
• Understand what makes a functional community and how you can become part of a supportive, encouraging, and dependable network
• Keep your emotional immune system high
• Tackle conditions arising from a negative lifestyle, such as obesity, lack of exercise, isolation, and stress

Also included are powerful mind-body healing techniques and exercises that restructure neural pathways in the brain and allow for new, healthier ways of thinking. While you cannot meditate, eat, work, exercise, focus--or medicate--your way out of depression--each of these, done in very specific ways and within a certain context, may help. Creating Optimism will show you what does work, with specific and extremely effective actions--in seven simple steps.