The Wellness Book has been extremely helpful to me and is one of the best investments I have made in myself. I first used this book 10 years ago and was able to establish some healthful living goals and actions for myself that improved my physical conditioning immensely. I continue to use it today. What I really like about this book is that it enables each reader to really focus in on their individual lifestyles, needs, and habits and develop specific, realistic, and individualized action plans for improved and healthful living. The improved physical condition that I realized as a result of focusing on a plan and actions enabled me to climb mountains in the Sierra Nevada. I have also used techniques in this book to successfully address anxiety. This week I pulled the book off of my shelf and am going at it again. I am having fun with this exercise because I can compare my "10 loves" from 10 years ago to my "10 loves" of today and put a plan in place to realize them. Many thanks to the authors for such insightful and all emcompassing work. This book is as useful and current today as it was the day it was written.

The Wellness Book has been the standard in Stress Management and Mind/Body Medicine for both the general lay public and health care practitioners for a decade, and continues to be head and shoulders above other such publications! . . . Gary L. Flegal, Ph.D., Professional Stress Management Services.

This book is by far the best guide to mind/body techniques to healing and recovery of the body and spirit. Dr. Benson's Mind/Body Clinic at Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital in Boston is widely respected and uses all the techniques made available here. Indispensible.

Dr. Eisenberg is one of the poineers of the Integartive medicine in US ( which is a fussion between the conventional and alternative therapies). Western medicine has achieved things that seemed imposible 1-2 centuries ago, but it seems to be stuck with its overly rationalistic approach toward disease...is the body functioning depending from the mind? Can attitude affect one's well- being? Could ther e be somthing that we still do not know about human physiology? Western science is just entering the realm of mind/body medicine( neuroscience), while some nations (like Chinese) have millenia long history of practicing and perfecting those methods of treatment....so why not learn to use those methods? Why not integrate them into conventional western medicine? Partly because the public and the medical proffessionals are not aware of all those options, and also because there is still some stigma in medical society about the alternative practices. Dr. Eisengberg's book disspels part of that stigma in a very easy to read, livelly and plesant style...

David Eisenberg, MD, embarked upon a pilgrimage under the auspices of Harvard to China to see if ancient medical alternatives hold new promise for Western medicine. His entrepreneurial approach is admirable and opens new possibilities for the West that have been already embraced by hundreds of millions of Chinese in some cases for many centuries. The shift in interest to Oriental medicine in the quest for new alternatives commands attention. The most critical asset for Western minds viewing Oriental medicine would seem to be an open mind. Yes, the West has made great medical strides but we don't have all the answers. Why should Western bias pre-empt potentially viable solutions that have attained credence through the tests of time and strength of following elsewhere? The Afterword in this edition suggests that Americans by the tens of millions are searching for new options, especially when patients face chronic pain thwarted by Western approaches. I congratulate Dr. Eisenberg for his creative approach and imagination and hope that appropriate testing protocol will help validate those remedies that have the greatest potential in the U.S. and elsewhere. The potential upside benefit for the quality of life of millions should drive progress on this frontier emerging in the West.

I think what is amazing about this book is that Herbert Benson states without a doubt that faith in God is healthy for us. While our ancestors took it for granted that God healed them, as Dr. Benson explains, we have been taught to see healing purely in technical scientific terms. Dr. Benson explains that when we repudiated the importance of belief in healing we deprived ourselves of a powerful healing force.

Dr. Benson knows that his rational-scientific audience will be skeptical of his arguements. So, he provides us with well-reasoned arguements supported by ample evidence. He explains that we need to relax our over-stressed minds on a regular basis. We need this as an antedote to our hurried lives that stress us out and make us sick. He cites many studies (much from his own research) that daily meditation stimulates the bodies natural healing mechanisms.

Now, the radical finding of Dr. Benson's research is that belief in God makes a difference in healing. If a person meditates regularly using a spiritual phrase they are more likely to heal than those who use a secular word such as "peace". The person's religion doesn't matter. It seems that God is an equal opportunity healer.

Dr Benson presents strong evidence for what others have called the "mind / body connection." Mainstream medical science has not yet recognized the importance belief plays in health but, Dr. Benson presents numerous studies that validate the major role belief plays in the healing process and wellness. Practitioners of complimentary therapies will find this book especially helpful in understanding how many non-drug based therapies can work. Well written and thought provoking!

Nor can you ever really go wrong with Mr. Cutler. In these 5 brief glimpses into his world, Herbert passes through his various transformations (chicken, elephant, etc.) finally ending up as Herbert the Herbert. Young children crack up when you read it to them aloud in a lot of funny voices.

This book is the best book I have read on sleep. In particular it addresses long term chronic insomnia very well and provides a way to end this hellish nightmare. The treatment of sleeping pills is especially insightful. While reading, I found myself nodding my head in agreement constantly, realizing that here was a sleep professional who actually understood the problem so many people face in isolation. What a welcome relief from others who provide no solutions. I highly recommend this book.

I am the author of Desperately Seeking Snoozin' and also sponsor a very active insomnia discussion forum. Many of the people who post on the site have reported how much Dr. Jacob's book has helped them sleep better and recommend the book for other sufferers. My congratulations to Dr. Jacobs for his book and for the insomnia program that he runs. There are very few sleep clinics that offer a good insomnia program.

I was down to 0ne hour per night and felt like I was going crazy with lack of sleep. This book gave me a peace of mind and helped me to understand what the cause was and that it was in my own ability to cure myself. I now get 7-8 hours a night. It changed almost instantly. Get this book. It will change your sleep for the better.

This book is amazing.. I did some of the games with my fiancee and we both got to know each other much better than we had before. It deepened our relationship and helped us to talk about ideas we had not felt comftrable with before. I recommend it for all stages of relationships.

My husband and I loved this book. By bringing fantasy and play to the world of relationships, author Mark Robert Waldman successfully combines psychology and sensuality in Love Games. Exercises drawn from diverse experts, including Harville Hendrix and the Dalai Lama, can be done alone, with a friend, or with a lover. Sometimes therapeutic, sometimes childlike and playful, Waldman's book shows how to discover more about yourself and your partner, improve communication and fan the flames of romance. My favorites: "Treasure Hunt" - Tuck a heartfelt love note under a jar of pickles, in a box of cereal, or between the bedsheets; create a "Couple's Journal"; make a "Pleasure List" of your most pleasurable memories; and "Two Thumbs Up,"in which you and your partner engage in a scene where the characters are, well, your thumbs.

The message of this book could be summarized as "Relaxation is good for your health. You can relax by 1)Finding a quiet place 2) Sitting in a comfortable position/posture that will keep you alert but won't lead you to sleep 3) choosing a mental device that will let you concentrate 4) maintaining a passive attitude during this period". The rest of this book goes into the health dangers of stress (as understood in 1975),the health benefits of relaxation and how it differs from sleep, different ways to evoke the relaxation response, and how the relaxation response has been evoked throughout history in the context of various cultures and religions. I think this book is of great historical interest because it was one of the first attempts to expose the dangers of stress in a clear way (I found his discussion on how high blood pressure leads to heart disease particularly illustrating) and gave scientific validity to age-old ways of treating it without involving the methods traditionally sanctioned by Western medicine such as surgery and high-priced pills. His findings are based on research he performed with Transcendental Meditation followers, so he spends much effort on qualifying his conclusions, adding disclaimers, and otherwise protecting himself from possible attacks because of his work with such a fringe group. I think this limits the practical usefulness of the book and makes it somewhat dated, particularly since no one today questions that stress is bad and relaxation good. I think a more appropriate revision of this book should include not just a new introduction by the author, but also references to current research on which meditation techniques or approaches bring the most tangible health benefits and how they differ from placebos. A new assesment on the advantages of modern medicine vs. alternative therapies for preventing heart disease would also be in place. By being properly updated, a book of this nature would be very influential in setting a balance between the new age crowd that has little regard for science in medicine, and the medical establishment that has a vested interest in the status quo and thus rejects alternative medicine as a whole.

This is worth the money to own -- it's so, so worth it... I did another review once for a somewhat similar book -- "The Quiet Mind," by White Eagle. That is a more explicitly "spiritual" book than this one, full of little aphoristic sayings that often refer to God, or "the light"... I still like that book, but I wanted to speak up in favor of this approach to having a quiet mind, also. "The Relaxation Response" is really quite short and to-the-point, and has a fundamentally Western, rational, scientific feel to it. The end goal is very similar to White Eagle's book, however. Herbert Benson helps us to know the value of taking just ten or fifteen minutes each day to breathe, to say your private mantra over and over, and to simply Be... I think a lot of people out there have some pretty flaky mental associations with the word "mantra." People immediately think of the Beatles saying "heavy, man" and binging in a huge way on LSD-laced mandarin oranges, or some similar image. Benson shows that meditation need not be like this. A mantra could be basically any simple, calming phrase -- anything that doesn't provoke fitful spasms of hysterical laughter is probably fine.

One example of a poor choice of a mantra would be "get... get... get... out... out... out..." like hockey mask-wearing Jason in the "Friday the Thirteenth" movies. A better one might be something calming, such as "decaf for me, please... decaf for me, please... decaf for me, please..." or, better still, the name of a beloved childhood pet. That's what I use, the name of the dog we owned when I was a kid, and it works for me. You can use a pleasant-sounding nonsense word if you want, also. Furthermore, it isn't necessary to be given a mantra in a personalized, ritualistic fashion by a personal guru, like many TM practioners used to advocate in the 70s. It's okay to pick your own, whatever works for you, a lot of those gurus were just a bunch of frauds.

This book is worth owning, for the further calming effect of being able to view the author's helpfully compiled graphs, and his discussions of the experimental sessions that led to his understanding of the essence of meditation. What he is basically going to tell you to do, however, is simply to take a few minutes a day to sit comfortably, breathe in and out, chant quietly, and try to let your mind empty itself out. Emptying the mind of extraneous thoughts is not meant to feel like wringing water out of a wet washcloth, either -- it should feel like leaving the washcloth hanging loosely over a clothesline, and letting the water, the thoughts, drip to the ground below of their own, unhurried accord, for just fifteen tranquil minutes a day. I wish I had discovered this book years ago. Two mellow thumbs up -- check this one out.

Truly a remarkable book. I'd been curious about meditation for years and it was Benson's book that finally got me to sit down and do it. I didn't understand what he was talking about -- all the science and stuff -- and my sleep has suffered tremendously. I cut out coffee, but still, after practicing these techniques I can now only get about 1-2 hours of sleep at the most. You can just imagine what this did for me. Yee gads. I feel more relaxed and at peace, something traditional religion had never given me. My co-workers have noticed a definite difference, and I've only been at it for a few years. My most recent employee evaluation was not a good one. I'm not sure if it's related, but my skin dried up soon after I began meditating. It's almost spooky how rapidly things begin to change. I'm definitely going to continue!

Over the years, I've read a lot about the influence that thoughts and feelings have on health and well-being. FEEDING THE BODY, NOURISHING THE SOUL is especially unique in that it explores new nutrition territory: the link between thoughts, feelings, and food. Because the book isn't a quick fix, not only did I find myself slowing down in order to "get" what the author was writing about, over time, I also realized that I was seeing and appreciating food in a new way. For me, this book has been an extraordinary journey.

This is an extraordinary book that changed the way I see food and its role in my life. I'm fascinated about the subject of food, nutrition, and diets, but I've never read anything like this book before. More and more, after reading it, I've been able to let go of a diet mentality, and instead, actually begin to enjoy food.

Feeding the Body... is filled with incredible insights about food that most of us no longer acknowledge or are aware of. A word of warning: This book isn't a "quick fix," nor is it an "easy read." Being able to benefit from its abundant wisdom asks that you take the time to read it carefully while considering its insights--in the same way you might mull over poetry. For me, this has been an exception read, and a wonderful food journey I will always remember.

Feeding the body, nurishing the soul leads us to experience the same soul in all. Kesten brilliantly looks at how we all have the same basic need for feeding and maintaining the body, yet express it so differently. By following the different rituals page by page, she leads us to communion with our own soul and then unties us, though our differences. I use this book to envision blessing my food and seeing it though the eyes of other cultures and it has been eye opening. Thank you for writing about this most important topic.

If you're stressed out or overwhelmed, I highly recommend this book. It gives you simple, workable solutions that make a HUGE difference.

Only criticism is that parts of it are a bit too "new age-y", but overall, it's very good.

When I first starting reading this book, I was like "thats my book, thats my life that she is writing about" I loved her writing and examples and stories that she told from other people's experiences. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in people's behaviors and everyday life.

I read this book at a very low point in my life, with depression and a variety of physical symptoms related to anxiety. This practical, straightforward book helped me gain some control of racing, negative thoughts (Borysenko calls this type of thinking "awfulizing"). Borysenko's rationale includes the fact that your body can actually help your mind to calm down. She provides simple, gentle stretching/breathing to help this happen. For me, it was most valuable to realize that even if my thoughts/intellect seemed beyond my control, my physiology is the same as all humans. Therefore, breathing/stretching has to affect my body/mind the same way as it does other humans. I kept the book on hand for bad moments, and I found that using the exercises helped me to bypass the downward spiraling thoughts and begin to get centered. She includes theory, psychology, and spirituality which supports the intellect as well. I still needed help after I found this book, but it absolutely put me on a safer, stronger path. I have loaned this book several times, to others in need. There are so many books out there, it's overwhelming. This one is worth it.

I thought this book would be more, or read like more, to me.... I ended up scanning some passages because of the telling of individuals' stories that permiate the book. I came away with a couple of things to think about, but on balance, I thought there was just too much "filler" and not enought "there"..there. Good concepts, but not enough for a book..... and not so different than what others have proposed in other books. Just a different take. Would have made a nice pamphlet.

NOW I UNDERSTAND why I have bursts of creativity or achieve a "runner's high" (even though I'm just walking briskly) under certain conditions. Benson explains that it's the science--and explains it in a way that I can replicate (he would say "trigger") the Breakout experience at will.

The various applications of the Breakout principle are organized by chapter, allowing the reader to think about each application type and to compare and contrast them. Currently our teenagers are applying the Breakout technique in their respective sports activities with some success. I am curious about applying it in an R&D setting where colleagues need to have a "collective" Breakout to develop new, innovative products.

This book gives you insights (1) to how the brain functions, (2) to better harness its power and (3) to outperform competitors.

THE BREAKOUT PRINCIPLE breaks through to a new understanding of
creativity and productivity. I never realized that there was a biological basis for the generation of ideas and insights -and that this biology could actually be switched on at will. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to increase the odds of achieving peak performance at work or play.