Chapters

Preface

  • How I Came to Write this Book

Part One: The Truth About Stress

Chapter 1: The Myth Exposed

  • Where stress comes from
  • The Iron Rule of Stress

Chapter 2: The Power of Insight

  • ActivInsight at Phoenix House
  • A worksheet on “I shouldn’t be here”
  • The 7 steps
  • The point drop

Chapter 3: The Birth of Stress

  • Factual and counterfactual thinking
  • Stress is not a survival advantage
  • Expansive versus contractive thoughts
  • Using should and shouldn’t

Part Two: Insight In Action

  • Introduction to part two

Chapter 4: The Myth of Traffic

  • Why stressful-life-events scales are not accurate
  • Measuring stress
  • ActivInsight as an investment
  • Worksheet 1: “There shouldn’t be so much traffic”

Chapter 5: The Myth of Anger

  • The ActivInsight SPIRAL
  • Worksheet 2: “They shouldn’t get so angry”

Chapter 6: The Myth of Conflict Resolution

  • Worksheet 3: “They should see it my way”
  • Learning to lose

Chapter 7: The Myth of Weight Loss

  • Worksheet 4: “I should weigh less”
  • The stress threshold
  • The paradox of insight

    • Chapter 8: The Myth of Success

    • Worksheet 5: “I should be more successful”
    • The myth of stress as a motivator

    Chapter 9: The Myth of Financial Happiness

    • Worksheet 6: “I know that I’d be happier if I had more money”
    • Negation-checking

    Chapter 10: ActivInsight in Context

    • The secret
    • What you think is what you feel
    • Believing is seeing
    • Additive versus subtractive processes

    Chapter 11: The Myth of Uncertainty

    • Worksheet 7: “I need to know what’s going to happen to me”

    Chapter 12: The Myth of A Broken Heart

    • Worksheet 8: “I want him back”
    • Worksheet 9: “He should still want to be with me”

    Chapter 13: The Myth of Having Too Much To Do

    • Worksheet 10: “I shouldn’t have so much to do”
    • A problem versus a situation

    Chapter 14: The Myth of Regret

    • Worksheet 11: “I shouldn’t have done that”
    • Relative Peak Intelligence

    Chapter 15: The Myth of Discrimination

    • Worksheet 12: “They shouldn’t discriminate”
    • Psychological shrinkage

    Chapter 16: The Myth of Dying Too Soon

    • Worksheet 13: “They shouldn’t have died”
    • Seeing life and death as partners, not opponents

    Epilogue

    Acknowledgments

    Appendix 1—Frequently Asked Questions

    Appendix 2—The ActivInsight Worksheet

    Read a Free Excerpt