SLOW DOWN AND LIGHTEN UP: LETTING GO OF STRESS AND TENSION
This practical guide summarizes what was consistently helpful to students who took the stress management course I taught for thirty-eight years.
It explains how stress and tension affect body, mind, and emotion in easily understandable terms and describes simple techniques that directly address core functions necessary to restore and maintain physical, mental, and emotional balance.
A simple three step process to effectively deal with challenging stressors and difficult situations is clearly explained using real life examples.
Stories and personal experiences gathered from over forty years of counseling, and teaching highlight what works and makes sense. Reading this book will not only help you realize that it’s possible to be stress-free, it will show you how to get there.
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Read Chapter 4: My Nerves are Shot
Read Chapter 11: Getting Our Nerves in Balance
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UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING SUICIDE: WHAT YOU AND I CAN DO
Suicide is a silent scream turned inward. It’s silent because one feels alone and isolated. It’s a scream because the emotional darkness is overwhelming and unbearable. It’s turned inward because it feels like no one understands.
Thoughts of suicide emerge when increasing pain and tension narrow one’s vision until emptiness and despair fill the entire frame. Bob explains how this happens. He describes how we can prevent suicide by improving our own mental health and seeing ourselves and each other more clearly.
This is a hopeful and practical book written by a psychologist using stories from forty-five years experience in counseling and teaching. It describes the essential components of mental health along with simple steps we can take to create an environment where everyone can be themselves with a secure sense of belonging.
One reviewer asked if it was more a book on how to live a healthy life than a book about preventing suicide. It is both. The best way to prevent suicide is for us to understand conditions that lead to attempts at self-harm while striving to live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
Read the Preface and Introduction
Review copies will be available November 1, 2024
Request a review copy – send an email to bringtruthtofear@gmail.com
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FROM FEAR TO FREEDOM: RESTORE CALM, BE CLEAR, GET CONNECTED
We’re not free when we’re afraid. Tension narrows and fragments our thinking. Emotions become numb or hyper-reactive. We’re driven to action without understanding what’s happening, who’s involved, or what’s needed.
Fear puts us into crisis mode – survival is the only thing. There’s no room for questions, no time to gather information, no space for reflection or creativity. Survival thinking is self-centered and short-term. We either react without considering the consequences or freeze in place.
It’s easy to get stuck in fear when there are so many things to be afraid of. When there’s no immediate danger, (which is most of the time) media producers provide a steady stream of the worst kinds of threats – those we can’t do anything about.
Fear provides a surge of energy and an impulse for action. When threats are distant, ongoing, or long-term, that energy is used to build tension. Tension narrows our vision and fragments our thinking as it disrupts our peace of mind. We seek control without considering what others have to offer. Unknowns become potential threats. Creativity disappears. Collaboration is seen as a waste of time. We charge forward on our own with limited information and little insight, creating new problems that keep us in a state of fear.
We can be free from fear when we understand how it works, see where it’s coming from, and discover ways to deal with threats that diminish our peace of mind. Learning to restore calm, clear our minds, and establish meaningful contact with others transforms fear into caution, care, curiosity, and connection. We become free to be ourselves and to do our best work.
Expected publication 2025
Join the discussion – Get access and provide feedback on outlines and chapters as they are written. Email bringtruthtofear@gmail.com
WHAT WENT WRONG AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT: UNDERSTANDING AND RESOLVING FEAR BASED THINKING
We live in a world that is increasingly dominated by fear. It’s used in media to grab and keep our attention, in politics to create dependable voting blocks, and in every day life to get us to do things we would prefer not to do. Learning to work together to solve problems requires us to see and think clearly — to be able to understand other perspectives and get our facts straight. We can’t do that when we are in a state of prolonged fear.
Natural fear is short-term – it’s purpose is to get our attention and drive us to action. Prolonged fear keeps us in a state of tension. It restricts what we see and how we think. We never feel we have enough or can be good enough to respond to the needs and pressures that dominate our vision. We put everything and everyone into broad categories – good/bad, for/against, either/or. Our focus narrows, we become quick to anger and react without thinking or asking questions. We lose track of what is true and meaningful and become vulnerable to propaganda and manipulation. We develop an adversarial mindset and become more isolated and polarized.
When fear becomes a habit, we’re not even aware of how it’s restricting our ability to see and think clearly – we charge forward or turn away without understanding what’s really happening. We don’t realize when we become stuck in Fear Based Thinking.
This book is designed to help you understand what fear is and how it works along with it’s effect on body, mind, and emotions. It describes how to deal with real and imagined threats and how to recognize and respond to Fear Based Thinking in ourselves and others, as well as the larger culture.
Expected Publication 2025
Choose Love or Fear
Our capacity for love shrinks as fear begins to dominate our lives. In a world dominated by fear tactics designed to get and keep our attention, we easily lose track of the power of love. Love isn’t even seen an option because fear narrows our focus and drives us to act quickly without taking time to really understand what’s happening.
This book describes how adapting to a world dominated by fear has affected how we see ourselves, each other, and our world and explains how to deal with obstacles to love in daily life.
Making a conscious decision to choose love leads to the realization of our true nature. Being self-centered, aggressive and competitive is how we react to fear — it’s not who we really are. We begin to see how we fit into the natural world. We learn that love is not just something reserved for those close to us but a driving force that can connect and energize us once we are released from the grip of fear.
This is a hopeful book that can open our hearts and minds to see what we can be when we create conditions where we can be ourselves in an atmosphere of acceptance and belonging.
It is also a practical book. It explores precise definitions of love and fear along with descriptions of the essential components of basic human functions in simple terms that guide us in making decisions while describing how to create conditions that make it easier for all of us to choose love.
Read Draft Introduction
Expected Publication 2026/
Bring Truth to Fear 