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The
Break-out Principle: How to Activate the Natural Trigger That Maximizes
Creativity, Athletic Performance, Productivity, and Personal Well-being
by Herbert Benson, M.D. Rating: ••• (Recommended) |
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Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Hit the Switch Every time I venture toward a self-help
book, I’m prepared to guffaw at the author’s approach and recommendations. Somewhere
between “Sez who?” and “Show me!” and the frequent lack of answers to a
skeptic’s questions, I lose interest. Few self-help authors can substantiate
their approaches, and what works for one person does not necessarily work for
another. It was with growing delight that I read Dr. Herbert Benson’s new
book, The
Break-out Principle. The Harvard Medical School professor and author of The
Relaxation Response presents new insights from his decades of mind-body
research. Here’s an excerpt from pp. 3-6 defining what this is all about: What Is a Breakout? Have you ever noticed that self-improvement books, tapes,
and programs often promise the moon, but then don't deliver? •
Perhaps no matter how hard you Study and practice, they just don't help you
at all. •
Or maybe they work, but only for a limited time. Either they—or
you—lack staying power. • Or you are wrestling with some deep fear, grief, or other trauma—and the program doesn't take your concern into account. •
Or a particular self-help program may prove useful, but you still feel
shortchanged because you need improvement in several areas—such as
playing golf, public speaking, and developing a consistent prayer
life. Yet you lack the time or inclination to concentrate on more than one
routine at a time. Most
people have had such feelings and have wistfully concluded that what's really
needed is an ultimate self-help principle. In the best
of all worlds, you might like to find a single, one-size-fits-all solution to
your personal needs and aspirations—a panacea that would combine every
personal improvement concept into one all-encompassing, easily accessible
formula. Also, ideally, this single concept would infuse you with the
personal discipline to stick with the program year after year, as you transform
your life, for the better. If
you've ever found yourself longing for the self-help program to end all
self-help programs, I have good news. After my more than thirty years of
research at the Harvard Medical School, I've discovered that a fundamental
self-transforming principle does indeed exist—&
principle that has been firmly established in exciting new studies on the
molecular, biochemical, and neurological levels. What's more, .the
benefits—which reach well beyond traditional notions of self-help and have
the potential to revolutionize your entire life—can be accessed through a
simple but extremely powerful concept that I call the Breakout Principle. So What Exactly Is the Breakout
Principle? In
a nutshell, here is our basic working definition: The
Breakout Principle refers to a powerful mind-body impulse that severs prior
mental patterns and—even in times of great stress or emotional trauma—opens
an inner door to a host of personal benefits, including •
greater mental acuity •
enhanced creativity •
increased job productivity •maximal
athletic performance •
spiritual development The
most significant phrase in the above definition is "severs prior mental
patterns." Many if not most of the problems we face in terms of blocked
creativity and productivity, subpar athletic performance, flawed health, or
even stunted spirituality can be traced back to unresolved destructive or
negative thought patterns—such as nagging anxieties, stress-related emotional
baggage, or circular, obsessive "mental tapes." But
there's more. You can actually learn to turn on a natural
inner switch to sever those past mental
patterns and activate Breakouts that will transform
your daily life. My investigations, which have been
published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, have convinced me that this
accessible, biological-medical "trigger" can be used to power up
creativity, deep philosophical insights, stress-reduction responses, and
top-notch professional performance. Learning
to activate this trigger can also provide you with what superior athletes
call the physiology of zoning, or getting in
the zone. In post competition interviews, world-class baseball
sluggers "in the zone" have reported that 95-mile-per-hour
fastballs seemed to be moving in slow motion. Professional tennis players
have said that their opponent's bullet serves seemed the "size of
basketballs." And top basketball players have reported that when they
shoot, they somehow know they are unable to miss. These
almost mystical mind-sets—which typically involve a sense of invulnerability
or perfection, effortless activity, or extreme clarity of thought—certainly
aren't limited to superior sports achievement. Public speakers, writers, and
other professionals who have entered into similar high-performance states
have described their experiences in similar terms. In
many ways, then, the Breakout concept does promise to open the door to an
ultimate self-help principle that spans the secular to the spiritual. But to
understand how the abstract definition applies in a real-life situation,
let's consider the rather unusual creative experience of a top management
consultant whom we'll call Jason. To read about Jason, pick up a copy of The
Break-out Principle, where Benson makes his theories come alive through
case stories, and through practical advice on ways to approach finding what approaches
to achieving a break-out will work for you. Steve Hopkins, June 21, 2003 |
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ă 2003 Hopkins and Company, LLC The
recommendation rating for this book appeared in the July 2003
issue of Executive
Times URL
for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The
Break-out Principle.htm For
Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins
& Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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