Fear and Other Uninvited Guests

De: Harriet Lerner

Narrado por: Harriet Lerner

Bestselling author Harriet Lerner is at her provocative best in this examination of fear as the key motivating force in our lives.

Often unrecognised, fear and shame drive our choices and attitudes in ways that most of us never figure out. As Lerner explains, fear is not an amorphous unknown to be transcended or overcome but an emotion to be recognized, explored, decoded and embraced. Once we befriend fear, it can actually help us achieve calm, clarity and fundamental peace.

Lerner teaches us the best ways to deal with fear: to expect, allow, and accept its presence in our lives, to mindfully observe and attend to how it feels in our bodies and, ultimately to own it. We can become experts on our personal triggers of anxiety, learning when fear signals real danger and when it's best to plough through it because it comes with the territory of making necessary changes. The very worst thing we can do in the face of fear is to run from it or try to avoid it. Fear is not something to be conquered or eliminated––or even tackled, for that matter. Instead, we need to pay close attention to the message it is trying to convey.

Using her wonderfully rich and inviting therapeutic voice along with personal memories and examples drawn from her practice, Lerner gives fear its due. We needn't let anxiety, fear, and shame silence our authentic voice, close our hearts to the different voices of others, or stop us from acting with dignity, integrity and brio. We need to harness fear and put it in service to our best selves.

©2004 Harriet Lerner; (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Such insight

I listen, stop, listen again and return at letter dates for the refreshing and sustaining insights recorded here and am grateful for the treasure.

very insightful and realistic

This book is excellent in many respects but first a comment about the author's delivery, which other reviewers have made into the issue about this book. It's true. The delivery takes some getting used to. Also, the book starts out a bit slow. It takes time to get to the parts that are actually useful. But, it does provides some very deep insights, in relatively simple terms and what I prize most about her account is that she's realistic and also self-deprecating. If you are looking for ways to understand anxiety and fear and other mind states that can be quite debilitating, this is an excellent resource and the author's perspective provides a sense of understanding that in and of itself can be healing. Excellent book, warts and all.

Insightful!

So much wisdom packed into three hour-long chapters! Lerner is a pro at the content. Her delivery was a little hypnotizing, slow, and repetitive. I suggest listening to it at a faster speed than 1.0.

Harriet Lerner, again, makes it look doable.

I have read Harriet Lerner's books for many years. I find myself rereading them every once in a while when I lapse back into old thinking habits.

She is a down to earth person who is gifted with the ability to break things down to a basic level. I love the examples she shares to illustrate her logic.

It is refreshing to hear her laugh about herself and the experiences that have made her the strong, empowered woman she is today.

I just wish I could find an unabridged recording. I miss the additional stories and concepts that are not included in the abridged recording.

The humanity of anxiety

I so appreciated how human she makes anxiety. So often I feel like a failure when I'm experiencing anxiety, but this was a refreshing reminder that it's not about whether or not we experience anxiety but how we choose to respond to it. It's definitely going to get a second listen!