Don't Believe Everything You Feel - Robert Leahy

Find lasting freedom from difficult emotions with skills grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and emotional schema therapy. 

If you struggle with difficult emotions, you should know that you aren’t alone. Many people feel sad, worried, or stressed out—whether as a result of depression, anxiety, or simply dealing with the common struggles of daily life. Emotions are a natural and healthy part of being human. It’s how we cope with these difficult emotions that reveal our true capacity for happiness, love, and joy. 

Don’t Believe Everything You Feel offers a groundbreaking approach blending CBT and emotional schema therapy to help you explore your own deeply held personal beliefs about emotions, determine if these beliefs are helpful or harmful, and find the motivation to adopt alternative, healthier coping strategies. Each chapter contains exercises such as self-assessment, expressive writing, or guided questioning to help you manage your emotions more productively. 

There’s no such thing as a “bad,” emotion. But if you’re experiencing sadness, anger, or anxiety most of the time, you need to find balance. This book will show you how to better cope with your emotions and live a full, meaningful life.

Blurb taken from Netgalley.

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Rating: ✫✫✫

I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I haven't always been too much of a non-fiction reader, but my partner reads a lot of self-help books, so recently I've taken more of an interest. I've started to really enjoy them, and often take really interesting pieces of information and coping mechanisms away from them. When I first read for the synopsis for this book, I thought it had the potential to be right up my street. I've always been very emotional and struggled with my mental health, and I was eager to see what this book suggested as the best way to manage this.

Unfortunately, I felt a little let down when I finished the book. I just didn't feel like it said anything new, and a lot of the information felt unoriginal. I always found that it was quite repetitive, and didn't have enough of a voice to really keep my attention for too long.

The e-book that I received did not have a final version of the formatting, so some of the diagrams and worksheets didn't have as much of an impact as I'm sure they would have if I could view them properly. I did like the idea of using tasks and exercises for the reader to try, though. I'm sure these would be very helpful for a lot of people, although I did not try many of them myself.

I think the one part of this book that I really liked was the way the different case studies come in to demonstrate what each chapter is trying to say. Reading about an individual who has experienced these same issues and overcome them was inspiring, and I think this would have to be the highlight of the book.

Unfortunately, I just found the chapters a little repetitive, and they all seemed to merge into one. I can take away a few different coping strategies away from the book, but overall, I don't think it was for me.