Review: Emotional Rescue by Dzogchen Ponlop

Title: Emotional Rescue
Author: Dzogchen Ponlop
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Tarcher Perigree
Publish Date: April 19, 2016 (Today!)
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Emotions bring color and meaning to our lives, but they can also put us on an exhausting rollercoaster ride that takes us to blissful peak states, the depths of delusion and despair, and everything in between. It is only by learning to relate to our emotions skillfully that we benefit from their richness and glean wisdom, rather than letting them control us. Emotions get their power from a simple but deep-seated source: our lack of self-knowledge. When we bring awareness to our experience of emotions, something truly amazing happens—they lose their power to make us miserable.

     In this book, Rinpoche leads us through the three steps of his Emotional Rescue Plan. Mindful Gap is the practice of creating a safe distance between you and your emotions, which gives you the psychological space to work with their energy. Clear Seeing involves recognizing the bigger picture. Last, Letting Go is the practice of releasing stressful physical and emotional energy through exercise, relaxation, and awareness. With each step, we become increasingly familiar with the inner workings of our emotions, seeing straight to the heart of anger, fear, passion, jealousy, and pride. With time and practice, instead of leading us astray, our emotions become our guide towards living a more compassionate, creative, and fulfilling life."

My Two Cents:

"Emotional Rescue" is a self-help book that shows how to take negative energy and turn it into something positive. I was intrigued by this book because one of my resolutions for 2016 was to meditate on a more regular basis. I have been doing pretty well but thought this book may help me out a little bit and it definitely did!

This book is going to make a great tool for me and I know I will go back to it again and again. What I like about this book is that it has a lot of lessons but it also has some exercises in order to reinforce the lessons. I like the way the author has the book laid out - lessons are simple and meaningful. While I read this book as a whole, I could see this book working really well reading a chapter at a time. This isn't a book that you need to (or will want to) go through quickly!

Mindfulness is powerful! If you have ever thought about trying to be more mindful or meditation, this book has a nice introduction!