If, like me, you ever felt like reinventing your life, and not having to deal with IBS and hassle anymore…
This book is for you!
When I was trying to understand my IBS, I read a great deal of books and articles on psychology and neuroscience.
This book was an eye-opener.
It was one of the first books that really helped me understand how thoughts and behavioural patterns shape our lives.
Written by two leading psychologists, Jeffrey E Young and Janet S Kloskso who know their stuff, I think “Reinventing your life” could be a really useful read for you too.
When similar situations keep coming up
At that time I had no idea that there was a rhyme and reason to repeating experiences in my life.
I had IBS churning around, and had no real grasp of why this was happening. And I also kept finding myself in the same kind of relationships at work, and generally experiencing the same negative feelings over and over. This book really opened my eyes and helped me start to see through some of those patterns.
I didn’t want a book with lots of fluff and complicated concepts (which often happens when experts explain their art).
I wanted something that I could get the feel of and examples of people living with these patterns. And this book delivered on that.
Eleven lifetraps
In their book “Reinventing your Life”, Young and Klosko present the eleven most common lifetraps (what I call trigger loops) that they see the most often in their clients.
It was so reassuring to hear about these patterns that most of us have at some level – and how to start to work with them to create a better future.
These lifetraps are what sets off a reaction in your nervous system and taxes the adrenals. If these situations keep coming up for you, you may find that adrenal fatigue is lurking behind your IBS.
I truly believe that it is by better understanding the nature of ourselves and others that we have the freedom to change. I use NLP and related experiential techniques to achieve that.
Practical Information
This book is excellent.
However, I did find the scoring of the lifetrap questionnaire in chapter 2 complicated.
If it feels a little daunting, I suggest you just look at the brief outlines of the eleven lifetraps (p18-22).
You will feel an automatic emotional reaction to the words used, and instantly know if you are concerned – or not.
The biggest gift of “Reinventing your Life”
I suggest reading the book from cover to cover. Because we are all different, and have our own combination of thought and behavioural patterns.
The greatest gift in the book is not just seeing some of your own patterns. But noticing those of your parents and siblings, and other people who shaped your young life.
When we realise that other people are also acting out their own lifetraps, we get to understand them a little better.
3