Years of working as a psychotherapist showed Philippa Perry what approaches produced positive change in her clients and how best to maintain good mental health. In How to Stay Sane, she has taken these principles and applied them to self-help. Using ideas from neuroscience and sound psychological theory, she shows us how to better understand ourselves. Her idea is that if we know how our minds form and develop, we are less at the mercy of unknown unconscious processes. In this way, we can learn to be the master of our feelings and not their slave. The following chapters went downhill. Perry starts with pregnancy and goes through from babyhood to adulthood with her parenting advice. Much of this has already been published by other authors and there isn't much new advice here. As I have already read other books and articles about parenting (covering topics like being responsive to your baby, validating your child's feelings, etc) I felt like I had read it all before. Perry's writing style is weak and uncaptivating compared to other parenting books. I am not a parent and I got SO much out of this book. Philippa Perry is one of my favourite psychotherapy writers and frankly I'd read a book about paint drying if it had her name on the front cover.

Philippa Perry pada bab awal langsung mengatakan bahwa relasi orang dewasa adalah akumulasi dari pengalaman hidup, sebagian besar berasal dari masa kecil. Sebelum terlambat, ada baiknya untuk membenahi terlebih dahulu hubungan kita. Baik itu ingin dikomunikasikan kepada orangtua atau kita mau menyelesaikannya sendiri (salah satunya dengan konsul ke psikolog). Growing older and more frail allows us to see what it is that brings us joy and fulfilment, and generally it tends to be our relationships: relationships with family and friends, with neighbours and shopkeepers, but also with old books, paintings, possessions and ideas. Our inner rebel probably wants a bit of fun, maybe some romantic intrigue, some leisure of some sort. Find out what it wants and strike a bargain with it. If we don’t, our body will rebel.Everyone accepts the importance of physical health; isn't it just as important to aim for the mental equivalent? Philippa Perry has come to the rescue with How to Stay Sane -- a maintenance manual for the mind. It’s hard to write about your own family life because, however you grow up, that’s what is normal to you. So I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a non-transvestite dad with a 9-to-5 office job. Philippa Perry suggests some more exercises which we should consider in forming a habit of. Such as physical exercise, keeping a diary, practising investing in relationships, being keen on to differentiate between Good Stress and bad one, giving attention to your thoughts while doing automated or monotonous work like washing dishes or making coffee, and learning new things. Learning new things is important and useful for the mind. I enjoyed reading this book and I think you will too. This book is of the length of a novella and you will comfortably finish it in one sitting or two. Controlling and maintaining the balance of your mental being is the focus of this book which is fulfilled by examining the four following areas:

I could be wrong: maybe it has affected me, maybe I wouldn’t have such great fashion sense if he was normcore, but I’ll never know. The only marked difference growing up was that my house had a better collection of face glitter than most. Buku ini terdiri dari 4 bab yang saling berhubungan: Self-Observation, Relationship, Stress, dan What's the Story. Dari masing-masing bab, pembaca diajak untuk "duduk" sejenak dengan dirinya sendiri. Maka dari itu, buku ini dimulai dengan pembahasan mengenai observasi mandiri terhadap diri kita. Yang apabila kita berhasil melakukan praktiknya (meskipun perlahan dan melalui tahapan), maka kita bisa mulai merawat hubungan kita dengan orang lain. Ujungnya, kita bisa menuturkan cerita yang optimis tentang diri kita sendiri. Tidak pesimis dan tidak menyalahkan lingkungan.Judulnya memang menarik. Kalau baca sinopsisnya, bisa ditaksir buku ini membahas tentang pengasuhan anak. Tapi kan aku nggak akan punya anak, why did I read this? When we become more sensitive towards ourselves and more knowledgeable about our own feelings, we are more able to attune to, and empathize with, the feelings of other people. In short, self-awareness improves our relationships. I think an overlooked part of success is that it takes a lot of work. It might have been nice if he could have had a bit more time to hang out, but at the same time, he made his hobby his job. I wasn't so interested in the usual psycho-babble that psychotherapists and psychologists get caught up in to unravel people's stories and causes for emotional issues in life.. fair enough, talking helps, though theories are just theories at the end of the day. If I didn't know better I would say that this is Alain de Botton writing under a pseudonym. It has the same type of clear, calm prose dotted with references to the Western Canon.