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Don't Believe Everything You Think

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Learn how to overcome anxiety, self-doubt & self-sabotage without needing to rely on motivation or willpower.

In this book, you'll discover the root cause of all psychological and emotional suffering and how to achieve freedom of mind to effortlessly create the life you've always wanted to live.

Although pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

This book offers a completely new paradigm and understanding of where our human experience comes from, allowing us to end our own suffering and create how we want to feel at any moment.

No matter what has happened to you, where you are from, or what you have done, you can still find total peace, unconditional love, complete fulfillment, and an abundance of joy in your life.

No person is an exception to this. Darkness only exists because of the light, which means even in our darkest hour, light must exist.

Within the pages of this book, contains timeless wisdom to empower you with the understanding of our mind’s infinite potential to create any experience of life that we want no matter the external circumstances.

Don’t Believe Everything You Think is not about rewiring your brain, rewriting your past, positive thinking or anything of the sort.

We cannot solve our problems with the same level of consciousness that created them. Tactics are temporary. An expansion of consciousness is permanent.

This book was written to help you go beyond your thinking and discover the truth of what you already intuitively know deep inside your soul.

99 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2022

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About the author

Joseph Nguyen

3 books188 followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,371 reviews
Profile Image for Danila.
23 reviews382 followers
July 10, 2024
Tang's description of how thoughts create our reality is profound. You'll leave with tangible information about altering your long-held beliefs and fostering a healthier and positive perspective. His commentary is both profound and simple, which effectively communicates otherwise challenging psychological ideas to its listeners.

His Audiobook from moments of insight to the moments of genuine realization and empowerment. Let his voice be your guide and as you listen, view his talk as an informal one with someone who has nothing but good intentions for your self-discovery.

Use his voice, his process, and his ideas to change your thoughts and change your life!
9 reviews22 followers
April 23, 2022
So I saw the author on TikTok and how short & well rated the book was so bought on a whim & read in a sitting.

As an active reader of the genre, I take no issue with the points of the book. However, the book is terribly written. It’s an immature tone, the personal anecdotes ruin timeless insights, there are jumps in logic that aren’t addressed until later “chapters,” I can’t shake the thought that this book was written entirely in “speech to text” as if it were meant to be a performed script…this booked needed a better editor.

Highly recommend the Michael Singer podcast, his book “The Untethered Soul”, Ekhart Tolle’s books, “Wherever you go there you are” instead and the Sam Harris podcast.
Profile Image for Dhevaguru S.
55 reviews4 followers
July 19, 2022
I picked this book thinking it would be backed by a psychological or scientific approach, I would never have picked if i had known that i would see words like 'Universal mind / consciousness', 'Infinite intelligence', 'Universe guides you' that stuffs all those spiritual bs and pantheistic notions upon the reader's throat. It's a 100 page read so i went on to complete it anyway. To be clear the book offers a basic solution to have a better life - 'Be dumb'. It's like saying do you need to solve your problems ? Stop thinking duh ! Weirdly remembered me of that meme where a sad person gets offered a reply 'Don't be sad' and he goes like 'My goodness what an idea, why didn't i think of that'. The book is a mixture of the diluted version of 'Law of attraction'/ 'Secret' and spiritually modified version of 'Thinking fast and slow'. If you think the sentence 'Universe / god / infinite intelligence is guiding you' makes perfect sense to you and you feel significant enough that the universe itself is somehow caring for you then you should definitely go for this book.

P.S: i also searched about the 'non-thinking' state the book says and came up with a condition called 'Blank mind syndrome' which can be caused by trauma or depersonalisation.
Profile Image for Reading_ Tamishly.
5,142 reviews3,167 followers
August 12, 2024
I have just read a really badly written book. I wish I didn’t have to say this.

The writing is really bad. I find the writing lacking any kind of direction or purpose, lacks the voice it desperately needs for such kind of self help/nonfiction books.

Chapters are short but it doesn’t mean they are fun to read. I thought the book would improve after the initial first three chapters but I was wrong. It got worse.

If you are desperately looking for a few good quotes out of this book, you will find it.

Otherwise do not even think twice about NOT picking up this book.
Profile Image for Romann Weber.
80 reviews11 followers
August 10, 2022
Don't Believe Everything You Think is a book with its heart in the right place, but its mind is elsewhere. In roughly 100 pages, Nguyen spells out a simple thesis: Our thinking is the root of our suffering. To avoid suffering, don't think. The problem is not that this thesis is simple; it's that it is simplistic. The author never really develops a cogent argument in its favor, nor does he fully equip the reader with the tools to put his suggestions into practice.

To be fair, the author is not completely off the mark. The idea that the rambling of our inner voices might be the source of our emotional troubles goes back at least thousands of years, appearing in one form or another in a wide variety of philosophies, from Buddhism to Taoism, Transcendentalism to the New Age. Even Shakespeare's melancholy Dane recognizes it in Act II, Scene 2, of Hamlet. The author acknowledges this long history chiefly in the form of chapter-starting epigraphs. The main text of these chapters, however, is big on promises ("This book was written to help you find everything you've been searching for and the answers to all the questions you've had your entire life.") but light on evidence (a few thought experiments, which is a bit ironic).

The main idea itself has more than a little truth to it. Many if not all of us have had the experience of disappearing down a mental rabbit hole, imagining arguments that never occurred, insults that were never thrown at us, catastrophes that never happened, and every other brand of mental noise that might come up. To the author's credit, he distinguishes between unbidden thoughts and indulging them by thinking. This is very much in line with the Buddhist practice of mindfulness: The thoughts will come on their own, but we need to be mindful of our taking the bait and ruminating on them.

There is some scientific support for this idea. Killingsworth and Gilbert [1] polled thousands of subjects at random points during the day to explore their activities and moods, finding that people whose minds were wandering had significantly lower moods than people who were focused on a task. Of course, like just about every published piece of psychological research, other work disagrees with this conclusion, showing instead positive effects of mind wandering [2]. The current scientific view is equivocal [3]: Sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's bad.

I am reluctant to criticize an obviously well-meaning, self-published author for deficits in the writing, but this is a short book that still feels padded and poorly edited. Beyond the distracting typos, the entire message the author has could have been contained within several pages, and nothing is added by stretching it out to book length. The biggest disappointment, though, is that there is a rich vein of material on this topic, both scientific and philosophical, that could have easily filled a book several times this one's length while maintaining essentially the same core message. Instead, the author delves into woo territory by claiming that our spontaneous thoughts are "divine downloads from the Universe," messages from God or the Great Beyond, as opposed to the product of the deeply mysterious but no less fascinating activity of the human brain. This pseudoreligious, New-Agey turn wound up being even more distracting to me than the editing.

The potential reader can get nearly everything this book has to offer from its final pages (99–119 in my edition). While the book itself is a bit of a disappointment, one would be rash to completely discard its cautions against letting our minds run away with us all the time. But the solution to a hard problem—whether it's resolving a dilemma, tackling a scientific mystery, or writing a book–requires not just waiting for inspiration from beyond but actual sustained thought. The question then becomes one of when to turn the crank and when to let go, and the take-home point may be to let go far more often than we want to.

[1] Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), 932-932.

[2] Franklin, M. S., Mrazek, M. D., Anderson, C. L., Smallwood, J., Kingstone, A., & Schooler, J. W. (2013). The silver lining of a mind in the clouds: Interesting musings are associated with positive mood while mind-wandering. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 583.

[3] Mooneyham, B. W., & Schooler, J. W. (2013). The costs and benefits of mind-wandering: a review. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 67(1), 11.
Profile Image for bookswithsakshi .
431 reviews33 followers
June 24, 2022
"Stop thinking and end your problems" - Lao Tzu

Whether you agree or not but we all are over thinker. We constantly keep thinking, calculating and analyzing our thoughts. The more we think, the more trouble we invite in our lives. What if I tell you, there's a solution to stop your mind going crazy?

Read this book to understand how thinking is the root cause of all our suffering and how thinking and thoughts are different from each other.

It would be a wise step if I mention it here clearly that this book revolves only and only around "Thinking". From understanding how to stop thinking, learning the reason why we think, what to do when we are not thinking, to allow ourselves remain at peace without thinking of tomorrow. This book covers everything.

I loved this book mainly for reasons followed:

1. It came to me at the right time. In the past few weeks I was worrying myself with so much thinking and analyzing that I almost felt lost. This book rekindled my hope and gave me a direction to think clearly. Sometimes not thinking about anything can bring you so much peace. Try it.

2. The author doesn't waste time in unnecessary content. Whatever he has shared in these 100 pages is invaluable and will surely give you a lot of information about how human minds work, how our emotions are provoked and how our thinking affects our mood.

3. I loved how the author included the chapter of "Unconditional Love & Creation". It was an eye opener for me. I never thought about Unconditional love that way. It gave me a new perspective and it was refreshing to read it in this book.

4. The writing style is easy to follow and chapters are quick to read. I dread lengthy chapters in Non-Fiction so this book definitely made my reading experience smooth and wonderful.

I recommend this book to everyone because all of us "Think" and I would love each one of you to unleash the power that comes from less thinking. Do give it a try.
Profile Image for shanayaa.
106 reviews185 followers
August 25, 2023
➸ 𝟐.𝟓/𝟓 ★

One of my friends recommended me this book and honestly i won't recommend it to someone else. I have no issues with the points mentioned in the book but i have a huge issue with how they were explained.


The writing of this book is so terrible and immature. I won't say, im an active reader of this genre but anyone who'd read this book would know that the writing is so mediocre making it uninteresting. Although the chapters were short but it doesn't mean it was a fun and an enjoyable read.


At some point i thought it would improve and would be less repetitive but it didn't. The lessons were so repetitive and the tone of the book was so monotonous. I feel it could've been better if it was written in an authoritative and encouraging tone.


Although this book serves as a powerful reminder that our thoughts are not always accurate representations of reality, and by learning to question them, we can free ourselves from unnecessary stress and anxiety. The author emphasizes the importance of acknowledging our imperfections and embracing our authentic selves. This powerful message resonates deeply, reminding readers that personal growth is a lifelong journey, and it's okay to stumble along the way.


Overall, i had hard time completing this book because of the horrible writing but you can give it try just for the quotes. Here are some of my fav quotes :-


➳ "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙨."

➳ “𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮; 𝙮𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙."

➳ “𝙒𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚, 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙟𝙤𝙮 — 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙖 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙣𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩.”

➳ "𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙖𝙙 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙨𝙤."

➳ “𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙨𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙜𝙞𝙛𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙖 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩. 𝙒𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖 ����𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙞𝙛𝙩.”

➳ “𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙧 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩, 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩."

➳ “𝙒𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙩 ����𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢.”

➳ “𝘿𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙮 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚"

➳ "𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙪𝙨 𝙞𝙛 𝙬𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙩. 𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙜𝙤 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙛 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙜𝙤 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜"

➳ "𝙣𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢."
Profile Image for Nicole Turner.
Author 13 books25 followers
May 20, 2024
"Just don't think about it!" is not the revolutionary philosophy this book insists to fix anxiety
Profile Image for gigi.
25 reviews1 follower
January 17, 2024
Not to yuck anyone’s yum, but this is quite possibly one of the worst books I’ve ever read and I think it could be harmful for a lot of people. The content is not based in science to any extent and reads as a manifesto bashing critical thought and processing emotions in a healthy, evidence-based way. It’s as though this man has never interacted with poverty or mental illness in his entire life, and it completely tracks that it’s self published.
Profile Image for Ana  Lelis.
487 reviews200 followers
November 11, 2023
When I read the title of this book I thought it would be focused on a psychological or scientific approach, but it's kinda a spiritual-cosmic approach. I wouldn't mind that either, but this one wasn't well executed, unfortunately.
Profile Image for Sanjay Gautam.
244 reviews483 followers
June 10, 2024
Utter Rubbish!

I got intrigued by its title and bought it. Its a collection of some subjective spiritual mumbo-jumbo. All nonsense.
Profile Image for Tonkica.
690 reviews138 followers
August 27, 2023
4.5

Ne vjeruj svemu što misliš naslov je knjige, ali i fotografije čije riječi krase jednu od mojih naslovnica privatnog Facebook profila. Jep, to mi je podsjetnik. Svjesna sam napisanog, a ovdje sam s autorom ponavljala, prisjećala se i opet dokučila poznato na vrlo jednostavan način koji mu uspijeva, meni na sreću, objasniti i s par primjera.

Zamisliš se nad napisanim i priznajem da, bez obzira na veličinu knjige (vrlo je malog formata 11×17 cm) i na to što je kratka (144 stranice), čuva jednostavne dragulje koji samo čekaju da ih se pokupi!

Više o utiscima pročitajte klikom na link: https://knjige-u-svom-filmu.webador.c...
Profile Image for Aydan Aliyeva.
89 reviews103 followers
January 25, 2024
Failed to meet my expectations… At some points I could see what he was going to say, but then suddenly some kind of nonsense popping out and destroying all the positive impressions each time. I suggest to rewrite it
Profile Image for Fani *loves angst*.
1,743 reviews215 followers
March 27, 2024
It was interesting in the beginning, and the point of not thinking too much is not invalid, but the rest of it is silly and undocumented.
Also, the mantra "don't think about anything and go cruising through life doing only what pleases you" sounds very YOLO like to me, and it's not a philosophy I live by.
Profile Image for Blake Randall.
52 reviews77 followers
April 6, 2023
In this short read (98 pages), the authors shares how 'Thinking is the root cause of all suffering." From the get-go, he talks that we feel things not because of external events, but because of what we think about them. As a result, we can only feel what we think about.

While there is some good information in the book and more so in the beginning, it was very redundant at times— long-winded, and that there was 'more fluff than substance'. By doing that, to me, it affected the flow of most chapters, and jumps in explanation of topics, sharing continued thoughts in later chapters, making certain chapters feel incomplete.

But if I was to recommend this book, it is for anyone seeking a way to bring more peace and tranquility into their lives who suffer from overthinking.
9 reviews
September 23, 2022
99 pages are a little too much. The author’s message could be explained with a couple of sentence.
The book is repetitive and redundant.

I wouldn’t recommend it.
Profile Image for Khyati Gautam.
807 reviews200 followers
August 7, 2022
To find everything you're looking for in life, you must look inside yourself and discover the wisdom that already exists within you.

Have you ever considered that thought and the process of thinking itself are two very different things? They have different essence, different connotations, and different meanings. Deeper than our perception.

Don't Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen is an insightful work on how our minds work and how we can train our brains. The book essentially distinguishes thought and thinking and goes on to explain how one can minimize 'thinking' and live more happily.

Divided into several crisp chapters, the book takes a deep dive into our thinking patterns and reveals some bomb information about self-sabotaging behaviours. The author draws lessons from his years of experience to tell how can we go about training our consciousness to raise our vibrations and live an abundant life.

I liked how the author went step by step towards unravelling the mysteries of our overthinking minds. He spills bits of information along the way peppered with anecdotes and stories. This makes this book more interesting and easy to absorb.

Becoming aware of one's thought patterns is a challenging exercise. However, with practice and due diligence, it is very much possible to achieve a state of joyous being. The lessons and the frameworks in the book will help you with emotional dysregulations and structure your path to true happiness and peace.
Profile Image for Bernard Jan.
Author 12 books224 followers
January 19, 2024
I have translated this book into Croatian! Today I have sent my translation to the editor of the publishing house Planetopija, grateful for the opportunity to hear about this book and to read and translate it.

My understanding of how the Universe works is vague, but this book came into my hands when I needed it most. Thinking was killing me, making me feel miserable, anxious, depressed. My mind is always active, throwing its dark scenarios into my face, making me suffer. But now I know how to deal with it and am practicing how to let go of my thinking and live in the moment. When I accomplish that by some miracle, the reward is peace, calmness, hope. All the things I need and crave now.

I don’t know yet when this book will be published in Croatian, but that is not important because you can read it in English now. If you are also a victim of your own (over)thinking, have faith in this book and read it. You won’t lose more than a few dollars and you will get so much more if you open your heart and mind to it.
Profile Image for Vidhya Thakkar.
972 reviews143 followers
July 25, 2022
Loved reading this one

A must read book that will guide you always.
From overcoming destructive habits to removing thinking triggers, and the obstacles we face because of overthinking, The author shares the step-by-step process and guides the readers.

Candidly narrated, with an intriguing writing style, Joseph makes the readers witness the reality. How we destroy things ourselves with the way we think. I loved the last part of the book with all the lessons, reflections and the prompts the author added for the readers.

This book will trigger your mind, will make you to observe your thoughts and understand that the moment we stop thinking, happiness begins.

A book that will help! Recommend? A Big Yes.
Profile Image for Sophia Wordworld.
1,040 reviews21 followers
November 7, 2023
Als ich den Ratgeber auf Bookbeat sah, hat mich der Titel sofort angesprochen - "Hör auf zu glauben, was du denkst - der einfache Weg für Ruhe im Kopf" klang zwar etwas ambitiös, aber wie etwas, von dem ich als absolute Grüblerin sehr profitieren könnte. Mit gewecktem Interesse, aber wenig Erwartungen bin ich also an das kurze Büchlein herangegangen und habe es in einem Rutsch durchgehört. Das ist allerdings weniger der inspirierenden Qualität des Ratgebers und eher der Tatsache geschuldet, dass es mit knapp 129 Seiten wirklich sehr kurz ist und die Sprache sowie der Inhalt sehr simpel und direkt sind.

Ebenso simpel und direkt ist auch das Cover. Mit dem weißen Hintergrund, dem schwarzen Titel in Großbuchstaben und dem illustrierten Kopf mit Gedankenknäul ist der Verlag sehr nah an der Gestaltung der Originalausgabe geblieben und hat auch deren Titel übersetzt übernommen. Über die innere Gestaltung kann ich keine Auskunft geben, da ich das Hörbuch gehört habe.

Versteht mich nicht falsch, ich habe nichts gegen einfache Aussagen und der Autor hat mit seiner Grundidee auch durchaus recht. Die Idee, dass Grübeln und Gedankenschleifen zu Selbstsabotage, Stress und Selbstzweifel führen und man diese unterbinden muss, um ein glückliches Leben führen zu können ist mir auch durch mein Psychologiestudium schon lange bekannt und auch persönlich einleuchtend. Der Autor verwendet allerdings fast die gesamte Seitenzahl darauf, eben diesen Zusammenhang herzuleiten und zu erklären. Wie man jedoch als Overthinker das Denken zurückschraubt, lernt man hier nicht. Es gab zwar die ein oder andere kleine Gedankenaufgabe, aber anders als der Titel verspricht, gibt der Autor hier keine Anleitungen, Ratschläge oder Tipps an die Hand, wie man Grübeln und negative Gedankenschleifen wirklich verhindern kann.

Leider wiederholt sich Joseph Nguyen dabei auch ziemlich oft und verliert sich in einfachen Dogmen, statt den reichhaltigen philosophischen oder psychologischen Hintergrund seiner Thesen zu erklären. Denn was er hier beschreibt, ist eigentlich nichts anderes als der buddhistische Achtsamkeitsgedanke - Gedanken kommen von alleine, es liegt allerdings an uns, ob wir uns mit ihnen beschäftigen. Davon kann man allerdings meiner Meinung nach nicht ableiten, dass alles Denken immer schlecht ist - wie der Autor es vielfach darlegt. Im Gegenteil: Denkprozesse wie Problemlösen oder Selbstreflexion sind absolut notwendig im Alltag, zum Überleben, zum Funktionieren in sozialen Situationen und zum persönlichen Wachstum. Eine generalisierende Aussage wie "Denken führt zu Leiden" finde ich deshalb nicht angebracht. Es gibt viel Forschung zu dem Thema Gedanken, die zeigt, dass es durchaus positive Arten von Denken gibt - Tagträume, Gedankenwanderungen, interne Dialoge oder das Schwelgen in positiven Erinnerungen zum Beispiel, welche Kreativität anregen und unser Wohlbefinden verbessern können.

Neben der starken Vereinfachung der Thesen, den vielen Wiederholungen und den fehlenden Praxisanleitungen hat mich vor allem auch der spirituelle Einschlag des Ratgebers gestört. Der Autor schreibt hier aus der Position eines erleuchteten Gurus heraus, der dem unwissenden Lehrling (aka den LeserInnen) die Weisheit des Lebens erklärt und benutzt dabei immer wieder Worte wie "das Göttliche", "die unendliche Intelligenz" oder das "universelle Bewusstsein", womit er erklären möchte, dass das Universum uns leitet und Gedanken eingibt. Vielleicht funktioniert das in den USA (was erklären würde, weshalb das Buch dort ein Bestseller geworden ist) und auch auf TikTok (wo der Autor es anscheinend zu einiger Berühmtheit gebracht hat) aber für mich hat das leider nicht funktioniert.

Trotz meiner Kritikpunkte war das Lesen dieses Buches definitiv nicht umsonst. Auch wenn eigentlich alles, was man aus dem Buch mitnehmen kann auf den letzten Seiten nochmal zusammengefasst steht, konnte ich aus den 129 Seiten doch etwas für mich mitnehmen. Interessant fand ich zum Beispiel die Unterscheidung zwischen Zielen, die man aus Verzweiflung oder aus Inspiration setzt und deren Auswirkungen auf unser Leben. Das war ein neuer Gedanke für mich, der etwas in mir ausgelöst hat. Und auch die Erinnerung, dass unsere Gedanken oftmals nicht der Realität entsprechen und es manchmal besser ist, sie einfach ziehen zu lassen, tut immer wieder gut.


Fazit:

Ein kurzer Ratgeber mit im Kern wichtiger Botschaft, die allerdings für meinen Geschmack zu simpel, zu spirituell und mit zu wenigen Praxisanleitungen vermittelt wird.

2,5 Sterne
Profile Image for Savannah.
44 reviews38 followers
November 10, 2022
Repetitive. A lot of the same things repeated over and over. A lot of run on sentences. Overall an OK read. Not mad that I read it.
Profile Image for sophie spindler.
83 reviews2 followers
July 4, 2022
the most redundant cliché not helpful self help book ever❤️DNF👑👑
1 review
August 26, 2022
Absolutely useless book. Just a bunch of strange ideas, no science behind it, rather spiritual nonsense. Dont buy it
Profile Image for Ankit Gupta.
52 reviews1 follower
March 14, 2023
Beautifully portrayed how our thinking can change the meaning of life. A must read for everyone.
Profile Image for Mercedes Fricks.
45 reviews
March 28, 2024
I’ll save you the read. Just don’t think and you won’t be stressed!! Simple!! Now you have the lesson, go make millions like my other clients! Live a better thoughtless life! :)
Profile Image for Lotte.
40 reviews1 follower
April 21, 2024
2.5 stars because this book is 50% *potentially* useful information and 50% nonsense.

Profile Image for Preeti Nayak.
28 reviews
May 24, 2024
This book felt helpful as it tells how our minds work and how thinking too much leads to suffering, having said that, I couldn't agree with a few things. Chapters were short and easy to read. If you're looking for a few good motivational quotes, you'll find it in this book.
Profile Image for Alejandro Garza.
Author 2 books8 followers
May 16, 2024
Como libro para buscar una manera de alcanzar paz mental, está bien; quizá también por ahí más enfoque en la vida. Sin embargo, creo que tiene cabos sueltos. Si bien el autor dice que hay que buscar pensar lo menos posible para no sufrir, no queda claro cómo usar tanto "el no pensar" y "pensar" de forma inteligente para planear, cambiar para ser mejores (crecer profesionalmente, ganar más dinero, viajar, etc.). Pareciera que solo se queda en un tema de solo tener fe y esperar que las cosas sucedan; es aquí donde se queda corto o el título puede ser interpretado de una manera distinta; si esperas encontrar respuestas para "no creerte todo lo que piensas" y cambiar para ser mejor, el libro creo que se queda corto o de plano, no llega a nada. De nuevo, tal vez funcione como libro para estar en paz con uno mismo, pero si a partir de esto se busca cambiar en la vida, creo que el libro se pierde. Así lo veo.
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