How to Survive Change . . . You Didn't Ask for: Bounce Back, Find Calm in Chaos, and Reinvent Yourself (Uplifting Gift, Coping Skills) Paperback – March 1, 2014

Instead of the platitudes and trite, overworked advice, stuffed with personal anecdotes so often found in self-help books, “How to Survive...” is filled with timely, relevant tips and advice for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the current worldwide crisis. I’ve highlighted so much that I will be busy now going back to those notes to truly absorb the lesson behind each (the purpose of highlighting, correct?) I read this on an e-reader but now plan to obtain a hard copy to add to my personal library. Since I have to be selective about that due to its size, that’s about the highest praise I can give a book.

This is an excellent, down-to-earth guide to handling change, which we all must work through. Fighting change rarely works. This easy-to-read book helps us walk through the concepts and become more adaptable. I have read and studied this book at several crucial times in my life, and now again. Worth your time.

the change sin this book is different from the suicide my husband committed.

I'm not going to tell you all the change going on in my life but I will tell you no matter the changes in your life this book will help!! I've read through it once and will read again to apply it more into my life. I don't know how anyone could read this book and give it a bad review....unless they really didn't read all of it.

I have read a few books on crisis and change in the last couple of years and this is, despite the small number of reviews on Amazon, the most helpful if youou are in the middle of a life and/or career crisis. Above all, this is a book on how to change your mindset, the one that freezes, depresses and angers you and prevents you from seeing things clearly, from being fully rational, and getting into action. The book offers a set of tools, techniques, attitudes and behaviours to avoid or minimise the fight, flight, or freeze response to increase your ability to adapt and move on. There is also a quest for meaning, to see the silver lining in your crisis, to see it as the step before to something better, to accept change with grace and resilience still being true to who you are.THE GOOD> Unlike many other books on the subject, this book is relatable because the author herself has experienced dramatic periods of upheaval in her private and business life and she's not talking in abstract terms but in very specific hand-on terms.> Ryan's talk is helpful because it makes you feel understood and even cared for. It describes what is going on in your life and in your mind even though she doesn't know you personally.> Ryan makes you understand why you feel the way you feel, why your thoughts are going in a certain direction, and why you aren't taking any action or taking the wrong one. When you understand that this is the result of a mindset that everybody going through similar situations experiences, you feel understood and comforted, and recognise it for what it is. Learning to understand why that happens and how to stop it, is priceless.> The book is clearly written and very well structured. As the author herself states, it is based, on her ownexperience and pragmatism, and on a vast number of books on brain science, organizational and positive psychology, and spirituality.> There is a bit of positive wishful thinking but you didn't get this book to get depress, right?THE GREAT> All the figures in the book are very simple but extremely clear to understand Ryan's points. Really great.> All the commented lists offered in the book are very much of my liking. My favourite ones are:>> The top ten draining holes in a crisis.>> the seven truths about change (1/ Change is the one thing you can count on. 2/ It's not personal. 3/ Your thinking is not always your friend. 4/ Change isn't the enemy, fear is. 5/ There is a predictable emotional cycle of change. 6/ Your are more resilient than you may think. 7/ Your future is built on a bedrock that is unchanging).>> The three actions of a change master (accept change, expand your options and take action).>> The twenty quick tips for surviving the change you didn't ask at the end of the book.THE WEAK> There are too many examples of real-life cases.> There are way too many quotes in the book.> Some times the main point of three pages is just a redundant munching on the title of the section.> I found Ryan's comments on networking the weakest part of the book. Firstly, introverts' ways of relating aren't even considered. Secondly, she ignores the fact that sometimes your network (personal or professional) does not have the means, expertise or knowledge to advise your properly to to help you. They could be really unhelpful by vomiting on you old adages ('when a door closes another opens' Or 'you'll find something'). Your network might not be able to help you financially, even if they wanted, or you could have no family or friends in your country of residence, or they might be too old or sick to attend to your crisis. If they have certain age, your friends won't have a clue about what the job market is these days, so their advice might be not really worth taking on board. The variables are infinite. Besides, Ryan herself says at the beginning of the book that one of the characteristics of modern life is the speed of change, and how different is from older times, older times meaning 10-20 years ago (not last century) so you should not be asking your current network for any advice, just for hugs and kisses. Ryan says that it is best to cultivate your new peer network when you aren't in a crisis, but that is a bit unrealistic and manipulative. Most people, when things are going on OK, won't think "I need to diversify my group of friends just in case I get into trouble in life and I need to use them" do you see what I am saying? I personally avoid this sort of people when I come across them, and I think any honest genuine person would also do so.> Ryan asks you, “What's the worst thing that could happen?” Much of the time they realise it's not that big of a deal". I'm all for enhancing positive thinking during a crisis, but, really, there are so many examples of normal people who end living in poverty or in the streets nowadays that we cannot ignore it. Normal people who, like you and me, had houses, businesses, great jobs and families, and for one reason or another, end in the streets. People who lost their jobs and weren't able to afford the rental prices that speculators feed on nowadays, for example.> One of the exercises is 'Ask you future self for help". Really...? You are confused, I am confused, we are confused, that's why we picked up this book, remember? Ring ring, the future is not responding.KINDLE EDITIONRyan recommends to access some tools from her own website but the links she provided are generic to her website not to the section where the tools are found. In fact, those tools are no longer visible there or accessible from the front page.

It was a really nice book, but the author continuously references AA and 12 step ideology, which seemed out of place.

Great read! Lots of helpful information if you're dealing with any kind of life change!

I feel that the author is portraying that the color of a person does not indicate his or her worth. The mind and the spirit are the moving source in a person’s life, so all people should have a fair opportunity in life and not be discriminated against because of skin color.

A good read.

Marvellous book, I personally found it very easy going to read with lots of relevant tactics/strategies to assess and take control of your own reactions when things start going a little wobbly in your life. Not just a feel good self help book by any means, but a practical programme that offers solutions to lift you up and out of despair and helps you take ownership of looking at opportunities constructively rather than labouring on blockages leaving you free to choose what you want to do when you want to do it and how you want to do it. Worth a read for sure.