Building Your Self-Image

by Zelig Pliskin

This book can change your life. And the life of your spouse, your children, your friends and your employees. Every success story begins with a positive attitude. This book will show you how you can... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1422600653
• ISBN13: 9781422600658
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Mesorah Publications, Limited
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One Of The Best Self-Help Books I Have Ever Read

I have read many self-help books, but this is definitely one of the best ones. For years, I was troubled by the fact that many self-help and self-esteem books seemed to be all about "me" and "my" -- encouraging the reader to focus only on themselves in a sometimes selfish and narrowly materialistic manner. As a committed spiritual Jew, I was also concerned because many of the self-help books I read had no spiritual or ethical "angle." For me, character improvement -- both psychologically and in terms of increasing the better aspects of my character in spiritual ways -- had been a long and sometimes gloomy battle. Rabbi Pliskin's approach completely changed my outlook, linking character improvement to Jewish spiritual traditions of maintaining joy and optimism. "Building Your Self-Image and the Self-Image of Others" is a wonderful book. It uses a combination of traditional Jewish mussar (character improvement) texts and the findings of modern positive psychology to assist the reader in maintaining and increasing his or her own self-image, happiness and optimism, and advises the reader of ways to help others in doing the same. The book provides ways to carry out the saying of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov: "It is a mitzvah (a good deed) to be happy." [...]

Helpful and Fun to Read

Rabbi Pliskin guides readers through the process of building their self-image in this helpful and entertaining book. Each short chapter describes a strategy for self-image building, drawing on Jewish sources, then concludes with a story or dialogue illustrating the idea. Pliskin's advice is simple but powerful, and he gives many suggestions of concrete actions people can take to feel better about themselves, by changing their attitudes and striving for personal growth. Since many of these ideas are also useful in building other people's self-images, the book would be an excellent resource for parents, teachers' or care-givers. Although Rabbi Pliskin writes from a Jewish perspective, the book is not directed solely to Jews. People of all faiths could benefit from his wise and compassionate insights.

"I choose a high self-image because I am a human being and I exist."

This life-changing book describes how we can believe in ourselves and get others to believe in themselves, and how we can achieve our goals, through a step-by-step method. It is one of the best self-help books I have read, and very encouraging and inspiring. It draws on ancient Jewish wisdom but it is for anyone looking to improve their self-image and through this their life. Among other things, this book explains how self-image creates quality of life and is a work in progress. Rabbi Pliskin explains the Torah concept that the world was created for every one of us. The author reminds us: "If you have a low self-image it is because of the way you think about yourself. Think better thoughts about your self-image." We must all ask ourselves what we can say, think and do to improve our self-image. The author highlights how the Torah (Vayikra:25:17) prohibits us from insulting people and causing them pain with words. This says the Talmud is worse than financially cheating someone. "Embarrassing a person is public is considered an even worse crime (Baba Metzia 59a): The Talmud equates public humiliation to murder? Why? When a person feels the intense distress of being belittled when others are present, his self-image might be temporarily destroyed, He may feel worthless. Outside of physical pain this is the most excruciating distress that a person can feel." The book also explains how we can deal with rejection and not let it damage our self-image even if we have suffered repeated rejection for many years. The author explains how we should not let someone else's limited perspective lessen your sense of personal value, so we should not let rejection by others lessen our sense of self-worth. Nothing can change the fact that your immense value as a person is a divine gift. He expalins what we can tell ourselves to actually turn negative experiences into positive thoughts. He also gives us positive affirmations to imprint on our mind and why these do actually work. When focusing on self-development Rabbi Pliskin likes to focus on four factors. Goals, Traits, Emotional Traits and Self-Image. He explains how we can set goals for ourselves and also how to bounce back from negative and potentially destructive experiences. Rabbi Pliskin draws on the wisdom of Aharon the High Priest of Israel, the Rambam and Rabbi Chaim Luzatto, as well as how we can draw inspiration from the successes of such people as Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. He explores the benefits of Neuro-Linguistic programming and explains how some people are continually angry and blaming and how we can deal with such people. We should all tell ourselves that "I choose a high self-image because I am a human being and I exist." Also because we are all Children of the Allmighty and his beloved creations in his own image. Highly recommended. A tool that can help you repair you self-iamge and your life.