Take Your Life Back: How to Stop Letting the Past and Other People Control You

I heard Steve Arterburn speak at the FamilyLIfe Stepfamily Summit this past September and was impressed with his workshops. I initally decided to read Take Your Life Back in order to understand the book and to be able to recommend it to the stepcouples I work with. WOW! This book ministered to me. This book is for anyone who struggles with life. Authors Arterburn and Stoop do an amazing job walking you through what it looks like to live a reactive life and then they take you into what to do to live a responsive life. The first few chapters will help you uncover what you may need to work on to get your life back. The chapter titled "Understanding Your Woundedness" will bless all readers especially the section on "The Battle Between Our False Self and Our Real Self". I first read the book cover to cover. I then ordered the Take Your Life Back Day by Day devotional and bought a journal to go back and “do” the book. I was aware of some things that happened in my childhood that impacted me and after reading this book I have realized that they have strongholds on me that I’ve allowed to keep me in certain places where I do react instead of respond. I’m going back now to reclaim those moments and define them so that they don’t continue to define me. The authors share when they emotionally disconnected from their family of origin. Through this book I now know mine and can see clearly the impact it has on my life today. As a Christian who ministers to others I had to humble myself to see that I too have much work to do on me and most likely always will. This book does a great job of explaining co-dependency. I do life with someone with borderline personality disorder and this is the FIRST and ONLY book that describes the challenges and gives reasons for why it is so exhausting - page 42 was a freedom call for me. If you are struggling with where you are in life I encourage you to invest in yourself and purchase this book — read it then do it. I highly recommend the Day to Day devotional that goes with Take Your Life Back. I have already purchased this book to give to my stepdaugther who has experienced trauma as well as for a friend who doesn’t battle addiction or trauma but who like me has some dysfunction in her family of origin that still holds her back today. I’ll be doing a more thorough book review on my website encouraging others to get this book — NOW!

I'm a college student still struggling with a nasty incident from high school involving a figure of authority on a power trip. I ordered this book, hoping to gain some valuable insight into my pain and to find some help for the healing process. I found both, and so much more. Take Your Life Back is a straightforward, to-the-point self-help book that is well-grounded in Scripture but also takes psychology/science into account. I found tremendous comfort in this book and would recommend it to other people who have gone through some rough times, whether self-inflicted or outside of their control. My incident was "minimal" compared to other traumatic events, but this book was still relevant and helpful for me during my healing. Even if you've felt as though you've lost touch with yourself somehow, this is a great book. 10/10 would recommend.

I can't emphasize the importance of this book. Everybody needs to read this, especially if you've been through some hurt in the past. This book delve deep in psychology and takes a scriptural approach to problems and past hurts and to come out of the other side it healed and better than ever (or healing and continuing to improve as it is a process).

This is a really good book . It makes you self reflect and truly think about your choices and actions.

Explains different views of what has happened to people to make them how they are.

This book breaks down a LOT of past (and current) things you may be doing in your life, good and bad. I found that I had to let a three-and-a-half year relationship go because it wasn't being honest with my authentic self and it had become stagnant and toxic. I plan on buying this book for a few of my girlfriends for Christmas presents!

This book was so inspiring and insightful, I stumbled upon it by accident and realized it was a diamond in the rough, with the rough being my life.

This is just WAY to religious for me. Not sure it will work if you are a non-believer.

The best book I have read about moving forward from feeling like a victim to someone who can get their life back and live a life that has purpose and meaning.

Ich habe die dazu gehörigen Seminare online gehört und finde das Buch einfach, verständlich und sehr gut geschrieben. Da ich vor ein paar Jahre eine sehr eintauschende Lebens Situation hatte, hat diese Buch mir viel geholfen den Schmerz zu erkennen und verarbeiten und somit meinen Leben zurück zubekommen.

A good book based on the 12 step principles from AA but it's also much more.

Sorry, this whole book is a joke and a complete contradiction. It’s supposed to be about YOU taking back YOUR life and regaining control in order to live SELF-DETERMINED — but in the end, it’s exclusively about giving it all to the higher power, God. Please don’t get me wrong. I’m (secularly) Christian myself and I maintain a basic connection to religious ideas and values. But in this book, there’s a lot of rambling, proselytizing, and ideological preaching, which I find deceptive given that it’s supposed to be a book about self-determination. Many of the ideas (meditating, setting healthy boundaries, seeking external help, etc.) are fundamentally right and important, but they are constantly undermined by the permanent focus on God, because the core message ultimately remains: Entrust yourself to God, because only with Him can you live a self-determined life. Ugh. Sometimes I really get annoyed at my “quirk” of always finishing books. Please get another book, or better books, in order to accomplish what ever you would like to. IMO take this only if you have already a strong christian background or you wanna have.

I haven’t fully read the book so I’m not gonna completely write it off. however, I have read a few tractors, and there is a lot of Bible verse references which was unexpected.