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Making Peace with Your Past: The Six Essential Steps to Enjoying a Great Future
Do Harbor guilt or grudges from past relationships? Feel plagued by thoughts of regret? Think "Oh, no, not again!" when personal problems arise? Wonder why life hasn't turned out the way you wanted? Feel anxious or depressed about your future? Seem to be less happy as time goes by? If you answered yes to even one of these questions, this book can help you make peace with your past -- here and now. The past lives on in everything we think, feel, say, and do. Medical studies show that adults who've had adverse or traumatic past experiences are much more vulnerable to life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. Now, world-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Harold Bloomfield, bestselling author of Making Peace with Your Parents and Making Peace with Yourself, offers practical, scientifically proven techniques that can help you heal the wounds of the past; transform feelings of pain, shame, and blame into high self-worth; and reawaken to the magic and joy of being alive.
- GenresSelf Help
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
11 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Harold H. Bloomfield
61 books8 followersBloomfield was born on October 8, 1944, in New York, NY to an accountant and housewife. He grew up in New York City and showed interest in becoming a psychiatrist at age seven.
Bloomfield graduated cum laude with a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh and from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center with an M.D. with honors.
He worked at the Kaiser Foundation's hospital in San Francisco as an intern from 1969 to 1970. He did his psychiatric residency at Yale University School of Medicine from 1970 to 1973.
He received the David Berger Award in 1978 and the Golden Apple Award in 1982. He worked at the Institute of Psychophysiological Medicine in El Cajon, CA from 1970 to 1973 and became its director of psychiatry in 1974. He became a professor of psychiatry at Maharishi International University in 1974. He was adjunct professor of psychiatry at Union Graduate School and director of his own practice called Age of Enlightenment Center for Holistic Health in San Diego, California from 1972 to 1973.
Bloomfield has authored or co-authored 20 books and was a founder of the American Holistic Medical Association. He is the author of Making Peace with your Parents, Making Peace with Yourself, Making Peace with Your Step-Parents, Making Peace with Your Past, Hypericum (St. John's Wort) & Depression, How to Heal Depression, and the bestsellers How to Survive the Loss of a Love and TM: Discovering Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress. According to his publisher his books have sold more than seven million copies and have been translated into over 30 languages.
According to a 1986 survey published in the American Journal of Psychotherapy Bloomfield's book, How to Survive the Loss of a Love, was one of the top ten self-help books recommended by the 123 American psychologists in the survey. Bloomfield received the Theodor Geisel Book Award in 1999.
Bloomfield was influenced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and traveled with the Maharishi in India. He was a candidate for Governor of California in 1998 on the Natural Law Party ticket and received 27,000 votes.
He has appeared in numerous TV shows including Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, CNN, Good Morning America and 20/20. His work has also been reported in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Health, Prevention, Cosmopolitan and Forbes.
Bloomfield's book Making Peace with God was published in October 2003.
Bloomfield has received the Medical Self-Care Book of the Year Award and the American Holistic Health Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
Bloomfield graduated cum laude with a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh and from the SUNY Downstate Medical Center with an M.D. with honors.
He worked at the Kaiser Foundation's hospital in San Francisco as an intern from 1969 to 1970. He did his psychiatric residency at Yale University School of Medicine from 1970 to 1973.
He received the David Berger Award in 1978 and the Golden Apple Award in 1982. He worked at the Institute of Psychophysiological Medicine in El Cajon, CA from 1970 to 1973 and became its director of psychiatry in 1974. He became a professor of psychiatry at Maharishi International University in 1974. He was adjunct professor of psychiatry at Union Graduate School and director of his own practice called Age of Enlightenment Center for Holistic Health in San Diego, California from 1972 to 1973.
Bloomfield has authored or co-authored 20 books and was a founder of the American Holistic Medical Association. He is the author of Making Peace with your Parents, Making Peace with Yourself, Making Peace with Your Step-Parents, Making Peace with Your Past, Hypericum (St. John's Wort) & Depression, How to Heal Depression, and the bestsellers How to Survive the Loss of a Love and TM: Discovering Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress. According to his publisher his books have sold more than seven million copies and have been translated into over 30 languages.
According to a 1986 survey published in the American Journal of Psychotherapy Bloomfield's book, How to Survive the Loss of a Love, was one of the top ten self-help books recommended by the 123 American psychologists in the survey. Bloomfield received the Theodor Geisel Book Award in 1999.
Bloomfield was influenced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and traveled with the Maharishi in India. He was a candidate for Governor of California in 1998 on the Natural Law Party ticket and received 27,000 votes.
He has appeared in numerous TV shows including Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, CNN, Good Morning America and 20/20. His work has also been reported in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Health, Prevention, Cosmopolitan and Forbes.
Bloomfield's book Making Peace with God was published in October 2003.
Bloomfield has received the Medical Self-Care Book of the Year Award and the American Holistic Health Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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July 24, 2025My review from 2001:
The jacket blurb says the author is "the psychiatrist America trusts," and he's been on Oprah, Good Morning America, etc., etc. Definitely pop psychology. His six steps are: experience the source of deep peace within you, break the shackles of shame, stop the slow acid drip of regret, resolve the grief that will not end, heal the wounds of love and sex, and end the bitterness of blame and move on - and up. I rebelled against the catchy tone for a while, especially the visualization exercises. But by the time I got to the chapter on blame, I was finding a lot of value, and applicable to relationships. And of course, it's very readable, with lots of examples
The jacket blurb says the author is "the psychiatrist America trusts," and he's been on Oprah, Good Morning America, etc., etc. Definitely pop psychology. His six steps are: experience the source of deep peace within you, break the shackles of shame, stop the slow acid drip of regret, resolve the grief that will not end, heal the wounds of love and sex, and end the bitterness of blame and move on - and up. I rebelled against the catchy tone for a while, especially the visualization exercises. But by the time I got to the chapter on blame, I was finding a lot of value, and applicable to relationships. And of course, it's very readable, with lots of examples
January 4, 2020
This was another of those self-help books I always want to read and then find that they either aren’t much help, or I don’t have time to do what they say.
This one started out good. It had at least one recommendation that I should really try, which is to write the history of your own life, from what went on in your family before you were born, to find out just what the actual issues you have with your past are.
Then it went on to talk about the types of issues you might have and some things you might do about them. There were several suggestions I have read before, like writing a letter to the person or people who hurt you – not to give to them, but to get the problem out in the open, and to maybe find a way to get past it by destroying the letter in some ritualistic way. Another suggestion was using visualizations to get to a better mental place. There were several other things like that.
The author also recommended getting specialized training or counseling if, for example, you want to learn more about transcendental meditation (which he recommends), or if you have suffered from severe abuse in your past.
This one started out good. It had at least one recommendation that I should really try, which is to write the history of your own life, from what went on in your family before you were born, to find out just what the actual issues you have with your past are.
Then it went on to talk about the types of issues you might have and some things you might do about them. There were several suggestions I have read before, like writing a letter to the person or people who hurt you – not to give to them, but to get the problem out in the open, and to maybe find a way to get past it by destroying the letter in some ritualistic way. Another suggestion was using visualizations to get to a better mental place. There were several other things like that.
The author also recommended getting specialized training or counseling if, for example, you want to learn more about transcendental meditation (which he recommends), or if you have suffered from severe abuse in your past.
August 2, 2009
The older I get, the more I find myself thinking about the past. I still use the principles from this book frequently.
September 19, 2012
I'm not really a fan of self help books, but this book really helped me stop beating myself about decisions that I made in the past.
July 16, 2013
used audiobook
2nd copy used audiobook, purchased 2012 from goodwill for $1.99
2nd copy used audiobook, purchased 2012 from goodwill for $1.99
December 5, 2015
I LOVE this book. It is very informative and offers great information regarding healing your past wounds.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews