John Ryder, Ph.D. The Author

Psychologist, Speaker, WorkShop Leader, and Achievement Coach

John has dedicated his life to understand the dualities of life, the natural polar opposites we observe everywhere. His work is based on what to do to reverse negativity in your life and go in a positive direction. He has collected the most valuable tools and insights to make your life easier. He has been called "The Mental Fitness Expert" because he knows exactly how to exercise the mind's muscles to make you stronger, more flexible, and maintain a positive perspective.

He is a licensed psychologist with a private practice in Manhattan.After earning his doctorate in psychology at the City University of New York he served as an Assistant Professor at Mt. Sinai Medical Center specializing in how the brain works. His research revealed how the mind is wired. Over a dozen studies were published describing the results of this research.

He has also traveled around the world studying the secrets to a healthy and successful life with many of the most respected leaders of both Western and Eastern traditions. Dr. Ryder has been a consultant to many successful individuals, corporate executives, athletes, and celebrities. He has also shared his expertise on a variety of radio and television shows. A highly requested speaker and workshop leader, he travels and lectures widely.

Mission Statement & Credentials

I am a STRATEGIST - removing obstacles and promoting achievement with balance and harmony

My Mission:

I believe you are here to learn about life and yourself. Your quest for fulfillment requires you to gain the knowledge and skills to adapt to life, cope effectively with challenges and master your opportunities to achieve your potentials. I am here to help you through this process successfully. I listen carefully; together we analyze your situation and then I offer you intelligent advice on resolving problems and reaching goals. My practice is focused on finding the fastest solutions by utilizing a holistic approach to facilitate change.

Credentials:

Licensed Psychologist in New York State.

Certified Hypnosis Consultant, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

Ph.D. in Psychology from City University of New York

Served as an Assistant Professor at Mt.Sinai Medical Center, C U N Y .

Diplomate Psychotherapy Institute Harvard Medical School.

Author with over 2 dozen academic and human interest articles, and two books.

Corporate Consultant and achievement coach.

World traveler who visited more than 40 countries.

Extensive study of Eastern philosophy and science.

Practicing meditation from the age of sixteen.

Member of American Psychological Association.

Member of New York Academy of Science.

Member of American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

Elected Professional of Who's Who of America.

My Message to You:

"I love my work and do it conscientiously. I am confident the tools I offer will help you explore your life and potentials more accurately to overcome obstacles and reach your goals. With my help you can replace the negative programs in your mind or bad feelings in your body with positive ones so you can reach peak performance and optimal health. I teach people to decrease stress and increase success. I wrote a book about it. This website contains many valuable interactive tools that are designed to build your strength and help you achieve more in life. Working with me you learn how to eliminate anxiety, fear, anger, guilt, jealousy or depression. Develop your confidence, self control, learn to relax and let go.This approach is art of Shifting Polarities, based on my book Positive Directions and my workshops Get Leverage

Click here to read Dr. Ryder's Biography

Life is like a pendulum swinging from negative to positive. What makes us fall downward into stress (fears, frustrations and feeling miserable) so easily? Is it just circumstances, or something else? Do you know what is responsible for magnifying the problems of life?

Positive Directions is the ultimate set of "positive" strategies you can use to change directions, physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. This book integrates rational thinking and intuitive feeling into a single powerful system of ideas and tools to conquer stress, negative emotions, bad patterns, lack of energy, and poor judgment. This book will equip you with the leverage to reverse a negative direction and propel you toward greater success and fulfillment – the Positive Direction!

 

To stay young, healthy, and happy you must use the best strategies to deal with life, otherwise stress will rob you of well being and drive you crazy. This book is full of great ideas, revealing insights, and describes 9 vital skills and 7 essential strategies to keep you going in the positive direction. It contains dozens of practical examples that make it easy to use. And it has over 50 inspiring quotations.

Positive Directions reveal the secrets to a more successful life:

Gain confidence, deal with uncertainty, and have more passion.

Take the master steps to build an invincible personal will power.

Learn to conquer stress and achieve better performance.

Overcome anxiety, fear, anger, or depression without pills.

Improve your skills to deal with problems or difficult people.

Learn the rules for analyzing situations and making better decisions.

Replace bad patterns or routines with good, healthy ones.

Develop your communication skills and improve your relationships.

Discover the best strategies to be happier and more successful.

 

Praise for the Book:

"Applying John's ideas can help you step up to an exceptional life."

Anthony Robbins

Best-selling author of Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power

"I truly believe that this book will help those who have the desire to make a paradigm shift, one that will improve their health and promote their ability to act and think spiritually, make that shift and create a new life and self."

Bernie Siegel, MD

Author of: Prescriptions for Living and 365 Prescriptions for the Soul

"Psychology adds to its growing new positive orientation from this work of John Ryder who describes a set of viable strategies one can use to deal with life more effectively."

Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Stanford University,

Author of The Lucifer Effect - Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.

"Psychology all too often focuses on the negative and how the individual must spend many years in psychotherapy to undo the negative in his/her life.John Ryder is a positivist, who empowers the individual by providing the tools necessary to change how one thinks and feels.Anyone who reads this book will quickly discover a variety of clever strategies to deal with everyday difficulties in life in a very effective and positive way.This book will help you be more optimistic and positive."

Paul Michael Ramirez, Ph.D. Chairman, Department of Psychology, Long Island University, Professor, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, Brooklyn, New York

"As a brain scientist who studies stress-related disorders, I know John Ryder understands the biology of our nervous system. Integrating this with clinical experience, a humanistic perspective, and his knowledge of Eastern philosophies have produced an uplifting manual for making positive life changes."

Steven Berman, Ph.D. UCLA Brain Research Institute

"John Ryder's book answered all my questions about what drives us crazy and what we can really do about it to regain balance and harmony.He is very insightful and easy to understand.He delivers simple to follow tools to make you smile and feel strong, while living in today's high pressure jungle.Buy it and read every page of it!You will be glad you did."

A. Brooks, Editor, Talent in Motion Magazine, New York

Dr. Ryder joins the courageous writers like Erich Fromm, Bruno Betelheim, Karen Horney and others in their attempt to translate difficult concepts into practical ideas to improve one's life.Ryder is as successful as his predecessors.Shifting Polarities has to do with re-directing one's life so one can focus on what is truly important.Dr. Ryder's approach is refreshing, liberating and respectful of the individual.

"I hope his ideas, rooted in ancient wisdom and philosophy but re-edited for us in our current life, attain the widespread attention they deserve because of their power to make us better human beings."

Daniel Araoz, Ed.D., ABPP, NCPsyA., FAPA.
Professor, Long Island University
Author of The Symptom is Not the Whole Story

"When you read John's wonderful book you begin to understand and evaluate your own mind and ways to improve your life and relationships. He brings a unique skill set, track record and knowledge regarding the brain that few experts possess or can explain in a way that makes sense to most people.Pulling from both Eastern and Western studies, extensive travels, and many client cases he offers up a fascinating book designed to help others achieve greater happiness and success!"

Tony Rubleski, Author of Mind Capture
President, Mind Capture Group, Michigan

"Positive Directions is an impressive book. It is full of valuable insights about people and life. More importantly, the skills Dr. Ryder teaches are easy to use and powerful tools to leverage the best from myself and others.I am sure you will enjoy it and utilize it everyday."

Steve Galanis, CEO, Cinema Restaurant Group, New York

"Positive Directions is full of practical insights.The Master Keys can easily be applied to help us and children too.I think it should be required reading for everyone."

Susan Klosiewicz, M.A. School Psychologist, New York

"As a Chiropractic Physician, I am aware of the need to deal with stress in a healthy way and John Ryder's book is the best source of information on the subject.He explains everything clearly and gives specific instructions on how to relieve many stressful situations we get into. I recommend this book, it will help you live longer and be happier."

Alex Eingorn, D.C. Better Health Chiropractic, NYC

 

The Polarity Shifter

To Turn-Your-Life-Around: use the 3 columns below to identify what is the negative emotion or attitude you are experiencing and find the opposite positive feeling or attitude. The third column explains briefly how to make the polarity shift - read the book for all the details.

Instructions:
1 scroll down the Negative Polarities till you find the emotion or attitude in question (the groups are sequenced: Fear, Anger, Pain, and Disgust)

2 when you highlight it... the Positive Polarity window displays the corresponding polar opposite emotion or attitude.

3 the third window explains how to achieve the polarity shift.

Negative .....................Positive .................How to Shift Polarities
Polarities ....................Polarities ...............In the Opposite Direction

What are the three purposes of all emotions?
The first purpose is to create an alarm. This may be either a positive or negative warning of what is going on. Any alarm from the lower nature includes a very powerful stress reaction. The second purpose is a response. That includes any way we respond to the emotions we experience. The third purpose is to remind us to seek where on the spectrum of positive - negative emotions you are, if on the negative side go to the polar opposite emotion.

The Four Master Steps to Transform Negative into Positive Polarities:

1) Become aware of your situation - What is the alarm signal - notice your body, identify the negative emotions and the polar opposite ones.

2) Relax and Let Go, breathe slowly and deeply, change your state.

3) Redirect your attention to your Deliberate mind, verbally analyze your experience and consciously decide to transform the emotions.

4) Imagine, recall, or create the polar opposite feeling, verbally acknowledge the new emotion and refocus on the new state. Realize that you are gaining control, resolving the problems and feeling good.

The transformational system relies on the third reason for all emotions, that they are to remind us of what is the polar opposite feeling. For example, if you are experiencing fear, the polar opposite emotion is courage. There may be subjective differences between individuals as to what they consider a polar opposite for any of the specific emotions, however, the categories do not change significantly. The higher and lower nature of the Triplex mind list only a small fraction of the four categories of emotions that exist. The main idea is that whatever lower emotion you experience, you are instructed to identify the appropriate opposite emotion, to transform the negative into a positive feeling.