You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00553MF8W | Format: PDF
You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life Description
A leading neuroplasticity researcher and the coauthor of the groundbreaking books Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain, Jeffrey M. Schwartz has spent his career studying the structure and neuronal firing patterns of the human brain. He pioneered the first mindfulness-based treatment program for people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, teaching patients how to achieve long-term relief from their compulsions.
For the past six years, Schwartz has worked with psychiatrist Rebecca Gladding to refine a program that successfully explains how the brain works and why we often feel besieged by bad brain wiring. Just like the compulsions of OCD patients, they discovered that bad habits, social anxieties, self-deprecating thoughts, and compulsive overindulgence are all rooted in overactive brain circuits. The key to making life changes that you want - to making your brain work for you - is to consciously choose to starve these circuits of focused attention, thereby decreasing their influence and strength.
In You Are Not Your Brain, Schwartz and Gladding carefully outline their program, showing listeners how to identify negative brain impulses, channel them through the power of focused attention, and ultimately lead more fulfilling and empowered lives.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 11 hours and 49 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Tantor Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: June 9, 2011
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00553MF8W
"Habitually dismissing and devaluing your true emotions and needs causes your brain to adopt unhealthy responses and to strongly discount much of the positive information about you that is coming in." -- Jeff Schwartz, MD, and Rebecca Gladding, MD
I was well aware for some months that Jeffrey Schwartz's new book (co-authored with Rebecca Gladding) was coming out. When I saw the package from amazon.com on my front porch last week, I quickly opened it. The reward circuit in my brain got activated as I held the hardcover book with bright yellow lettering that told me: YOU ARE NOT YOUR BRAIN!
Jeffrey Schwartz is a pioneer in the field of self-directed neuroplasticity, and his work with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (as described in his book BRAIN LOCK) is highly regarded and used in clinics around the world. In this new book, Schwartz and Gladding have refined the 4-step method used in "Brain Lock" as well as expanded the scope of how it can be applied to lifestyle habits, addictions, and unhealthy thinking.
The 4-Step process is based on mindfulness. I found their revised process very clear and easy to grasp--and it can easily be used personally or by counselors, psychologists, and others to be shared with clients as a form of treatment. The 4-Step process includes 1) Relabeling (noticing thoughts), 2) Reframing (naming the brain's deceptive thought pattern to change your relationship to the thought), 3) Refocusing (placing awareness elsewhere), and 4) Revaluing (aligning with one's deeper values, or true self).
The book is a treasure trove of real-life case studies that demonstrate how Schwartz and Gladding used the 4-Step mindfulness process--and show how anyone can rewire their brain in this way.
I bought this book after reading "The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge, MD, which is a fascinating book. In it, Doidge mentions Schwartz and his method for helping patients who suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
In "You Are Not Your Brain," Schwartz and Gladding expand on that method and help the reader apply it to other problems that result from what they call deceptive brain messages. I have also heard these deceptive brain messages referred to as automatic negative thoughts, core beliefs, et cetera. Essentially, they are ideas/beliefs you have that lead you to engage in bad habits, feel terrible about yourself, avoid taking actions you need to take, and generally prevent you from living the life you want to live. One example the book gives is an actor who doesn't believe he's good enough and therefore does not go on auditions for parts and, as a result, sabotages his own career success. In short, these false messages are running your life and it's time to stop listening to them. This book teaches you to identify these false brain messages, how to deal with them and how to take back control of your choices and your life.
Could this book have been written in a more engaging and perhaps slightly more cohesive way? Sure, but I bought this book for what it could teach me, and it has taught me a great deal. It goes beyond what a lot of books say, which is to write down and challenge the deceptive brain messages. Yes, that's helpful, but the steps in this book, especially the steps about doing something constructive and engaging while allowing those brain messages to continue to play on in the background are what really creates lasting change in your brain.
I liked the concept of the "Wise Advocate.
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