bartendm's review against another edition
4.0
A very technical book combining psychology, neuroscience and Buddhism. I like combining the strenths of different disciplines and traditions to make a stronger whole. As a neuroscientist, I enjoyed reading the neurscientific basis for how each of the exercises could help build resilience, and also the emphasis on the brain being able to change... because it can! So much comes down to strengthening the activity of the pre-frontal cortex. The book is very much a manual as well, with detailed descriptions of many different exercises that could be done in a form of self-therapy and meditative practices. That made it slow reading, but valuable nonetheless. I've already used one of the exercises in a group format for team building, as they can have a wider application than just personal work.
Here are some quotes I enjoyed to give you a flavor of the content:
The human brain is a social-learning organ.
A Zen teaching says that when our minds contract—with anxieties or complaints—it’s like looking at the sky through a pipe. If you find yourself getting caught up this way in a thought, story, or emotion, return your awareness to your breathing.
Instead of self as a noun, an object with defined perimeters, we begin to see it as a verb, a process of continual change.
The defocusing circuit operates when we are daydreaming or in reverie. We can consciously use it to let ourselves relax into a more open, spacious awareness. .. to switch between these two networks of self and nonself requires a mature pre-frontal cortex. ... The more flexible neural receptivitiy of the defocusing network allows us to rewire different patterns constituting the personal self. Learning to use both networks gives us more choices in rewiring our brains to increase resilience.
Because all mental activity sculpts neural structures in some way.
The subjective experience of empathy—or being seen and understood, or of understanding ourselves—is one of the primary catalysts for rewiring our brain’s encoded messages about ourselves, our connections, our competence, our vulnerability, and our courage.
Here are some quotes I enjoyed to give you a flavor of the content:
The human brain is a social-learning organ.
A Zen teaching says that when our minds contract—with anxieties or complaints—it’s like looking at the sky through a pipe. If you find yourself getting caught up this way in a thought, story, or emotion, return your awareness to your breathing.
Instead of self as a noun, an object with defined perimeters, we begin to see it as a verb, a process of continual change.
The defocusing circuit operates when we are daydreaming or in reverie. We can consciously use it to let ourselves relax into a more open, spacious awareness. .. to switch between these two networks of self and nonself requires a mature pre-frontal cortex. ... The more flexible neural receptivitiy of the defocusing network allows us to rewire different patterns constituting the personal self. Learning to use both networks gives us more choices in rewiring our brains to increase resilience.
Because all mental activity sculpts neural structures in some way.
The subjective experience of empathy—or being seen and understood, or of understanding ourselves—is one of the primary catalysts for rewiring our brain’s encoded messages about ourselves, our connections, our competence, our vulnerability, and our courage.
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