You are NOT your Brain! (Book review)

I love learning about the brain.  My goodness it is an important organ to understand, n'est pas?  So getting the opportunity to review Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D. and Rebecca Gladding, M.D.'s book "You Are NOT Your Brain" for TLC book tours is a great idea!  The sub-title "The 4-Step Solution for changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life" reveals this has something for everyone.   Who among us doesn't want to end bad habits and unhealthy thinking?

So let's jump into some of the salient points.

I love "Biology is not destiny".  This thinking strangles any power to change things we want to change in a nanosecond.  As the author(s) point out "We think, "I am these thoughts, I am these urges, this is WHO I am."  Some feel that even if they seek out treatment and improve, the fact that they have been depressed, anxious or addicted in the past means they will always be THAT person, the one with the problem.  Or they worry that the symptoms are destined to recur."  No kidding, huh?  If this shoe isn't fitting you, I'm sure it fits somebody you know.  Stay with me.

To change ANYthing requires awareness, effort, patience and dedication.  There is a huge tendency to give in to short-term rewards at the expense of long-term gains.  (I deal with this issue when counseling people with food addictions.  In fact, I have a client I am giving this book to now that I've finished it.)

"If biology is not destiny and the brain is constantly sending out false messages, then it follows that you are not what your brain is trying to say you are. "  Getting a clear understanding of the deceptive messages flowing out on auto-pilot is so key - and this book gives you a very easily understood, clear and concise way to identify the nonsense (crap) your brain spews out.

It also makes understandable, for example, how the brain works when someone is recovering from a stroke.  Bless our brains!  Neuroplasticity allows another area of the brain to take over for the damaged part, which simply speaking is how stroke victims CAN and do recover over time.  "If one action is repeatedly needed or requested, the brain is "taught" that they new function is important and that previously allocated brain areas need to be redirected for novel uses."  If this was not true, no stroke victim would ever recover, nor would Gabby Giffords, the congresswoman in Texas who was shot.  She is not exactly "bouncing" back into functionability, but when you think of the damage done in her brain, the progress thus far is remarkable.

So before you go thinking I'm only addressing the physicality of the brain, oh no, no limitations here.  Thought patterns and habits are deeply entrenched but all is not lost on them either.  You need not be a victim of those deceptive thoughts and bad habits any more than a stroke victim is stuck forever in a wheelchair.

Learning about the parts of the brain, and how they function in producing thoughts is not a chore and the authors do a top notch job of explaining WHY you need to know this.  I personally don't think anything beats knowledge for empowerment - how about you?  Freak out much?  Get stressed?  Bummed out?  Cravings get the best of you?  Depressed or angry, feeling out of control?

Learn what is going on in your brain.  Seriously. 

The four steps you will learn about will help with a myriad of things you encounter in life but certainly are critical to making any changes by using your mind to change your brain.  In a nutshell (pg. 87)

Step 1:  RELABEL - Identify your deceptive brain messages and the uncomfortable sensations; call them what they really are.

Step 2: REFRAME - Change your perception of the importance of the destructive brain messages; say why these thoughts, urges, and impulses keep bothering you:  They are false brain messages (It's not ME, it's just my BRAIN!).

Step 3:  REFOCUS - Direct your attention toward an activity or mental process that is wholesome and productive - even while the false and deceptive urges, thoughts, impulses, and sensations are still present and bothering you.

Step 4:  REVALUE - Clearly see the thoughts, urges, and impulses for what they are, simply sensations caused by deceptive brain messages that are not true and that have little to no value (they are something to dismiss, not focus on).

I'd call this valuable simplicity - anyone can do it.  And should.  We all want to be loved and appreciated for who we are and this has to begin with how we feel about ourselves.   Our internal dialogue can be a mess.  This book sure has the potential to help us.  Which can spill over into our relationships.  What do we bring to the table in any relationship?  A healthy, emotionally stable, confidence?  It is certainly the ideal - just as being physically healthy and fit is ideal - this latter one a little easier to pull off actually.  I've certainly written enough blogs about loving yourself first so you have love to give others - and also so you don't have an emotional hole the size of the Grand Canyon you NEED to have filled by somebody else.  That just can't be done, sorry.  We have to fix our own holes.

But everything begins with understanding our own selves and that incessant chatter in our heads.  Most of it can be trash and it's important to know that. If you can't tell what's what in your head anymore, this could be your ticket to a brain cleanse.

There are gobs of self-help books out there - some better than others of course.  I always wonder just how successful they are in actually helping people or changing people.  This book has a lot of potential to help, great points, exercises for you to do, lessons on the brain sort of, which are really excellent.  I personally wish the authors would not have written (how many times?) "you'll read more about this in Chapter 16" or whatever.  Maybe it's my love of simplicity and order that made me wonder why their editor didn't subscribe to that in editing?  I'm sure it would have shorten the length of the book which I think is a good thing due to the current attention spans of people anyway.

Alas, I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.  If you are struggling to make changes this one just may help you!


(I'm not paid for book reviews, just so you know - and Amazon Associates canceled everyone in Illinois from their Associate program so I can no longer link you all to the books I talk about! Nothing personal that I did or didn't do, mind you, but rather our wonderful Governor and his new creative tax programs!  You have to hand it to Illinois - we've had more  Governors in prison for all kinds of creativity than any other state.  Lovely distinction. I won't elaborate on our political history.   Oh sure Weiner's weiner was a tsk tsk scandal, but in Illinois we have bona fide crooks.)