Books Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Almost Perfect!
In this extrodinary book is one statement I disagree with. That is that Christianity presents more of a conflict with the results of the scientific research on the human brain than another religion. I think if the author will read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis she will find out how well the Faith lines up with the scietific research!!

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Rating: - Lotus Guide Review
Train Your Mind Change Your Brain
By Sharon Begley
We no longer live in a world where our mind is set in stone. Sharon Begley makes the science of Neuroplasticity and mind science not only comprehensible but meaningful on a very personal level. For anyone who meditates and wonders about the effects of meditation on the brain. [...]

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Rating: - Very insightful!
Sharon Begley's "Train Your Mind Change Your Brain" does a fine job of exploring the science of neuroplasticity which upends long thought beliefs that the brain becomes hardwired early in life and can't be changed other than through physical techniques like medication, etc. Rather, by concentrating one's thinking in certain ways, actual physical changes can be effected in the brain. That is, the brain affects the mind and the mind affects the brain, a two-way process. Plus, she shows how actual scientific testing proves this, both in animals and humans.

She sees Buddhism as an example of neuroplasticity in action.

The book offers a lot of things to ponder. These are the ones which stuck with me:

1. Unlike most other religions, there is no antagonism between Buddhism and science. Experience comes first, then reason, then scripture.

2. A shrunken hippocampus in the brain exists with depression, but not sure which came first. The result being the inability to recognize novelty.

3. The brain's cortical representation of the reading finger of proficient Braille readers is enlarged at the expense of other fingers. Such reader's brain's visual cortex is active, not just the somatosensory cortex, hence brain plasticity.

4. The loss of vision early in childhood, or before, makes peripheral hearing sharper, just as loss of hearing makes peripheral vision sharper.

5. Dyslexia can be at least partially ameliorated by behavior remediation actually repairing left temporal brain region dysfunction, therefore plasticity of the brain.

6. People who have lost a limb undergo some brain reorganization. For example, a missing hand can generate an itch relieved by scratching one's lower face. Also, stroke victims can benefit like from putting one's good arm in a sling to force the person to use the bad arm, resulting in repairing the brain by using the mind to concentrate on using the bad arm.

7. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients, by certain mental action can change the brain chemistry thereby preventing OCD.

8. For piano players, mentally rehearsing can activate the same brain circuits as actually physically rehearsing.

9. Genes can be silent or active, with the environment capable of activating the silent ones. For example, a child with an attentive mother will likely also become an attentive parent. However, a child with an inattentive mother will likely be an inattentive parent, however can also become an attentive parent if adopted later by an attentive mother.

10. Levels of brain hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin, can affect social bonding and parental care. Things like being very poor in a very rich country can cause a lack of these hormones, for example.

11. Cognitive functions (concentrating) can trigger emotional functions. For example, with Buddhist meditation it is possible to eliminate emotions of anger, hate, jealousy, envy, and greed.

12. "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", used by therapists, considers normality to be not having such disorders. However, no concentration of positive mental states like happiness, contentment, curiosity, drive, engagement and compassion. Why?

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Rating: - amazing
This book was amazing-the implications are far reaching for your own life, as well as your childrens lives. As a mom of three, and someone new to meditation, it's an exciting time to be raising young people. This book has made me think about every aspect of my life differently. I've reccommended it to everyone!!