Written by J.M.Schwartz & R Gladding
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps

Two neuroscience experts explain how their 4-Step Method can help identify negative thoughts and change bad habits for good.

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 OCD, 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.

I'm not good enough. I'm going to fail. He doesn't really like me. There must be something wrong with me.

At one point or another, we have secretly had these kinds of thoughts. Plagued with self-doubt or indecision in those moments, we may have responded with anxiety, depression, unhealthy habits like overeating, having a few drinks or repeatedly over-checking something, like our texts or email. For many of us, this becomes an unending cycle in which habits become more engrained and automatic.

In You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life, Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D. and Rebecca Gladding, M.D., leading UCLA psychiatrists and researchers, combine cutting-edge scientific research with an adaptable 4-step program to help people understand, identify, and free themselves from the deceptive brain messages that hold them back. By learning how to identify deceptive brain messages and channel them through the power of focused attention, those who follow this easy- to-implement program can ultimately lead more fulfilling and empowered lives.

The effectiveness of You Are Not Your Brain lies in empowering readers with the knowledge and skills to help themselves. Schwartz and Gladding lay the groundwork by explaining the science behind deceptive brain messages. In easy-to-understand terms, they clarify how several biological principles combine together to wire habits into the brain - thus making them extremely difficult to change - and why focusing your attention is key to changing your brain. With that background, the authors then teach readers how to assess the meaning and importance of the thoughts and impulses that enter their head so they can make choices that are consistent with the person they want to be (not the one their brain is trying to tell them they are).

For example, what if we have unwittingly learned to pair snacking on pleasurable foods with relieving emotional distress? Although the action seems to work well in the short-run, that momentary relief from snacking often comes at a steep price, in the form of gaining weight, higher cholesterol, high blood pressure and so on. What's more, due to the powerful brain mechanisms in play, eventually the brain will "learn" to repeatedly (and unconsciously) send out the directive that the way to deal with future stress or negative thoughts is to eat something. As our stressors mount, we may find that we are excessively snacking day and night. Unfortunately, the more we repeat the action, the stronger the pathways in the brain become.

But the opposite is also true. By becoming aware of the messages that trigger our behaviors, we can resist acting upon them and instead refocus our attention on healthy actions. By doing so, we rewire our brains and create a new, positive association between thoughts and actions. As this occurs and our ability to use the Four Steps grows, we begin to act based on our true goals and values in life, not the deceptive brain messages that have been holding us back.

As evidenced by the huge success of Schwartz's previous books, as well as Daniel Amen's Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, and Norman Doidge's The Brain That Changes Itself, there is a large audience interested in harnessing the brain's untapped potential, yearning for a step-by-step, scientifically grounded and clinically proven approach. In fact, readers of Brain Lock wrote to the authors in record numbers asking for such a book.