Synopses & Reviews
Review
A blueprint to optimize your brain and improve the rest of your life.”
— Daniel G. Amen, MD, author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
You will find, on every page, useful and intriguing knowledge, resources, practices, exercises, and technologies to unleash your brain power and improve your mind as you age. Buy it, read it, live it!”
— Tony Buzan, author of Use Both Sides of Your Brain
This book offers an excellent collection of tools to improve your mind and life. I hope everyone will read this wonderful resource, which can help us all to not just survive but thrive.”
— Bernie Siegel, MD, author of 365 Prescriptions for the Soul and A Book of Miracles
Brain Power is beautifully written, weaving together science, art, and history to provide the evidence and practical tools to enhance your brain function so that you can have a brilliant life. Everyone should read this book.”
— Eva Selhub, MD, author of The Love Response and instructor at Harvard Medical School
In Brain Power, Michael Gelb and Kelly Howell present us with one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date reviews of simple yet powerful strategies we can all implement to not just preserve but actually improve the power of our brains as we age. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in wellness and longevity.”
— Tereza Hubkova, MD, integrative specialist, Canyon Ranch, Lenox, MA
This wonderful book offers everything you need to know to improve your mind as you age. The latest science combined with a user-friendly, highly entertaining presentation make this book a winner. Highly recommended!”
— Hyla Cass, MD, author of 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health
Brain Power is an essential, practical, and inspiring guide to improving your mind as you age. Savor the sounds and meanings to bring harmony to your life. This book is ageless!”
— Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect and Healing at the Speed of Sound
Synopsis
Do you expect your memory to be better or worse 10 or 20 years from now? How about your sex life? What are your greatest fears, concerns and worries about getting older? Are you hoping that someone will develop the mental equivalent of Viagra?
In the last 30 years the scientific evidence supporting the notion that your mind can improve through the years has become overwhelming. Clearly, the question is no longer whether your mind can improve with age, but rather how you can optimize your mental powers as you get older.
Brain Power presents practical, evidence-based information on improving your mind throughout life. Michael J. Gelb and Kelly Howell present an accessible and fun-to-read survey of the leading experts in the field of healthy aging, including physicians, gerontologists and neuroscientists. They've also studied the habits and practices of men and women who are paragons of healthy aging. Their approach isnt just based on scientific theory and academic research. They actually apply everything they recommend in these pages and will guide you to apply these methods so that you will improve your mind every year of your life.
The authors begin by exploring a paradigm shift thats taken place in the last three decades. Most of us were raised with faulty ideas about our mental capacity such as the notion that IQ is fixed at age 5, that brain cells degrade yearly after age 30, and that memory and learning ability inevitably decline with age.
These notions, based on the scientific understanding that was prevalent in the 1950s, are myths dangerous myths that can stifle our ability to flourish in the second half of life.
Just as Copernicus overturned the myth that the earth was at the center of the universe, so contemporary neuroscience has revolutionized our understanding of the potential to improve mental functioning as we age.
We now know the following:
Our mental abilities, including memory, are designed to improve throughout life. Neuroscientists call this Neuroplasticity. (Neuro refers to neuron,” aka nerve cells,” and plasticity means changeable, malleable.”)
Although some brain cells die as we age, we can generate new cells. Neuroscientists call this Neurogenesis. (Your neuronal endowment is so great that even if you lost 1,000 brain cells every day for the rest of your life it would still be less than 1% of your total. Of course, its important not to lose the 1% that you actually use!)
The brain is not, as was once thought, a compartmentalized, hardwired static machine whose parts eventually wear out. Instead, it is a highly adaptable and dynamic organ, capable of generating new neurons, and changing and evolving as we get older.
People of average intelligence can, with appropriate training, raise I.Q., improve memory, and sharpen intelligence throughout life.
Gelb and Howell present the most essential research-based wisdom on how to weave the most positive, productive patterns within the infinite loom of your mind. You will activate unused areas of your brain, tone your mental muscles, and enliven all your faculties. And, youll cultivate greater confidence and healthy optimism as you discover just how quickly you can generate positive results by applying the techniques you will learn.
Although you may be familiar with the idea that continuous learning, healthy diet, and regular exercise are important for cultivating your mind through the years, here youll find this common sense guidance presented in a framework that emphasizes reliable, helpful and practical advice. And, youll learn cutting edge research, such as the dramatic effect that attitude has on your longevity, how to use the techniques devised by the ancient Greeks to strengthen your memory, and how to balance your moods and emotions for optimal brain function.
Extensive research reveals that accumulated stress is the greatest cause of age-related mental and physical decline. Included with this book are downloadable Brain Sync®, Brain Wave Training audio files designed to dissolve accumulated stress and optimize your mental performance. This easy-to-use audio technology is clinically proven to balance the right and left hemispheres of your brain, creating states of deep calm and high coherence - the same kind of coherence associated with the creativity of great minds like Leonardo da Vinci and Thomas Edison.
You are about to discover that the power of your brain is greater than anything you may have previously imagined. You possess an astounding instrument of intelligence, and you are on the verge of learning how to unleash its vast potential.
Synopsis
Virtually everyone fears mental deterioration as they age. But in the past thirty years neuroscientists have discovered that the brain is actually designed to improve throughout life. How can you encourage this improvement? Brain Power shares practical, state-of-the-evidence answers in this inspiring, fun-to-read plan for action. The authors have interviewed physicians, gerontologists, and neuroscientists; studied the habits of men and women who epitomize healthy aging; and applied what they describe in their own lives. The resulting guidance — along with the accompanying downloadable Brain Sync audio program — can help you activate unused brain areas, tone mental muscles, and enliven every faculty.
About the Author
Michael J. Gelb is the preeminent authority on the application of genius thinking and a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning, and innovative leadership. Gelb leads seminars for organizations such as DuPont, Merck, Microsoft, Nike, Raytheon, and YPO. He is the author of the bestselling
How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day.
With almost three million audio programs in print, Kelly Howell is highly acclaimed for her groundbreaking work in healing and mind expansion. She is the creator of Brain Sync audio technology and the worlds leading innovator in the practical application of brain-wave research.
Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Maps, lives in Marlowe, outside London. His business is headquartered in Cardiff.