Synopses & Reviews
Two neuroscience experts explain how their 4-Step Method can help break destructive thoughts and actions 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. Just like with the compulsions of OCD patients, they discovered that bad habits, social anxieties, self-deprecating thoughts, and compulsive overindulgence are all rooted in overactive brain circuits. The key to making life changes that you want-to make your brain work for you-is to consciously choose to "starve" these circuits of focused attention, thereby decreasing their influence and strength.
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. In You Are Not Your Brain, Schwartz and Gladding carefully outline their program, showing readers how to identify negative brain impulses, channel them through the power of focused attention, and ultimately lead more fulfilling and empowered lives.
Review
“A testament to mind over brain ... It's the truth of the matter that sheer willpower can truly make you break free.”
—Leonardo DiCaprio
Review
“Operating on the highly rational perspective that we are not our brains, but rather, substantial free agents who exercise control over our brains, Schwartz and Gladding develop a simple, yet profoundly insightful approach for developing a flourishing life. The result is truly life-giving, and it will bring healing and hope to all who read it and practice its wisdom.”
—J.P. Moreland, author of The God Question
Review
"How can the brain, which is just a complex network of interconnected nerve cells, give rise to consciousness and to thought? Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and Dr. Rebecca Gladding argue, persuasively, that the mind actually has massive causal effects on the functioning of the brain. In other words, you can not only change the way you think, feel and behave through conscious effort when you're upset, but you can also change the programming and chemistry of your brain. A compelling and important message."
—David Burns, M.D., author of Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
Review
“The idea that we can deliberately and systematically change our brains with our minds was once thought ridiculous. But now, largely due to Jeffrey Schwartz and his UCLA research on neuro-plasticity and OCD, this once revolutionary idea is well accepted. Rebecca Gladding and Jeffrey Schwartz adapt Schwartz’s extraordinarily successful program for a mainstream audience giving simple, self-directed tools to help achieve greater happiness, emotional balance, and overall well-being.”
—Susan Kaiser Greenland, author of The Mindful Child
Review
“
Rewire gives readers the tools to understand their bad habits and change their lives for the better. This highly practical book offers compelling and measured advice on how to change behaviors and improve lives.”—Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD, author of
You Are Not Your Brain and
Brain Lock “Rewire is essential reading for people and clinicians trying to improve their own life and the lives of everyone around them. Fascinating and powerful advice on ending negative thoughts and behaviors and improving your brain."—Andrew Newberg, MD, author of Words Can Change Your Brain
Synopsis
The bestselling author of Undoing Depression offers a brain-based guide to permanently ending bad habits Richard OConnors bestselling book Undoing Depression has become a touchstone in the field, helping thousands of therapists and patients overcome depressive patterns. In Rewire, OConnor expands those ideas, showing how we actually have two brainsa conscious deliberate self and an automatic self that makes most of our decisionsand how we can train the latter to ignore distractions, withstand temptations, and interrupt reflexive, self-sabotaging responses. Rewire gives readers a roadmap to overcoming the most common self-destructive habits, including procrastination, excessive worrying, internet addiction, overeating, risk-taking, and self-medication, among others.
About the Author
Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., is a research psychiatrist at UCLA School of Medicine and a seminal thinker and researcher in the field of self-directed neuroplasticity. He lives in Los Angeles.Rebecca Gladding, M.D., is a psychiatrist specializing in anxiety and depression. She recently was Medical Director of the UCLA Adult Inpatient Eating Disorders Program. She lives in Los Angeles.