You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life [Hardcover]

Jeffrey M. Schwartz (Author), Rebecca Gladding (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 9, 2011

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

For a more detailed description of the book's contents, read this reader's review on her website (we do not know her) :
alwayswellwithin.com/2011/06/13/you-are-not-your-brain-book-review-and-giveaway/ --Reader Sandra Pawula

From the Back Cover

Advance Reviews
"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 will bring healing and hope to all who read it."
--J. P. Moreland, author of The God Question.

"This book will be very helpful to those who want to improve their outlook and quality of life.  As this book shows, and most every musician knows, You Are Not Your Brain. The Heart and the Spirit are the source of real creativity. The brain is a vehicle to express that creativity."
--Kenny Burrell, National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and Professor of Music and Ethnomusicology, UCLA

"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

"Largely due to Jeffrey Schwartz and his UCLA research on neuro-plasticity and OCD treatment, the once revolutionary idea that we can systematically change our brains with our minds is now well accepted.  Gladding and Schwartz adapt that 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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Avery; First Edition edition (June 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583334262
• ISBN-13: 978-1583334263
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 89 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Books Shows How-to Self-Direct Your Life June 25, 2011

By Donald Altman

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Habitually dismissing and devaluing your true emotions and needs causes your brain to adopt unhealthy responses and to strongly discount much of the positive information about you that is coming in." -- Jeff Schwartz, MD, and Rebecca Gladding, MD

I was well aware for some months that Jeffrey Schwartz's new book (co-authored with Rebecca Gladding) was coming out. When I saw the package from amazon.com on my front porch last week, I quickly opened it. The reward circuit in my brain got activated as I held the hardcover book with bright yellow lettering that told me: YOU ARE NOT YOUR BRAIN!

Jeffrey Schwartz is a pioneer in the field of self-directed neuroplasticity, and his work with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (as described in his book BRAIN LOCK) is highly regarded and used in clinics around the world. In this new book, Schwartz and Gladding have refined the 4-step method used in "Brain Lock" as well as expanded the scope of how it can be applied to lifestyle habits, addictions, and unhealthy thinking.

The 4-Step process is based on mindfulness. I found their revised process very clear and easy to grasp--and it can easily be used personally or by counselors, psychologists, and others to be shared with clients as a form of treatment. The 4-Step process includes 1) Relabeling (noticing thoughts), 2) Reframing (naming the brain's deceptive thought pattern to change your relationship to the thought), 3) Refocusing (placing awareness elsewhere), and 4) Revaluing (aligning with one's deeper values, or true self).

The book is a treasure trove of real-life case studies that demonstrate how Schwartz and Gladding used the 4-Step mindfulness process--and show how anyone can rewire their brain in this way. This is a step-by-step book that includes examples of charts and journaling methods that can help anyone track their movement toward wellness, clarity and purpose.

I highly recommend this book. It shows how to put the power of focus to work in a way that can change lives for the better. Thank you Jeff and Rebecca for sharing with all of us this very valuable and life transforming information!

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendously helpful August 14, 2011

By E. Whalen

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book after reading "The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge, MD, which is a fascinating book. In it, Doidge mentions Schwartz and his method for helping patients who suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

In "You Are Not Your Brain," Schwartz and Gladding expand on that method and help the reader apply it to other problems that result from what they call deceptive brain messages. I have also heard these deceptive brain messages referred to as automatic negative thoughts, core beliefs, et cetera. Essentially, they are ideas/beliefs you have that lead you to engage in bad habits, feel terrible about yourself, avoid taking actions you need to take, and generally prevent you from living the life you want to live. One example the book gives is an actor who doesn't believe he's good enough and therefore does not go on auditions for parts and, as a result, sabotages his own career success. In short, these false messages are running your life and it's time to stop listening to them. This book teaches you to identify these false brain messages, how to deal with them and how to take back control of your choices and your life.

Could this book have been written in a more engaging and perhaps slightly more cohesive way? Sure, but I bought this book for what it could teach me, and it has taught me a great deal. It goes beyond what a lot of books say, which is to write down and challenge the deceptive brain messages. Yes, that's helpful, but the steps in this book, especially the steps about doing something constructive and engaging while allowing those brain messages to continue to play on in the background are what really creates lasting change in your brain.

I liked the concept of the "Wise Advocate." You can re-cast it, if you like, as the role of a higher power or perhaps "Your Best Self," but the result is the same: to teach you to look at yourself with kindness, compassion and to believe the best things possible about yourself.

This book also contains tables you can fill in, either in the book itself or on a separate piece of paper. I found these tables to be quite helpful in really getting clear on what my messages were and what they were costing me.

Before this book came out, I had tried various methods for dealing with my deceptive brain messages, but the method described in this book is the only method that's really worked for me, and so for that, it deserves five stars. If you are looking for a good companion book to this one, "The Brain that Changes Itself" is excellent, but it's not instructive. This one is.

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic - Very Practical and Useful June 22, 2011

By Book Fanatic TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I read a lot of books and I have a hard time imagining anyone with an interest in practical results not finding this book valuable. I noticed the previous reviewer panned it because it wasn't full of detailed scientific descriptions, despite the fact that would probably turn most of its intended audience off. This is a common problem in book reviews. People read a book, like this one whose intent is to provide a practical technique and then criticize it for what it is not and was never intended to be. This book wasn't written to convince you of its theoretical foundation or educate readers on exact "neural pathways", although it does touch on that lightly. It was written to help you so get over it. This is a self help book and in that regard succeeds brilliantly.

The case histories included throughout this book are people with moderately significant problems (I would say even sometimes pretty severe). However, don't let that dissuade you because I think virtually anyone who is a normal human being would find the advice practical in many circumstances. I don't have any issues even remotely approaching those of the people described in the book but I still found it very helpful.

This is a fairly long book for this genre (approximately 350 pages) and it is very well organized. It includes a lot of worksheets and practical tips. I have no major criticism at all. I would recommend it to anyone who wants practical advice on how to improve their mental well-being and that includes people who think they are doing well already. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!