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    Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
    Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
    Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves

    Written by Sharon Begley

    Narrated by Eliza Foss

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Is change possible? Everyone who has tried and failed, wished they could be happier, or has been told they were too old to learn something, has wondered why we just seem to be stuck with ourselves. But this amazing and hopeful audiobook shows us that it is not only possible for us to control our brains but also for us to rewire them.

    In late 2004, the Mind and Life Institute brought Western Scientists together with the Dalai Lama and other distinguished Buddhist masters to discuss the cutting edge research being conducted in neuroplasticity, which examines whether neurons can be changed and even grown.

    The findings are as astonishing as they are helpful. Flying in the face of previous assumptions, the current research shows that not only is it possible for us to change the physical brain, but it is within reach of every single one of us.

    Through research into neuroplasticity, it has been shown that we can:
    • Reset our happiness meter
    • Heal from depression, even major episodes
    • Learn new skills even in old age
    • Learn—and even teach—compassion, a critical finding for personal happiness and a more peaceful world

    Surprising, encouraging, and full of good news that we all want to hear, Sharon Begley's Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain will help us not only change our brains but also the way we approach our lives—for the better.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateFeb 6, 2007
    ISBN9781593979522
    Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
    Author

    Sharon Begley

    Sharon Begley is the senior science writer at STAT, the life sciences publication of The Boston Globe. She previously worked at Reuters, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, and The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of Can’t Just Stop; The Emotional Life of Your Brain (with Richard J. Davidson); Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain; and The Mind and the Brain (with Jeffrey Schwartz). She has received numerous awards for communicating science to the public.

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    Reviews for Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain

    4/5

    69 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent! The brain is never fixed - it is never too late to re-create yourself!Although there are drugs and procedures that can change the brain, how much better if people can be taught to change themselves from within.
    • 5/5
      I found this to be a very fascinating account of the progression of the field of neuroscience, from a long-held view that the adult brain is "fixed" and "immutable" (as described by the Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Romon y Cajal in 1913) to the discovery that the brain is in fact quite plastic and malleable, long into adulthood and old age. The author leads us through a narrative, describing the unfolding of these discoveries through studies starting in the1960s through the last 4 decades, with many of the key finding occurring in only the last 10 years. Having just read the book, "Your Brain, the Missing Manual" published in 2008, it was interesting to see how long held misconceptions of neuroscience still persist today. For example "the Missing Manual" describes an individual's "happiness set point" to be basically unchangeable attribute, and get used to it! When in fact, as put forth by "Train Your Mind", studies have shown this is completely changeable through training our mind. While this book is not an introduction to Buddhism or a guide to methods for training your mind, it presents a clear, easy to understand synopsis of the scientific research that shows through changing our thinking, training our mind, we are capable of physically changing the structure of our brain, increasing our happiness, and improving the quality of life.
    • 4/5
      Written in an engaging style that is both easily understood and enjoyable, this book describes the Dali Lama's involvement with science, and, in this case, particularly western neuroscience. The book centers around a Mind and Life Institute event that the Dali Lama hosted, but is explores a much larger history of the neuroscience of brain plasticity, the Dali Lama's lifelong interest in science, and how his interest was piqued and he became involved when some neuroscientists requested his and fellow monk's help in exploring how the mind might (and does) change the brain.This book does NOT explain how to train one's brain, nor how to meditate; such information can be found elsewhere (Ricard's "Happiness", Kabat-Zinn's many books, Wallace's books, and so forth). However it suggests WHY these techniques work and how neuroscience is discovering the mechanisms behind what Buddhists have been practicing for a millennium.
    • 3/5
      The book is a report from discussions held between Western scientists and the Dalai Lama at the latest (2004) Mind and Life Institute conference in Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama has his residence. The topic of the summit was neuroplasticity, or the brain’s capacity to change. In each chapter, Begley reports on what the various scientists told the Dalai Lama on the topic. There is a lot of interesting research presented including the impact of voluntary activity on neurogenesis, cognitive- behavioural therapy and its power to change faulty brain chemistry, or gene expression depending on the environment.The final conclusion seems to be that ‘Our genome is not nature’s orders. It’s more like a suggestion.’ Meditation and other forms of mental training can bring forth changes thanks to neuroplasticity, and regular meditation can effect enduring physiological changes in the brain. All in all, its message is interesting. Even though we are born with a certain set of genes that predispose us to be one way and not the other, we can change what we are through mental training like meditation or psychotherapy.The problem I have with the way the book is written is that I feel that Begley either oversimplifies so that everybody could understand what she is writing about, or she doesn't always understand what she is writing about herself. There is a lot of repetition, but not enough elaboration. The content of the book doesn't live up to the title either - there isn't enough on meditation or any other forms of training the brain.Recently, there have been a few books published on neuroplasticity of the brain, and there is a t least one that explains it in a more coherent fashion, The Brain That Changes Itself by Doidge.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating subject, great research is covered. I give it 5 stars, yet have 2 complaints. The author sets up a false dichotemy of Brain versus Mind, but never discusses how one might measure & test these differences. She acts as if she is building up a case, but then dismisses the dichotomy, correctly stating that you cannot test this distinction - so why bother with extended posing? Then later she resumes the distinction between mind and brain, conveniently forgetting the inability to make a distinction. She also fails to explain the placebo effect to her audience. Most people do Not realize that the placebo effect causes measurable differences in the brain, and that certain chemicals can block the placebo effect. Lastly, she builds up a case for meditation over medication, yet by comparing Meditation to "treatment as usual" by Not detailing what is included in "treatment as usual" is it medication, is it psycho-therapy, you can't really draw real conclusions. Nonetheless, fascinating research, on a fascinating topic.Lastly, she overstates
    • 3/5
      Fascinating topic: how experience can sometimes radically change the brain, a departure from the conventional wisdom of neurological science. But the seemingly endless repeating of studies (even in the setting of an actual conversations with the Dalai Lama, maybe he should have written this book) numbs the mind. I am about halfway thru and I don't know if I will finish. Sorry Ms. Begley.