Brain Wash
The central idea in Brain Wash is that we have fallen victim to a condition known as “disconnection syndrome.” We have created routines and a world that leads us to be emotionally reactive and disconnected from our rational-thinking brains. Stress, lack of sleep, nature and nutrient deprivation, and instant gratification in the form of technology have all led us to rely less on our higher thinking and react more from our primitive instincts.
There are many solutions to this problem as outlined in the book, and the combine to make up the Brain Wash program including 8 days of recommended actions you can take.
The program includes taking stock of your digital life, empathy in interactions with others, nature exposure, nutrition, sleep, movement, mindfulness, and finally relationships.
These are topics that I like to talk about a lot as they make up the majority of themes for creating a balanced and complete goal wheel for your life.
The chapter on nature and forest bathing was particularly interesting to me as it is a practice that’s been lost in most modern cultures but is starting to see a resurrection in research that is showing a vast array of benefits to being exposed more to nature and particularly the essential oils found in plants that produce fragrance. These “phytoncides” are linked with improving the immune system, reducing blood pressure, handling stress better, and improving mood and energy. As John Muir said, “wilderness is a necessity.”
Overall this book is a good primer on all of the subjects that it covers. Because of the brevity of the chapters and the amount of information packed into them, it somewhat feels like a laundry list of benefits and “studies show that…” which I don’t mind but takes away from making it a great book as there is too much to go into depth on in a 200-page book. For many people struggling with disconnection syndrome, this book format will be exactly what they need to provide a little bit of ammo to combat the pitfalls of our “disconnected” world.
Rating 4/5
Grounded In Gratitude
Grounded In Gratitude - Josh Bryant & Adam benShea
“A longing in the abstract is a dream. However, a dream with a timeline is a goal.”
Life Value 5/5
Entertainment Value 3/5
Grounded in Gratitude by Josh Bryant is a book on building from what you already have in your life to where you ultimately want to be through gratitude practices.
This brief book focuses on a few important practices that can be used to turn dreams into objective goals that can be achieved. These practices include affirmations, reframing yourself with a growth mindset, and writing.
Writing is the main emphasis of Grounded in Gratitude because it can powerfully turn your goals from fleeting thoughts into attainable ideas. By writing your goals down you bridge the gap and synergistically blend the power of the right brain and the left brain. This act of writing down your goals also allows your subconscious mind to pick up on more opportunities through priming.
There are plenty more specific actions that can be taken throughout this book and it contains a seven-week process for completely revamping your life.
Influence
Influence by Robert Cialdini
Life value 5/5
Entertainment value 4/5
Influence is a great distillation of the science of persuasion and teaches you both what to look for or use as a marketer or salesperson and how to better avoid the pitfalls of savvy marketers. Cialdini simplifies the science behind the psychology and is a great writer and storyteller.
The book is broken down into the main categories that influential psychology falls under and gives plenty of great research and real-world examples to solidify each point.
If you need help avoiding influence in your own decisions or you are looking to attain more success in selling something, (whether you believe in it or not), this book will be highly valuable to you if you have never taken a social psychology class before and come across many of these concepts.
This book covers all the biggies including:
The contrast principle
Reciprocation
Social proof
Commitment and consistency
Authority
Liking
Scarcity
One of the best parts about the book is the author's relentless curiosity about persuasion and his down to earth approach as he includes many examples of how he himself is not foolproof to persuasion but becomes even more curious when he gets caught in a trap and why it happened.
Stealing Fire
Stealing Fire- Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal
Stealing Fire is a look at the state of Ecstasis and gets its name from an allusion to Prometheus - the titan who stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humans, thus sparking the progress of civilization.
Ecstasis is the act of “stepping beyond oneself” and refers to experiences of the subconscious mind taking over our everyday consciousness. Ecstasis was traditionally achieved through long-term contemplative practices and also a rich history of animals consuming psychoactive plants. It is hypothesized that the consumption of these plants and fungi has been involved in the progress of human evolution and been critical to our development of cognition.
Stealing Fire breaks down the ecstatic state into the four components of the STER experience - selflessness, timeless, effortlessness, and richness and explores its relationship to the flow state and the neurobiology behind it. The book then explores the different methods of achieving ecstatic states including new technologies that are breaking through the mystery and the taboos of exploring altered states.
This is an extremely interesting read and has a lot of value to some of the changes in legislature being made in North America currently. While many people will be exploring Michael Pollan’s newest book on this subject, “How To Change Your Mind,” I think that Stealing Fire published a few years ago, is an interesting parallel to explore on the subject of altered states.
Life Value: 4/5
Entertainment Value 5/5
Mind Gym
Mind Gym - Gary Mack
“Show me a guy who is afraid of looking bad and I can beat him every time”
Rating: 5/5
Mind Gym by Gary Mack is the ultimate guide to sports psychology and mastering the inner game with sports. Gary Mack was a big-time sports psychologist who had worked with athletes in a wide range of professional leagues. This is the type of book you can’t fully appreciate until you start to apply the information in the book to yourself.
The writing style in this book is very blunt. Each chapter serves its purpose with a couple of quotes from athletes and then an example of how the practice is applied or a case study of how an athlete has used that principle. There are no excess words or rambling sentences to lose the point over, which is great because each principle can be read over in a few minutes and then used for yourself.
Athletes dedicated to maximizing their performance and matching their inner excellence to performance on their field of choice will appreciate this book and find value in it. Sports psychology isn’t a brand new revelation so many of the topics may be recognizable to the experienced athletes reading this book but it is still a great book and reference to carry with you as an athlete.
Ego Is The Enemy
Ego Is The Enemy - Ryan Holiday
“If you go looking you’ll find history is made of individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition.”
Ego Is The Enemy might be my favourite book written by Ryan. It follows the same structure of most of his other books and works tightly around a central thesis with each chapter offering specific historical examples and support.
Ego, in the modern sense of the term that has been developed, is the not the Freudian meaning of the term of being the driver behind the car is the Id. Ego is that low-level narcissism or self-importance that craves you always be noticed. Ego is the need for more followers on Instagram and likes, comments, and retweets.
EITE might be described as a self-help book but in an ironic way, as most self-help books serve to bolster self-confidence and raise up the individual to grandiose levels, Ego tries to break you down and say that there's nothing special about you. Serve a greater purpose with your work and don't even worry about getting credit for it.
I believe that everybody owes it to themselves to read this book and put into practice many of the lessons it has to offer on separating your purpose, successes and failures from the need to have them always be recognized by others.
The Four Tendencies
The Four Tendencies - Gretchen Rubin
In The Four Tendencies, Rubin expounds upon a framework for how people respond to expectations that she first explored in Better Than Before. The four groupings are broken up as follows:
- Upholders - accomplish both internal and external expectations.
- Obligers - accomplish external expectations but struggle with internal ones.
- Questioners - accomplish internal expectations but need to know the reason why to accomplish external expectations.
- Rebels - do what they want to do. Struggle with internal and external expectations.
This book can help to make sense of different people and how books with a "one size fits all" solution to any problem are not going to work for everybody. As a coach or someone who teaches or tries to help other people with problems, this book can be really useful for communicating effectively. It can also be useful for anyone who is struggling to accomplish things in their own lives and maybe doesn't know what type of Tendency they fall under. Once you've better realized how you consistently respond to expectations you will be able to better structure your life and the strategies you use to improve your life.