Sunday, January 25, 2009

Review: This is Your Brain on Joy by Dr. Earl Henslin

The book is a hybrid of self-help book and scientific paper. It is refreshing to read about hard science’s role in a field typically described as a soft science. The author explains with the use of SPECT scans (brain imagining scans) each major section of the brain and its chief responsibilities concerning moods and emotions. His goal was to make the brain easy to understand for the average person. However, at times the ‘dumbing down” is more confusing because the author assigns more than one name to various brain sections, the scientific and the folksy term. It would have been less distracting if he had chosen one and just stuck with it.

Indeed, the author takes on a difficult task in covering all of the treatment options, medical and holistic, that are available today. For example, common prescription drugs, supplements, music, cinema therapy, physical exercises, and aromatherapy are all covered. In addition, the author provides famous quotations, Bible passages, and case histories to motivate and sooth those with the discussed problems. The treatments are in easy to navigate tables and categories.

Despite the positive components of the book, I have two main criticisms. Firstly, the author should regard supplements with the same caution as he does prescription medicines. Herbal medicines and supplements could have interactions with other medications, not just anti-depressants. Secondly, the author’s attempts at humor in various sections of the book are at best distracting. In some cases, they are obnoxious and ungrounded. For instance, more than once PMS is called Pre-Monster Syndrome and at one point is likened to bipolar disorder.

This is Your Brain on Joy
http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=078522873X

Friday, January 2, 2009

New Year's Resolutions

As the new year approached I encountered more people than I would have liked who did not make resolutions for the new year. Their reasons differed slightly but mostly could placed into a category I will call what's-the-point? Some people do not make resolutions because they admit they never keep them or because they can not think of any "good" ones. In a few cases people proclaimed that they did not bother because they did not want to change a thing about themselves. But enough about these new year's resolutions scrooges, I want to focus on what is great about new year's resolutions.

It doesn't matter if you keep your resolution all the way until December 31st or whether is gets the quality stamp of approval from everyone you meet. It can be lofty or simple, personal or communal, unique or common. Mostly, it can be a time to put your best foot forward. Making a resolution is a good way to be introspective, organize your goals, and motivate yourself to be a little better in some way or a little closer to the person you would like to be. In doing so, you simultaneously acknowledge humility and hope. That hope is what is, dare I say, beautiful about a new year's resolution. However, in failing to embrace the process of resolution making, you recognize their opposites: arrogance and defeat, an odd couple to say the least. There is hardly anything worth being arrogant about regarding giving up and calling it quits. It certainly does not sound like a good way to approach life regardless of the date.

Kudos to those who have set their standards for themselves a little higher this year and have not given up on themselves or ther world! And, to those who have yet to create a resolution, set cynicism aside and permit yourself to be optimistic for once; make a resolution ...even if it is the same as last year's.