Awakening the Brain: The Neuropsychology of Grace

by Charlotte Tomaino

Exploring the powerful link between the spiritual and the physical, Awakening the Brain teaches you to awaken and develop your own spiritual mind.

An awakened brain allows you to live from the optimal brain state, discover your broadest range of skills, and unleash the growth and potential that too often lies dormant.

Drawing from her unique background as a neuropsychologist and former nun, Charlotte Tomaino explores the impact of belief and spirituality on the actual function and structure of the brain. Through effective, hands-on exercises, Tomaino gives us the tools to expand our consciousness, raise our awareness, and fully use the power of the brain to create the life we desire.

As a clinical neuropsychologist, Tomaino has helped hundreds of patients develop practical solutions for the loss of brain function due to trauma. Now, with Awakening the Brain , she teaches how to release the latent power that lives within us all, through the use of practical exercises and explanatory videos found throughout the book as Microsoft Tags.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Health, Self Help, Spirituality

296 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2012

About the author

A clinical neuropsychologist with 30 years of experience, Dr. Charlotte Tomaino is dedicated to helping patients develop practical solutions for the traumatic loss of brain function. As she work with patients over time, Tomaino began to witness the power of the human spirit to overcome the seemingly impossible and was inspired to focus her career on the effects of thought and spirituality on the brain. She is a full-time clinician in private practive in White Plains, New York.

Reviews

[Joalby Phoenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recieved this book through a Advanced Reading Program & I was looking forward to it muchly as Neuropsychology and more importantly Neuroplasticity has always been a big interest of mine.
I expected more of a clinical viewpoint on new advances on beliefs and how they influence the brain. I was much more pleased with the book when I realized it was much more. I am excited for the second book Charlotte Tomaino is working on that she mentioned in the epilogue. No doubt it will be a personal and informational continuation of the practices set forth in Awakening The Brain.
The concept of Theory greatly sparked my interest in continued study & I am now excited to read further about it.
A friend of mine who is also very interested in the study of Neuropsychology will be reading the book next & I expect he will like it just as much as I did.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a superb read, Dr Charlotte discerningly combines treasure troves from her spirituality as a former Catholic nun with a sober-minded scientific grasp of brain functionality to set up bridges that can transport the reader towards a new meaning to life. The author offers us her perspective on the benefits of the brain's plasticity and rightly steers us on a path of training our attention through the habit of neurochoice that is if we really want to put brains in charge of our lives. According to the author, training our attention is a critical discipline. Only through a disciplinary, neurochoice habit can we equip ourselves to understand and filter our emotions in ways that enrich our lives. This enrichment allows us to deepen our intentionality, our search for meaning and reach unimagined potential. This is an eye-opening book on neuroscience written by a very thoughtful and religiously inclined author!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting more of a how-to book. I found this to be more of a detailed description of neuropsychology and neuroplasticity, which are wonderful topics. However, since I was expecting a how-to book and not a clinical book, it fell short of my expectations.

With that said, it is well-written and worth reading. There's a good blend of spirituality and science, which is refreshing. The author is a former nun and did a superb job of keeping the spirituality side of the book very open-ended and open-minded.

[Colleen D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too science-y for me. I tried to retire my brain to understand but I struggled to get through

[Shelley]

Read 5/14 and 12/14

[Barb Cherem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually would rate this between a 4 and a 5 as it had so many practical things I'd not read anywhere else. Through Tomaino's experiences in having been a nun and worked later with many Maryknoll sisters who'd served through traumas around the world, and having had a sister with a TBI, and having begun her neuroscience work in the 1970s when Learning Disabilities came on the scene, Tomaino had a unique coming together of personal and professional experiences. I like the manner in which she laid the book out and gave practical experiences that could help own settle themselves in to the optimal arousal zone, which is what it's all about. She also entered the field at a time when professional training said the brain was fixed, but evolved over time to realizing how truly plastic and malleable the brain truly was. The mid-90s brought ADD/ADHD and she had clients whom she helped with this condition as well. Her case studies were interesting, and her arc of history equally fascinating, so I truly admired her speaking from a personal as well as a professional perspective. I've read 6-8 books on the brain and this I felt had the most practical examples and guidance for a person to be truly helped in adjusting themselves to be their better selves, if not their best selves.

[Michaeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through the GoodReads Giveaways.
I was quite interested in reading it, hoping it would provide me with some new knowledge in regards to the world of neuropsychology.
When I received this book and worked my way to reading it, I learned that it was a good collaboration of knowledge that I've obtained through reading books in neuroscience and my college project in global healing through meditation.
Charlotte Tomaino in a nut shell = nun meets neuroscience. She brings in the world of spiritual awareness into the world of neurological processing. I've read a vast number of books in neuroscience, psychology and meditation. I've also read quite a bit of research on the up and coming research in neurophysiology on the effects of meditation (I'm currently in a lab that works on meditation studies at OHSU).
Overall, I did not learn anything spectacularly novel - doesn't mean this book isn't no full of interesting information, I've just educated myself on it before. But in the end, it was a good read.

[Dr. Woodard]

Being a scientist myself interested in the wonders and mysteries of the brain, also being a person of strong faith, often times I find myself wondering how they connect. It will be fascinating to hear the perspective of another regarding the two. Author Charlotte Tomaino, is couragous to take on such a subject. I also applaud her for moving past science and connecting it with absolute truth. I look forward to the read.

[Burky Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spelled, "cynchronicity".

There is too much talk about the Catholic Church, for my taste. This will prevent a 5-star rating.

However, the concept of surendipty or cynchronicty (sp?) is quickly moving from an embarrising theory to an accepted fact.

At first, I thought this was a common experience. But life has taught me to be careful who I ask about this. Most people can not relate to this and think I'm crazy.

[E.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommend reading this book on neural development and neuroplasticity, and what it means for ourselves, our interpersonal relationships and our communities.

[Robert Milstein]

I am looking forward to reading this book, it looks wonderful.