The Neuroscience of Change: A Compassion-Based Program for Personal Transformation

by Kelly McGonigal

Personal Transformation Based on Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

What's your most important goal? Why does it matter so deeply? How will you overcome the obstacles? Answer these questions with sincerity, proceed with mindfulness and compassion, and you have just set in motion a revolutionary method for personal change that is supported by both the latest science and traditional wisdom. On The Neuroscience of Change, psychologist and award-winning Stanford lecturer Kelly McGonigal presents six sessions of breakthrough ideas, guided practices, and real-world exercises for making self-awareness and kindness the basis for meaningful transformation.

Practical Methods to Retrain Your Brain to Support Your Goals

Our understanding of the incredible power of the human brain is at an all-time high, with the emerging fields of neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and psychophysiology opening new possibilities for greater health, happiness, and freedom from suffering. Drawing on her training as a research scientist and longtime practitioner of meditation and yoga, Dr. McGonigal reveals these startling findings—including the clinically supported methods for training the mind away from default states and negativity that no longer serve us and establishing behaviors and attitudes aligned with our highest values and aspirations.

The First Rule of Change: It's Already Happening

As the world's wisdom traditions teach and science is now verifying, our lives are in fact defined by constant change. Whether you're looking to change a behavior, improve your health or other circumstances, or simply for a way to bring hope and resilience into your life as it is, The Neuroscience of Change will help you trust yourself and unfold your true capacities for personal transformation.


Highlights

Willingness, self-awareness, and surrender—how to nourish the seeds of change
• Focusing on the process, not the outcome
• How to overcome the "trigger-to-instinct" reaction
• The proven benefits of meditation—and how to start practicing yourself
• How to transform self-criticism into self-compassion
• Why your mind creates habits—and how to consciously create new ones
• Making values-driven commitments
• Visualization and the principle of "encoding prospective memories"
• The power of the vow
• "Deep activation" and the danger of rejecting what is
• Working with inner experiences as the key to making outward change
• Six hours of breakthrough science, practical wisdom, guided exercises, and mindfulness meditations for making positive change that lasts
Course objectives:

Discuss how to nourish the seeds of change and transformation by working with inner experiences as the key to making outward change through willingness, self-awareness, and surrender.
• Explain how to transform self-criticism into self-compassion
• Discuss the value of vows, "encoding prospective memories," making values-driven commitments and how to overcome the "trigger-to-instinct" in the process of transformation and change.
• Practice guided reflections based on breakthrough science, practical sensability, and wisdom traditions, including exercises and mindfulness meditations that for making positive change that lasts.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Self Help, Neuroscience, Science, Audiobook, Health

6 pages, Audio CD

First published April 28, 2012

About the author

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University, an award-winning science journalist, and a leading expert on the mind-body relationship. Her teaching and writing focus on the applications of psychological science to personal health and happiness, as well as public policy and social change.

She is the author of The Upside of Stress (Penguin Random House/Avery 2015), The Willpower Instinct(Penguin/Avery 2012), Yoga for Pain Relief (New Harbinger 2009), and The Neuroscience of Change: A Compassion-Based Guide to Personal Transformation (Sounds True Audio, 2012).

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kellymcgoniga...

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good succinct crash course on a lot of the more practical research for how you can generally improve your overall mental well-being. McGonigal is an expert in many related areas and especially with how such things connect to mindfulness and meditative practices. I've read several books and taken some courses on topics like these and while they're always interesting and have something new, you start to see a lot of the same things crop up. While that makes any one book on the topic less fresh to me, in some ways this is a good thing: it implies that the same practices can foster happiness, satisfaction, resilience, willpower, etc. This book focuses on "change" a bit vaguely in a sense of gaining the power to accept change in your life as well as to make change where you'd like to such as with starting/stopping a habit or making/accepting a life decision.

While there is this overlap with other books, even by the same author, this one is a great succinct one-stop-shop for those who don't want to tear through all the longer books and just want a way to benefit from the research and practices. The audio is around 6.5 hours comprising 6 lectures with accompanying exercises and guided meditations on different elements that can lead to these positive changes in your life. Some of these exercises and findings are things I've seen elsewhere, but given the short length, I think this format is very effective for explaining the science behind a practice, supplying you with practices for applying that information, and then providing a built-in guided meditation for you to use. I felt like the meditations might be a bit on the long side, but I think they're at least a good first-time guide for someone new to these kinds of meditation.

So for me personally, this book wasn't actually all that helpful. But as someone who's read a lot on this and related topics, I think this is very good at what it's trying to accomplish and in that regard earns a high rating.

[Teo · Rating 4 out of 5]

2017.06.28–2017.06.28

McGonigal K (2012) (06:25) Neuroscience of Change, The - A Compassion-Based Program for Personal Transformation

A basic introduction to meditation with some neuro thrown in; parts of the brain weren’t referred to by name IIRC, just by function and analogies. I liked the reflective questions and found the author’s speech generally non-annoying. Visualization, imagining, reflections (e.g., “If anything were possible, what would you like to see?” or “What do you want to offer to the world?” followed by the relevant “What are you willing to let go of?”).

[Petrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice audiobook I will continue to listen to going to sleep when I need to come back to center.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using science to give ourselves a better quality of life is a wonderful idea. We can learn so much about what is working for groups of people and why...and what isn't working.

I learned a lot about how the brain works. There is so much valuable information in this book, I can't even begin to give it all a review.

However, I can't recommend this book enough. It's for those times when you ask yourself, "Why do I act this way?" and "What can I do to not do this next time?"

Whether you are overcoming an addiction, wanting to lose some weight, stop procrastinating or just generally get a clearer idea of why we fall into patterns...I would recommend that you read it.

There are also activities included that can really help you to get to know yourself better.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent audio book. Dr. McGonigal does a terrific job of elucidating the science that supports mindfulness practices. Her explanations of why it is so difficult to stop "mind chatter" and to change habits and develop new ones helped me to be more tolerant of my frequent failed attempts. Dr. McGonigal has a nice voice and her guided meditations are very nice. She is one of my favorite psychologists.

[Aundrea Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read! Not only does it break down the scientific reason by behind our thought patterns, but it gives examples that are relatable, and is integrated with mindfulness practices that can can be used to begin implementing the changes. I absolutely love this!

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal.

[John-Richard Pagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to prefer the author live, on stage, she truly is talented in understanding the human condition, from a nueroscientific perspective.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you have never done meditation before this is a fantastic introduction. If you have an existing practice and have been doing it for awhile there is not much in here to learn.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-4.5 stars

[Cyndie Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised by this book and definitely a great book to get on audiobook. The title makes it sound like the book will be very dry, but it wasn't at all. Instead, this book provides calming, practical advice for building the habits you want and explains how that advice fits into both science and the wisdom traditions like Buddhism. Addresses many of the paradoxes of change, such as how trying NOT to think about something makes us think about it more, or how when we are self-critical in an attempt to change it undermines our ability to change. Really helpful and a relaxing listen.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the topic of neuroscience, but I could barely get through this. It wasn't as interesting as it sounded and I didn't like the audiobook.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable introduction to meditation for a complete novice like myself. I definitely appreciated the focus on science rather than on the woo-woo spiritual mysticism that makes it hard for me to take a lot of this stuff seriously. I listened to almost all of it during workouts on my stationary bicycle. That might sound like a bad idea (I even questioned it) but it actually worked great for me. I've biked outdoors for so many thousands of miles that I can now slip into very deep focus when riding, whether inside or outside. I had tried meditating a couple of times before when not on the bike and it was a complete failure due to attention drift. The mechanical motion of pedaling the bike seemed to absorb a lot of the background processing in my brain and let me stay focused on the audio and the meditation exercises. YMMV.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical program designed in workable sessions. The neuroscience is thoughtfully presented with the goal of making the information accessible and manageable. Mindfulness is explored universally while well routed in the session's exploration of the science. Can be done as a full program or individual sessions. Well done!

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing program! Such a wealth of information. Very well presented too. . I highly recommend this book if you think change will be a part of your life, and believe me, you should believe change will happen, often.

[Drishti Dehradun]

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[Letecia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it so much, I bought my own copy so I could work with the material.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got this audio from Sounds True. It really seemed to do a good job of identifying what holds the mind back from being able to accept change, which the author calls the default state. The program is based on science and the wisdom traditions and includes guided reflections and meditations after each of the 6 sessions (the lecture portion). It is very accessible and is definitely one of those programs that have given me one of those "aha moments". I recommend it to anyone who is struggling with a change they're trying to make.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this audio program. Wish it was available in book form so I could go back, highlight and annotate the ideas and work the author has done. As it is, I will re-listen to this and take notes.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. Empowering. I read the book because of class I teach and I found it enlightening. Self -compassion is NOT narcissistic. Something that I actually had to be taught. Wonderful exercises and very easy comprehend even when driving in traffic. It just makes sense.

[Bidisha Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent audio-book. Does a terrific job of explaining the mind's default states, summarizing experiments, and linking science and the wisdom traditions. Great guided reflections and meditations.

[Eizaburo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this audiobook is very useful for me as a general introduction to meditation.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice work, Kelly!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did the audiobook, which I would recommend because of all the meditations, and I listened to it over the course of several months. A kind of very helpful user's manual for a brain.