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Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain: How to Retrain Your Brain to Overcome Pessimism and Achieve a More Positive Outlook
Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Glass half-full or half-empty? Do you look on the bright side or turn towards the dark? These are easy questions for most of us to answer, because our personality types are hard-wired into our brains. As pioneering psychologist and neuroscientist Elaine Fox has discovered, our outlook on life reflects our primal inclination to seek pleasure or avoid danger-inclinations that, in many people, are healthily balanced. But when our "fear brain" or "pleasure brain" is too strong, the results can be disastrous, as those of us suffering from debilitating shyness, addiction, depression, or anxiety know all too well.
Luckily, anyone suffering from these afflictions has reason to hope. Stunning breakthroughs in neuroscience show that our brains are more malleable than we ever imagined. In Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain, Fox describes a range of techniques-from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy to innovative cognitive-retraining exercises-that can actually alter our brains' circuitry, strengthening specific thought processes by exercising the neural systems that control them. The implications are enormous: lifelong pessimists can train themselves to think positively and find happiness, while pleasure-seekers inclined toward risky or destructive behavior can take control of their lives.
Drawing on her own cutting-edge research, Fox shows how we can retrain our brains to brighten our lives and learn to flourish. With keen insights into how genes, life experiences and cognitive processes interleave together to make us who we are, Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain revolutionizes our basic concept of individuality. We learn that we can influence our own personalities, and that our lives are only as "sunny" or as "rainy" as we allow them to be.
Luckily, anyone suffering from these afflictions has reason to hope. Stunning breakthroughs in neuroscience show that our brains are more malleable than we ever imagined. In Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain, Fox describes a range of techniques-from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy to innovative cognitive-retraining exercises-that can actually alter our brains' circuitry, strengthening specific thought processes by exercising the neural systems that control them. The implications are enormous: lifelong pessimists can train themselves to think positively and find happiness, while pleasure-seekers inclined toward risky or destructive behavior can take control of their lives.
Drawing on her own cutting-edge research, Fox shows how we can retrain our brains to brighten our lives and learn to flourish. With keen insights into how genes, life experiences and cognitive processes interleave together to make us who we are, Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain revolutionizes our basic concept of individuality. We learn that we can influence our own personalities, and that our lives are only as "sunny" or as "rainy" as we allow them to be.
Audiobook
First published January 1, 2012
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About the author
Elaine Fox
6 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Elaine Fox is a psychologist and neuroscientist who has researched widely on the science of emotions. She grew up in the 1970s in Dublin and has worked at St James Hospital Dublin, University College Dublin, Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and has been a visiting senior scientist at the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge. She is currently a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and Professor of Psychology at the University of Essex.
Elaine has published widely on the scientific aspects of fear and optimism, and her work, which has appeared in many leading scientific journals, has been summarized in an academic book Emotion Science: Neuroscientific and Cognitive Approaches to Understanding Human Emotions (published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2008).
Her scientific discoveries on the genetic aspects of optimism have been discussed widely across the national media, and led to her appearance in an ABC documentary presented by Michael J. Fox (no relation) entitled The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, as well as the writing of her first commercial project, RAINY BRAIN, SUNNY BRAIN.
Elaine Fox is a psychologist and neuroscientist who has researched widely on the science of emotions. She grew up in the 1970s in Dublin and has worked at St James Hospital Dublin, University College Dublin, Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and has been a visiting senior scientist at the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge. She is currently a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and Professor of Psychology at the University of Essex.
Elaine has published widely on the scientific aspects of fear and optimism, and her work, which has appeared in many leading scientific journals, has been summarized in an academic book Emotion Science: Neuroscientific and Cognitive Approaches to Understanding Human Emotions (published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2008).
Her scientific discoveries on the genetic aspects of optimism have been discussed widely across the national media, and led to her appearance in an ABC documentary presented by Michael J. Fox (no relation) entitled The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, as well as the writing of her first commercial project, RAINY BRAIN, SUNNY BRAIN.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
August 24, 2019
Reading this book made me realise I find myself in a strange position of being an optimistic depressive. I believe things will turn out ok; I just often don’t seem to care that they will. My anxiety also doesn’t seem to be of the pessimistic variety – I’m equally afraid of things going my way and not going my way.
And that’s a good thing, because if I were to read this book looking for ways to get more optimistic, I’d walk away disappointed. It’s heavy on science and light on self-help – and this is how I like such books, but the title and cover might be a bit misleading.
The reader will learn a lot about how brains work, but not much about how to change it the balance between the two parts of your brain – the bit that seeks pleasure and the bit that tries to avoid danger. Clearly, we need both to function healthily, but occasionally our fear brain wins and locks us in a feedback loop that works like a self-fulfilling prophecy. We look for negative things and we find them. And the more we find them, the more we look for them. The biggest take away from this book is that you get what you pay attention to, so redirect your attention every now and then.
Didn’t we know that? We kinda knew that. But still, lots of good brain science.
And that’s a good thing, because if I were to read this book looking for ways to get more optimistic, I’d walk away disappointed. It’s heavy on science and light on self-help – and this is how I like such books, but the title and cover might be a bit misleading.
The reader will learn a lot about how brains work, but not much about how to change it the balance between the two parts of your brain – the bit that seeks pleasure and the bit that tries to avoid danger. Clearly, we need both to function healthily, but occasionally our fear brain wins and locks us in a feedback loop that works like a self-fulfilling prophecy. We look for negative things and we find them. And the more we find them, the more we look for them. The biggest take away from this book is that you get what you pay attention to, so redirect your attention every now and then.
Didn’t we know that? We kinda knew that. But still, lots of good brain science.
April 4, 2013
This is another of the new surge of psychology and brain science books being cranked out by the scientists themselves.
In this case, Elaine Fox, an Oxford University researcher, travels some well-worn ground on earlier experiments showing how our emotional center, the amygdala, and our control areas in the prefrontal cortex are linked to each other, and how dysfunctions in those connections underlie everything from anxiety to OCD to depression.
But her larger purpose in Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain is to argue that even though we may all be born with slightly different genetic inclinations toward optimism or pessimism, we are not destined to live with those for the rest of our lives. Relying on the emerging field of neuroplasticity -- the ability of the brain to adapt and change -- she talks about work in her lab and others that can get people to look at the world more optimistically -- to activate our sunny brain -- with techniques that range from computer games to meditation to cognitive relabeling of our fears and negative feelings.
One of the most interesting of the new exercises is called Cognitive Bias Modification. It involves watching negative and positive images on a computer screen and then paying attention to a target probe. If the probe is always placed next to the positive images, people afterward not only report feeling more optimistic, but act more optimistically on such tasks as trying to solve tough problems. (The opposite effect occurs if the probe goes next to the negative images).
It suggests that even brief interventions like these are enough to reset our mental wiring for an indefinite period, and it offers hope that those of us who are trapped in a negative, fatalistic view of life can help pull ourselves out of it without psychotropic medications or expensive therapy.
June 11, 2024
This book has basically reassured what I’ve thought about maintaining a positive mindset. The first half was more theory and practical application - the second half was a little too sciency for me. In short, keeping a positive mindset generally allows your outcomes to be positive while if you maintain a mindset of negativity, you’ll likely manifest negative outcomes. I loved hearing the impact on overall health and the steps we can take to become more positive over time. Keep in mind it’s not just blind optimism, but setting yourself up for success and building resilience to experience more positive outcomes in life.
September 27, 2020
I liked the science in this. The author described the way the brain functions and how that changes according to stimulus...whether good or bad....whether optimistic or pessimistic. I loved that part, plus all the studies. But I have to agree with most of the reviews regarding the title. The promise in the subtitle regarding retraining your brain was not a part of this book. So 3 stars.
July 17, 2012
It's hilarious to me that all this 'new' science and ways of helping/curing people with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and OCD has been written in the Bible for thousands of years. Re-training the brain for a more happy life, epigenetics, CBM procedures...yep...it's all there. Goes to show that if you want to know how a massively complicated piece of machinery works, you should ask the guy who designed and built it, not the guy who tickers with it on weekends in his garage!
August 28, 2012
I reviewed this new book on the neuroscience behind optimism for The Philadelphia Inquirer. http://bit.ly/RainySunnyBrain Turns out the brain is malleable, which is good news for us pessimists. Fox details the why and how of brain wiring and emotion without stooping to the promises of cheap self-help. Highly recommended. (Teaser: Meditation changes the brain for the better!)
October 25, 2014
به اسمش نمیاد ولی علمی و به اندازه بود.
December 18, 2018
Although the background behind optimism and pessimism were well outlined, this book did not actually descibe how to retrain the brain. While some therapy modalities were mentioned, there was no further explaination.
April 3, 2013
**A favorable brain forecast**
What's the weather like in your brain?
As Elaine Fox clearly demonstrates in _Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain_, our emotional climates and forecasts are deeply influenced by the unique neurological wiring of each of our brains:
“The roots of our sunny brain are embedded deep in pleasure, the parts of our neural architecture that respond to rewards and the good things in life, while the roots of our rainy brain lie deep among the ancient brain structures that alert us to danger and threat—our fear brain. Tiny variations in how our pleasure brain and our fear brain react and how well this foment is kept under wraps by higher control centers of the brain lead to the emergence, over a lifetime, of a network of connections that make up our rainy brain and our sunny brain.” (p. xii)
In others words, it is our unique set of brain circuits make us who we are and influence whether we tend towards a pessimistic or optimistic self- and world-view. Neurologically speaking, it’s the interplay between the amygdala (the emotional brain), the nucleus accumbens (the pleasure-seeking brain), and the prefrontal cortex (the control center of the brain), which determines our attitudes and outlooks on life.
As who we are is largely determined by our neurons and their connections deep within our brains, changing our mindscape at the neurological level can influence our psychological weather systems:
“By changing the way our brain responds to challenges and joys, we can change the way we are…By modifying the checks and balances between our rainy brain and our sunny brain, we will see that we do not need to be resigned to a life of fearful avoidance, but instead we can take steps to change our outlook—and change our life…Practice in seeing or interpreting things in a particular way can lead to fundamental changes in the brain circuits underlying our affective mind…as our brain forms a habit of noticing the positive rather than the negative, the underlying brain circuits will gradually begin to change…By shifting our mindscape—the patterns of biases and distortions unique to us—we are able to shift the way we see the world.” (pp. xiv, 162, 177, 180)
The book presents a refreshing approach for achieving a healthy emotional climate:
“We need a responsive sunny brain that happily cohabits our mind-space with a healthy rainy brain...Both aspects of our affective mind are influenced by what life throws at us, our genetic makeup, and which genes are turned on and off by the experiences we have. Most importantly, the crucial biases of our quirks of mind that set our affective mind into solid foundations can be sculpted be mental training, whether it is through mindfulness-based techniques, cognitive bias modification techniques, drug treatments, or traditional talking therapies. Our mind is highly plastic, and the affective mind is no exception. While it’s not necessarily easy to change, the possibility of shifting our fundamental affective mindset is always there.” (p. 199)
The author does an amazing job of making neuroscience approachable, accessible and applicable, and showing how we can optimize the rainy and sunny qualities of our brains to experience the rainbows of our lives.
What's the weather like in your brain?
As Elaine Fox clearly demonstrates in _Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain_, our emotional climates and forecasts are deeply influenced by the unique neurological wiring of each of our brains:
“The roots of our sunny brain are embedded deep in pleasure, the parts of our neural architecture that respond to rewards and the good things in life, while the roots of our rainy brain lie deep among the ancient brain structures that alert us to danger and threat—our fear brain. Tiny variations in how our pleasure brain and our fear brain react and how well this foment is kept under wraps by higher control centers of the brain lead to the emergence, over a lifetime, of a network of connections that make up our rainy brain and our sunny brain.” (p. xii)
In others words, it is our unique set of brain circuits make us who we are and influence whether we tend towards a pessimistic or optimistic self- and world-view. Neurologically speaking, it’s the interplay between the amygdala (the emotional brain), the nucleus accumbens (the pleasure-seeking brain), and the prefrontal cortex (the control center of the brain), which determines our attitudes and outlooks on life.
As who we are is largely determined by our neurons and their connections deep within our brains, changing our mindscape at the neurological level can influence our psychological weather systems:
“By changing the way our brain responds to challenges and joys, we can change the way we are…By modifying the checks and balances between our rainy brain and our sunny brain, we will see that we do not need to be resigned to a life of fearful avoidance, but instead we can take steps to change our outlook—and change our life…Practice in seeing or interpreting things in a particular way can lead to fundamental changes in the brain circuits underlying our affective mind…as our brain forms a habit of noticing the positive rather than the negative, the underlying brain circuits will gradually begin to change…By shifting our mindscape—the patterns of biases and distortions unique to us—we are able to shift the way we see the world.” (pp. xiv, 162, 177, 180)
The book presents a refreshing approach for achieving a healthy emotional climate:
“We need a responsive sunny brain that happily cohabits our mind-space with a healthy rainy brain...Both aspects of our affective mind are influenced by what life throws at us, our genetic makeup, and which genes are turned on and off by the experiences we have. Most importantly, the crucial biases of our quirks of mind that set our affective mind into solid foundations can be sculpted be mental training, whether it is through mindfulness-based techniques, cognitive bias modification techniques, drug treatments, or traditional talking therapies. Our mind is highly plastic, and the affective mind is no exception. While it’s not necessarily easy to change, the possibility of shifting our fundamental affective mindset is always there.” (p. 199)
The author does an amazing job of making neuroscience approachable, accessible and applicable, and showing how we can optimize the rainy and sunny qualities of our brains to experience the rainbows of our lives.
April 22, 2016
"Science has found that genuine changes in happiness only come about when three things come together: lots of positive emotions and laughter, being fully engaged in our lives, and finding a sense of meaning that is broader than our day-to-day life.
We flourish when we're enjoying a life filled with goodness, growth, and creativity, and, when things go wrong, a strong resilience to get over the hump."
This book was captivating - inspiring, even! I was gripped by the chapter on genetics and unable to put the book down until I finished it in one sitting. Prof Fox superbly managed the task of putting decades of comprehensive research into layman's terms without academic jargon or 'dumbing down'. She clearly separated what we know and what we don't know about optimism and pessimism and outlined evidence-supported ways of facilitating a more optimistic, flourishing mindset. I'd recommend this book if you are looking for a solid grounding to the science of optimistic/pessimistic mindsets. Appreciating the science may help readers who are interested in a pure self-help book understand how the advice offered in these books can retrain your outlook and reduce anxiety/depression.
We flourish when we're enjoying a life filled with goodness, growth, and creativity, and, when things go wrong, a strong resilience to get over the hump."
This book was captivating - inspiring, even! I was gripped by the chapter on genetics and unable to put the book down until I finished it in one sitting. Prof Fox superbly managed the task of putting decades of comprehensive research into layman's terms without academic jargon or 'dumbing down'. She clearly separated what we know and what we don't know about optimism and pessimism and outlined evidence-supported ways of facilitating a more optimistic, flourishing mindset. I'd recommend this book if you are looking for a solid grounding to the science of optimistic/pessimistic mindsets. Appreciating the science may help readers who are interested in a pure self-help book understand how the advice offered in these books can retrain your outlook and reduce anxiety/depression.
August 2, 2017
So this doesn't really teach you how to retrain your brain like the title suggests. It does go through a comprehensive review of research on this topic and depression/anxiety in more accessible language than you would get from the original publications. I was also able to see some my therapists suggestions into the context of the research they are based on and it kind of encouraged me to take them more seriously.
November 2, 2012
Wow, so, so boring!
May 17, 2023
It's interesting, a bit of a chore to get through. I don't understand how this was supposed to retrain my brain either.
December 10, 2022
A good book to get up-to-date on the current science of brain research. I found the material well-presented and assessable to the average person (like me). It thoroughly discusses optimism and pessimism and how these outlooks are connected to the accumbens and amydgala. One or the other predominates in people. The details are informative.
As a person who knows several people who are seriously ill with depression and anxiety disorders, I found the information rather "white tower". It has been my experience that it is extremely difficult for a person who is suffering to get sufficient help in order to find relief. Elaine Fox supports talk and drug therapy to be supplemented with new approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy and cognitive bias modification because science now supports the concept that our brains are pliable throughout our lifetimes, and basically a "rainy" anxious brain can be recircuited to run on the "sunny" side.
I found this book more helpful for someone who is not ill but wants to address negative thoughts and mild depression. The last chapter ties the research to more practical applications. For people who are suffering, access to real help remains very difficult (in my opinion) and this book didn't really help much with that.
As a person who knows several people who are seriously ill with depression and anxiety disorders, I found the information rather "white tower". It has been my experience that it is extremely difficult for a person who is suffering to get sufficient help in order to find relief. Elaine Fox supports talk and drug therapy to be supplemented with new approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy and cognitive bias modification because science now supports the concept that our brains are pliable throughout our lifetimes, and basically a "rainy" anxious brain can be recircuited to run on the "sunny" side.
I found this book more helpful for someone who is not ill but wants to address negative thoughts and mild depression. The last chapter ties the research to more practical applications. For people who are suffering, access to real help remains very difficult (in my opinion) and this book didn't really help much with that.
March 9, 2018
The cover of the book promises the methods to retrain your brain, but failed to deliver. There was a lot of science and surveys, some good, some bad since it was mostly confirming their hypotheses. As for the "How to" it ended up bring a specific type of treatment, without a description of how to do it on our own, or even where to get the treatment. She ends the book by saying that it is important to have more positive experiences or emotions than negative ones. She describes how to track and get a ratio of how you are doing, but again no instructions on how to have more of the positive experiences.
August 27, 2017
I will not be writing a complete review of this book. However, a few points:
The author is incredibly biased in painting optimism as the holy way of life that will bring you success and happiness. You can see this straight away in the introduction. That being said, all of her claims are supported by research therefore while she has a bias, she is not fabricating her information like many self-help books out there. Which leads me to say that this is definitely not a self-help book as the focus of it is very much scientific in nature.
The author is incredibly biased in painting optimism as the holy way of life that will bring you success and happiness. You can see this straight away in the introduction. That being said, all of her claims are supported by research therefore while she has a bias, she is not fabricating her information like many self-help books out there. Which leads me to say that this is definitely not a self-help book as the focus of it is very much scientific in nature.
October 26, 2019
When I saw this book at the library I was hoping for information on how to have a more optimistic outlook on life. This book is not that.
It's full of information on studies and research and whether our genes play a role in our outlook but I wouldn't say it is a "powerful and uplifting tool for improving our lives". I am no more knowledgable on how to do that than when I started the book.
If you are interested in how the brain and genes work in relation to optimism and pessimism you'll probably enjoy this but if you're looking for something practical, look elsewhere.
It's full of information on studies and research and whether our genes play a role in our outlook but I wouldn't say it is a "powerful and uplifting tool for improving our lives". I am no more knowledgable on how to do that than when I started the book.
If you are interested in how the brain and genes work in relation to optimism and pessimism you'll probably enjoy this but if you're looking for something practical, look elsewhere.
November 22, 2019
When I first started reading this book, I was thinking it was a 3 or maybe 4 rating because my expectations for the content weren’t matching what I was reading. I was expecting content about optimism vs pessimism and instead I got a lot of information on neurogenics. As I got close to the end, it started coming together well and I became interested in a lot of the new ideas presented. This book is more of a scientific look at the parts of the brain responsible for optimistic bias vs pessimistic bias and how we can understand that bias and alter it.
June 21, 2022
The subtitle–”How to Retrain Your Brain to Overcome Pessimism and Achieve a More Positive Outlook”--is a bit misleading, since the book is more scientific than practical. Nonetheless there are some very interesting insights and facts about how our brains function. I enjoyed reading about those, but plowed through more scientific details that didn’t stick with me. (6)
August 14, 2025
I absolutely loved Elaine Fox's Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain. She tackles the oftentimes misrepresented notion of positive and negative mindset (Rainy Brian, Sunny Brain) and the relationship between genes and environment, and thoughts and actions. Highly, highly recommended. Don't just think about reading it, read it.
February 17, 2021
I really enjoyed listening to this book. It dives into some of the science behind optimism and pessimism: whether it's inherited, what genes play into it, how those genes are turned on or off, and the brain circuitry involved. Very fascinating
July 10, 2023
okay this was not my type of book. i am not a pyschology girlie. i found this boring for the most part even though i know fundamentally the work they were doing is very interesting and important. the 3 to 1 ratio was cool.
May 13, 2017
I don't normally read books of this type. I liked this book. I felt it had a nice mix of science stuff and anecdotes of real people.
April 21, 2019
A cool look filled with ideas. But comes out by the end as a mish mash of loads of research reviewers crammed into a book.
Still enjoyed every page.
Still enjoyed every page.
January 6, 2020
So interesting.
July 20, 2021
Very informative. Loved it.
July 12, 2022
An insightful book, but it got too science-y (I'm not a Science person so I could not grasp the message the author was trying to get across)! Dropped this book halfway
July 19, 2023
Decent overview/summary of other people's research. Very little (if any?) practical application despite the cover promising "how to retrain you brain".
September 29, 2023
Really good, listened to audiobooks, want to read paper book sometime
February 8, 2024
Loved the science, case studies, and personal anecdotes, however, some parts were a little dry.
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