NEURAL PATH THERAPY --- HOW TO CHANGE YOUR BRAIN'S RESPONSE
TO ANGER, FEAR, PAIN & DESIRE by Matthew McKay and David Harp, 2005
1) STEP 1 --- THE POWER OF THE BREATH
2) STEP 2 --- THOUGHT WATCHING
3) STEP 3 --- COMPASSION
4) STEP 4 --- SOFTENING AROUND PAIN
5) STEP 5 --- WISE PATHS
6) STEP 6 --- BEYOND THE STEPS
Steps ONE and TWO are concerned with the "level of coping," of dealing with the issues of daily life by changing them, or changing our relationship to them. Steps THREE and FOUR are concerned with the "level of acceptance," of dealing with mental or physical pain through compassion and softening.
However, there are levels of coping that are "higher and deeper" than the first four. This chapter presents ways of bringing happiness and meaning into your life and then looks at ways of transcending your body, brain, and SENSE of SELF. These levels have been the subject of hundreds of thousands of books during the past.
[1] HAPPINESS AND MEANING
The two words, "happiness" and "meaning," may not seem to go together. Yet, research studies increasingly indicate that the elements usually thought to increase happiness, such as winning the lottery, good health, sexual satisfaction, have little positive effect on a person's happiness. Instead, people who say that they find meaning in their lives, from their jobs, hobbies, or charitable endeavors, for example, tend to rate themselves as happier than those who don't have such positive experiences.
In fact, a growing number of articles indicate that doing altruistic acts --- as many as five a week --- makes people happier. The recent research on happiness also indicates that writing down a few things that make you happy each day can increase your level of happiness. (p128)
(1) What you see is what you get
(2) Compassion in action
(3) Forgiveness
(4) Historic focus on what's not right
(5) Modern focus on what's not right
(6) Cultural focus on what's not right
(7) Existential pain
[2] WHAT CAN BE DONE?
(1) Vicious cycles, benevolent cycles
(2) The state of compassionate awareness
(3) Transcendent states
(4) Enhancing the experience of prayer
(5) Transcendence without religion
(6) The life of meaning and the meaning of life
[3] A FEW WORDS OF GRATITUDE
www.neuralpaththerapy.com
A new book to help you change your brain's response to anger, fear, pain, and desire. What is Neural Path Therapy? (From above website link)
Whether you’re more stressed by politics, the environment, your relationships, your job, major life changes, or simply the daily task of keeping food on the table, it’s easy to let life knock you down and hard to get back up again. This book offers you a chance at a different way of life. It shows you how to accept life as it is, regard the events of each day with nonjudgmental awareness, and stop obsessive thoughts from compounding your feelings of helplessness and frustration.
Portable Therapy? The first part of the book introduces you to the basics of neural network learning theory. The basic idea is that neural pathways --- the chains of brain cells, or neurons, that generate our every thought, word, action, and emotion --- strengthen with use and weaken with disuse. While certain events are likely to provoke a hardwired neural response in us, we are capable of creating new neural paths with no more than a thought. Instead of letting automatic triggers dictate our responses to painful events, we can use this characteristic of our nervous systems to short-circuit the responses that lead to painful thoughts and emotions.
The second part teaches you five easy-to learn skills for dealing with stress --- breath counting, thought watching, compassionate awareness, softening to pain, and wise mind. Together, they make up a set of skills that you can take anywhere, a kind of portable therapy.
TOTAL OUTLINE OF BOOK CONTENTS
Go to Brain Facts Essay #2:
Focus on the Brain Science Facts of Life
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List of Happiness and Satisfaction Book Outlines