How to Control Your Mind & Redirect Your Energy to Self Transformation

In Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett sheds light on the inner workings of the brain and how they impact feelings, behaviors, and relationships. While providing an entertaining peek behind the curtain, she argues that by understanding the basics of how your brain works, you can take a more active role in deciding how to think and behave.

Barrett’s book is a collection of eight informal essays—one for each lesson. Our guide explores those lessons through four themes: how the brain is organized, how the brain operates, how the brain develops, and how brains collaborate. Along the way, we compare Barrett’s explanations of the brain to those of other experts in neurology and offer practical applications for the insights she shares.

Psycho-Cybernetics is based on the theory that your mind functions according to cybernetic principles—you can program your mind to achieve success and happiness in the same way that you’d program a machine to achieve the results that you want. Maxwell Maltz suggests a number of methods to help you raise awareness of your current self-image, build your self-confidence, and increase your ability to achieve success.

This guide separates Maltz’s ideas and techniques into two distinct parts: Part 1 discusses the theory behind Psycho-Cybernetics, and Part 2 presents the actionable material that Maltz weaves throughout his book. We also compare and contrast each key concept with up-to-date psychological research and self-improvement methods, and we expand on Maltz’s prescriptive style with actionable ideas from other authors and psychologists.

Modern technological progress is ablaze with the potential of artificial intelligence, but we still don’t fully understand how natural, human intelligence works. If we could crack the code of human cognition, many scientists believe we could use that knowledge to create even more powerful and useful AI.

In A Thousand Brains, neuroscientist Jeff Hawkins presents a theory of intelligence rooted in how each component of the brain creates mental models and makes predictions, just as the brain does as a whole. Hawkins is known for his groundbreaking work in both mobile computing and neuroscience. In this guide, we’ll explore Hawkins’s theory that intelligence springs from a basic neural circuit in the brain, and we’ll describe how this model could be used to advance AI research. We’ll also look at alternate theories of the brain, while expanding on the practical applications of Hawkins’s theory and the dangers inherent in both human and machine cognition.

Most people think that happiness comes after success, and that success comes after hard work. But we’ve had the equation all wrong: Happiness isn’t the result of success—it’s the cause of it. In The Happiness Advantage, author Shawn Achor introduces this formula for success, based on research in neuroscience and the relatively new field of positive psychology. Achor offers insight as a leading expert on the connection between happiness and performance and the founder of a research and consulting firm that optimizes people’s achievement through positive psychology.

This book explains the benefits of happiness—from increased creativity to improved health—and how a positive mindset can change your personal and professional life. In addition, Achor provides strategies for adopting a positive mindset, remaining optimistic in the face of adversity, and raising your happiness baseline.

In The Way of the SEAL, retired Navy SEAL Commander Mark Divine outlines strategies adapted from his military experience to help business leaders master the challenges of today’s rapidly evolving world of work. The explosion of technology has forever altered the corporate landscape. Leaders must have a balanced, flexible, forward-driving mindset to navigate the change.

Divine blends SEAL strategies, yoga, and martial arts to create mind-body training techniques to build powerful leaders. After publishing The Way of the SEAL in 2013, he authored Staring Down the Wolf and Unbeatable Mind. Divine founded six multimillion-dollar businesses, including SEALFIT and Unbeatable.

In this guide, we’ll discuss modern work world challenges that resemble a SEAL battlefield and examine Divine’s strategies to identify your values, focus on your goals, embrace uncertainty, and harness your mental strengths. We’ll look at actions leaders can take to lead and succeed in a complex business world. Finally, we’ll provide views from leadership, military, and mental health experts that support, counter, and contextualize Divine’s ideas.

Many people assume their ideal life will never be more than fantasy, but in reality, you have the power to create the life you dream about. In this book, life coach and self-help guru Tony Robbins provides insights and strategies to help you take control of every aspect of your life, from your emotions to your focus. In many cases, you can make transformational changes to your life through small adjustments, such as swapping out just one word in your vocabulary.

In this guide you’ll learn how your bad habits are wired in your brain, how to decode your negative emotions to find solutions to them, and how to create your destiny.

This guide compares and contrasts Robbins’s ideas with those of other popular self-help authors, as well as current scientific theories. This will provide you with background and a deeper understanding of the lessons in Awaken the Giant Within, as well as some alternative methods for taking control of your life.

In Why Buddhism Is True, Robert Wright draws on his experience as both a science journalist and meditator to show that modern evolutionary science supports Buddhism's core insights about the human condition.

Wright explains how evolution shaped us to be chronically dissatisfied, how this leads us to misperceive reality, and how mindfulness meditation offers a solution. While acknowledging meditation's benefits for individuals—like increased happiness and clearer thinking—Wright argues that it can have an even bigger impact: Widespread adoption of mindfulness could help humanity address global challenges.

In our guide, we’ll explore Wright’s ideas in greater depth. In our commentary, we’ll compare and contrast Wright’s views with related perspectives, including physicist Carlo Rovelli’s quantum angle on Buddhist theory and Culadasa’s views on the intersection of morality and Buddhist practice.

Are you eager to make a change in your life but can't seem to make progress due to fear or uncertainty? According to clinical psychologist Robert Maurer, one small, achievable action is all it takes to overcome these obstacles and make change happen.

In One Small Step Can Change Your Life, Maurer unravels why it's often difficult to make the changes you want: Change triggers your fight-or-flight response. He presents simple and effective strategies that will empower you to avoid this response, move forward, and achieve your goals.

This guide walks you through Maurer's insights, which are based on the Japanese technique of kaizen. You'll come away knowing how to transform seemingly daunting goals into enjoyable and attainable ones. Additionally, we’ll expand on each of Maurer's ideas with research, advice, and actionable methods from other psychologists and self-improvement practitioners.