As predicted, I took it easier this past week and only read two books. One was a heady book as I dove into a hybrid of a 101/201 neuroscience class for my read. Evolve Your Brain was definitely powerful. And one was a complete disappointment.
One of the things that I've observed through the variety of reading is how clearly my ideas formulate at work now. By truly giving myself this time and growing my conscious and sub-conscious awareness through immersing myself in these books, I'm seeing dividends in my professional and personal lives. At work I'm more engaging - my days are structured completely differently than they ever have been before, I approach people differently, and I work differently. This leads to a span of influence and potential outcomes far beyond what I imagined when I was trying to cram as much as possible into my work week and limit myself based on how my calendar was controlled by others.
Let me start with the horribly disappointing book - Empire. This is a great example of how something seems like a good idea that goes down hill sucks the life out of you by seeing it through to completion. I set a goal that I would finish at least the first book in a series before passing judgment on the author or series, but after reading Empire i'm not sure that is such a wise idea. It only took me 6hrs to read, and I should have stopped after one. That's five hours I wasted on something that I felt made me a little dumber than I was before I read it. (Then again, considering I read a neurology book that went into intricate detail about neuroplasticity right before.......)
Evolve Your Brain, however, was fantastic. I'm so glad I took my time with this book. It is definitely more about the science of the brain than Dispenza's other books, which I really appreciated. I now understand more about the chemical reactions that take place when we feel different emotions, how dendrils connect and synapses fire, and more importantly - what I can do about all of that if I don't like how my body is reacting to whatever is stimulating my emotions in that way. This is an incredibly powerful thing for me to understand as I continue focusing on taking my life back so that anxiety doesn't control me and so that I'm not dependent on medication to have healthy responses to life.
I've got a few moderately interesting books to get through in the coming weeks, as I want to be reading The Name of the Wind and Monstrous Gentlewoman before my birthday since a dear friend said she'd read them with me. Based on the hold dates from the library, that's very plausible.
Happy Reading folks!
--Jennifer
(PS - After the 8th week reflections, I'll post the remaining books from my list for the year to make it easier to keep tabs).
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