Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better
Written by Wendy Suzuki and Billie Fitzpatrick
Narrated by Wendy Suzuki
4/5
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About this audiobook
A neuroscientist transforms the way we think about our brain, our health, and our personal happiness in this clear, informative, and inspiring guide—a blend of personal memoir, science narrative, and immediately useful takeaways that bring the human brain into focus as never before, revealing the powerful connection between exercise, learning, memory, and cognitive abilities.
Nearing forty, Dr. Wendy Suzuki was at the pinnacle of her career. An award-winning university professor and world-renowned neuroscientist, she had tenure, her own successful research lab, prestigious awards, and international renown.
That’s when to celebrate her birthday, she booked an adventure trip that forced her to wake up to a startling reality: despite her professional success, she was overweight, lonely, and tired and knew that her life had to change. Wendy started simply—by going to an exercise class. Eventually, she noticed an improvement in her memory, her energy levels, and her ability to work quickly and move from task to task easily. Not only did Wendy begin to get fit, but she also became sharper, had more energy, and her memory improved. Being a neuroscientist, she wanted to know why.
What she learned transformed her body and her life. Now, it can transform yours.
Wendy discovered that there is a biological connection between exercise, mindfulness, and action. With exercise, your body feels more alive and your brain actually performs better. Yes—you can make yourself smarter. In this fascinating book, Suzuki makes neuroscience easy to understand, interweaving her personal story with groundbreaking research, and offering practical, short exercises—4 minute Brain Hacks—to engage your mind and improve your memory, your ability to learn new skills, and function more efficiently.
Taking us on an amazing journey inside the brain as never before, Suzuki helps us unlock the keys to neuroplasticity that can change our brains, or bodies, and, ultimately, our lives.
Wendy Suzuki
Wendy Suzuki, PhD, runs an interactive research lab at New York University, where her work has been recognized with numerous awards including the prestigious Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences. She is a two-time TEDx speaker and is regularly interviewed in the media. She lectures nationally and internationally on her research and serves as a reviewer for many of the top neuroscience journals. She lives in New York City.
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Reviews for Healthy Brain, Happy Life
54 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just finished the Huberman podcast. Really interesting to start making 10 mins of my everyday more brain-friendly.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amazing book I enjoyed listening to it and recommend it
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Not a science book. A rather personal autobiography with science tidbits.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5excellent book if you want to hack your brain and make better use of it
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dr. Suzuki, an accomplished neuroscientist, felt that she needed to change her life, and started an exercise program. This made her feel so good that she decided to study the effects of exercise on the brain. This book is a record of her findings, told in the form of a combination memoir-popular science account.Through her own experience combined with her studies, she found that exercise improves mood, focus, memory, and even growth of brain cells, all while helping to decrease stress. She tells you the mechanisms by which this is accomplished (such as, e.g., enhancing levels of serotonin and endorphins). Everything is explained in a very easy-to-understand way, with bullet point “Take-Aways” at the end of each chapter. She also provides great lists called “Brain Hacks” to help you accomplish some of the brain and exercise enhancements she recommends. Evaluation: Ordinarily I don’t like either memoirs or self-help books, but Dr. Suzuki provides enough science to make this more than a “how to feel better” book, and the personal bits about her life are really quite charming.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Wer besser denkt, hat mehr vom Leben! Die Neurowissenschaftlerin Dr. Wendy Suzuki revolutioniert die Art und Weise, wie wir über unser Gehirn, unsere Gesundheit und unser persönliches Glück denken. Anhand neuster Erkenntnisse der Hirnforschung verdeutlicht sie den wirkungsvollen Zusammenhang zwischen Bewegung, kognitiven Fähigkeiten und allgemeinem Wohlbefinden. Sie nimmt uns mit auf eine Reise durch das Gehirn und zeigt, wie wir die sogenannte Neuroplastizität nutzen, um unser Gehirn, unseren Körper und letztendlich unser Leben positiv zu verändern.Mit 40 Jahren merkt die Neurowissenschaftlerin Wendy Suzuki, dass in ihrem Leben etwas falsch läuft. Sie ist übergewichtig, überarbeitet, sie fühlt sich einsam und hat kaum noch ein Privatleben, alles in ihrer Existenz dreht sich um ihren Job. Also beschließt sie ihr Leben radikal zu verändern. Und wie? Durch Wissenschaft natürlich. Wendy Suzuki war immer schon vom menschlichen Gehirn und seinen Geheimnissen fasziniert. Schon als Kind wollte sie Wissenschaftlerin werden. Na ja, entweder das oder Karriere am Broadway machen, aber das kam für ihre Eltern, japanisch stämmige Amerikaner überhaupt nicht in Frage. Also lernte Suzuki etwas Anständiges und stieg sogar zu den führenden Wissenschaftlerinnen ihrer Generation auf. Aber im Laufe ihrer Karriere ging ihr etwas verloren: Die Freude am Leben.Früher dachten Wissenschaftler, dass das Gehirn von Erwachsenen nicht mehr formbar ist. Das heißt nur als Kind seien wir in der Lage irgendetwas Neues zu lernen. In der Kindheit angenommene Angewohnheiten ließen sich später nicht mehr abschütteln, man könne Negatives nicht mehr verlernen und durch Neues ersetzen. Dann fand man heraus, dass diese Ansicht vollkommen falsch war. Zwar ist das Gehirn von Kindern tatsächlich besonders aufnahmefähig, doch der Mensch bleibt in jedem Alter in der Lage sich geistig zu ändern. Es können immer neue Verbindungen zwischen den Nervenzellen geknüpft werden. Das menschliche Gehirn bleibt bis ins hohe Alter dynamisch und veränderbar.Wenn Sie sich natürlich schon ein wenig mit der Materie befasst haben, kennen Sie das natürlich alles schon. Es ist mittlerweile ein alter Hut, zahlreiche Bücher wurden darüber geschrieben, unzählige Magazine haben darüber berichtet. Wieso also noch einmal das Altbekannte wiederkäuen? Weil es wahr ist? Und weil die alte Maxime: Übung macht den Meister immer noch stimmt. Weil wir dazu neigen solche einfachen Wahrheiten inmitten der stressigen Alltage zu vergessen. Wir nutzen unsere eigenen geistigen Möglichkeiten nicht konsequent, neigen dazu mit der Zeit in langweilige Gewohnheit zu verfallen aus der wir nur mit Mühe wieder ausbrechen können.Motivation ist also stets hilfreich.Suzukis Buch besteht aus zwei Teilen. Zum einen gibt sie Anekdoten aus ihrem Privatleben preis. Dort erzählt sie zum Beispiel über ihre Liebe zur klassischen Musik, ihre Faszination für die französische Kultur oder das manchmal schwierige Verhältnis zu ihren Eltern. Der andere Teil beschäftigt sich mit ihrem Forschungsgebiet, der Neurowissenschaft. Sie erklärt wie unser Gehirn funktioniert und wie es möglich ist durch dieses Wissen glücklicher zu werden, seine Kreativität anzukurbeln, ein ausgeglichener Mensch mit einem harmonischeren Leben zu werden.Unglücklicherweise fehlt der Autorin aber das Talent die Geschichten aus ihrer Biographie unterhaltsam darzubieten. Dieser charmante Plauderton, der eigentlich hier notwendig wäre, will sich permanent nicht einstellen. Dr. Suzuki ist sicherlich eine hochintelligente Person. Leider bedeutet Klugheit aber nicht automatisch, dass man einer anderen, vielleicht weniger intelligenten und schlechter informierteren Person Dinge auch besser und anschaulicher erklären kann. Sprich: Das Buch ist nicht besonders gut geschrieben. Also bleibt eigentlich nur der wissenschaftlich Teil, der aber wie bereits erwähnt nur wenig wirklich Neues bietet. Es dauert auch sehr lange bis Suzuki endlich zum Punkt kommt und konkrete Tipps gibt. Das sind am Ende vielleicht 10-20 Seiten in diesem fast 400 Seiten langen Buch.Letztendlich läuft es auf Folgendes hinaus: Mehr Bewegung, mehr Abwechslung und Meditieren.Treiben sie öfter Sport, seien Sie aufmerksamer, beobachten Sie ihre Umgebung, sammeln Sie neue Informationen, seinen Sie Neuem gegenüber aufgeschlossen und versuchen Sie täglich ein paar ruhige Momente zu finden, in denen Sie abschalten und ihre Mühen und Sorgen vergessen können.Wenn das jetzt klingt, wie etwas, was sie in jedem x-beliebigen Frauenmagazin finden könnten, dann verstehen Sie auch, warum ich diesem Buch nur zwei Sterne gegeben habe.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Overall, this book wasn't for me.First, it was too simplistic. The answer to "How do I activate my brain and do everything better?" amounts to "exercise more, meditate, and do new and interesting things." The science part of this book could have been covered adequately in a long magazine article.Second, Suzuki's personal stories, while interesting at first, ultimately started boring me. I loved the stories about her early life, the teachers who inspired her, her first real romance, and how she finally overcame her socialization to say "I love you" to her parents. But when she started talking about her exercise classes and the matchmaking services she used....I am not the audience for "well-off and professionally successful New Yorker talks about improving her life;" I'd rather read about a lower-middle-class single mother who's figured out how to add exercise to her life and meet interesting people when she can't afford a gym membership or a regular babysitter (let alone a matchmaker!).While there's valid scientific information, I'm not the audience for this book.