Superimmunity by Paul Pearsall

Psychologist Paul Pearsall was an early proponent of current notions of mind-body medicine. For Pearsall, it was important to heal a person’s life even if it wasn’t possible to cure their disease. Often a disease can be the body’s way of getting a person’s attention, and letting him know a change is needed. People who make those changes can experience healing, sometimes in the form of a cure and sometime as health and happiness in the midst of disease. Pearsall described some of his ideas in Superimmunity.

In this book, Pearsall draws from Eastern medicine an organizing theme: hot and cold thinking. Hot thinkers are fast, impatient, black-or-white thinkers. They can be judgmental and prone to exaggeration, overreaction and isolation. Cold thinkers overreact to trivial things and underreact to important things. They are prone to passivity and feeling of inadequacy. They are isolated in their own way, and though often out of touch with their emotions, they often despair.

The body responds to these thinking styles. Hot reactors are always on the attack, and their immune systems attack their bodies. Heart disease is associated with hot people. Cold reactors are inactive, so their bodies may respond with excessive activity, particularly cell growth (i.e. cancer).

Pearsall does not eschew medicine. If you are facing a serious illness, the likes of heart disease or cancer, you need a lot of medical help. However, you also need to enlist the aid of your own immune system, which may be doing something counterproductive if it is very active at all. You’re immune system is closely linked to your brain, more so that was commonly thought when Pearsall was writing in the 1980s, so getting the best immune response calls for leaving hot or cold thinking for something more balanced.

“Until recently, we have behaved as if the immune system were somehow separate from us, doing its job secretly, automatically, beyond our control…. Research now tells us that our immune system functions within a supersystem of mind and body,” Paul Pearsall, Superimmunity

Superimmunity includes many tests to help you identify if you tend to be a hot or cold thinker (you can be both). From there, Pearsall offers strategies for cooling off or warming up your thinking as needed. This can mean observing your body, listening to your disease and getting in touch with your emotions in ways that can be unfamiliar to one in the throes of hot or cold reaction. This self-evaluation that reveals the underlying dysfunction, and your own exploration and imagination may uncover your path to healing.

Pearsall does not suggest that changing your thinking will always lead to a cure, though sometimes it might. Disease and mortality are part of being a human. However, you can truly live while you are alive, and in this since experience healing. Life is more than surviving, eating, drinking and breathing. It is important to live as fully as you can.

Paul Pearsall also wrote

The Beethoven Factor

The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need

Toxic Success

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen

The Relaxation Response by Herbert Bnson with Miriam Z. Klipper

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

Timeless Healing by Herbert Benson with Marg Stark

Pearsall, Paul. Superimmunity: Master Your Emotions & Improve Your Health. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987.

Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi

For some, the promise of technology for easy access to information that was supposed to make us more free has devolved into constant distraction that can feel like enslavement to a cell phone. Even people who have less extreme views might still feel that it is too easy to get lost in games and social media, browsing online instead of being present, procrastinating instead of getting things done.

 I’m in that camp. I’m not an obsessive user of my phone, but I have found it easy to reach for it in quiet times when I have nothing pressing. That used to be time I spent staring into space. That could be very relaxing time. More importantly, I came up with some of my best ideas in those times or shortly afterward. My brain was hard at work behind by vacant visage, but now it is hard at work scrolling Facebook or watching YouTube videos.

 Manoush Zomorodi took this problem to the listeners of her WNYC podcast, Note to Self, and challenged them to be more aware of their use of technology and wean themselves from it to some degree. That experience, with some refinements, is described in Bored and Brilliant, and Zomorodi hopes it will extend the challenge to a wider audience.

 I expected Zomorodi to focus on how technology has captured our attention and eroded our ability to concentrate. She touches on this. However, the theme of her book is that we need boredom for deeper cognition and creativity. In order to reach their most creative states, our brains need a break from stimulation—we need to get bored.

 The benefit of boredom, in addition to training us to handle tedious tasks, is that it put our mind into its “default state.” In this condition, our minds wander. We daydream. We can imagine things and make connections that would not be available to us if we were concentrating on something or stimulating our brains.

 The default state isn’t universally good. We can fall into ruminating on problems and failures, berating ourselves. That is not useful.

 However, for most of us daydreaming is positive. The lives we dream up for ourselves in such moments, Zomorodi refers to it as “autobiographical planning,” can help us identify what we want, solve problems and see ourselves as more capable.

 Zomorodi presents seven challenges to her readers. The idea is that readers would do one challenge a day for a week. Some of the challenges are adaptable for continued or periodically repeated practices. She describes how several Note to Self listeners responded to the challenges and made them their own.

 Bored and Brilliant is not about abandoning technology by a long shot. It is about making space in your life to think in different ways, especially for the daydreaming that arises in the dull, unstimulating moments in life.

 Zomorodi writes in a journalistic style. The book is not loaded with notes, or even a bibliography, like a more scientific text. However, she sites research, interviews with specialist and other books within the text. The benefits of boredom are documented. If you want to research the subject deeply, you might skim this book for other sources. If you want to loosen your ties to you cell phone or tablet, get out of the mental rat race and give your brain space for a deep breath, try the challenges in this book; it is a good place to start.

 If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

A Mind for Numbers by Barbara A. Oakley

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel

Quiet by Susan Cain

 Zomorodi, Manoush. Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard P. Feynman

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a collection of interviews and speeches of physicist and Nobel Prize winner Richard P. Feynman. The theme that runs through most of these items is Feynman’s ideas about what science is and how it is practiced.

 To Feynmen, the essence of a proper scientific attitude is doubt (a version of this idea goes back to René Descartes). It is an honest acceptance that you don’t know anything for certain, and you may accept other ideas about what is most likely true about the world in light of new experiences and better measurements. Science is the testing of ideas to see if they conform to reality and the knowledge that accumulates as a result.

 The physicist is critical of some of the social sciences, some parts of psychology and education research. They use experiment and measurement and other forms from science, but they do not produce results in the manner of the physical sciences. He doesn’t suggest the end of research in these areas, but that they tend to present findings as if there is “scientific” certainty when things are actually very uncertain.

 Feynman led an interesting life, and I took particular interest in his experiences related to very important engineering and policy issues in his lifetime. In one of the interviews, Feynman discussed his work on the Manhattan Project and life at Los Alamos. The editor included Feynman’s minority report on the investigation of the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, which resulted in the death of all the astronauts on board.

 Richard Feynman also wrote

Six Easy Pieces

 If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in:

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont

Descarte’s Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel

Einstein’s Clocks, Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Galison 

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

Planck by Brandon R. Brown

The Powerhouse by Steve Levine

 Feynman, Richard P. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. Jeffrey Robbins, ed. Cambridge, MA: Helix Books, 1999.

Happiness is a Choice by Barry Neil Kaufman

What if it is within your power to make yourself happy or unhappy? Barry Neil Kaufman is convinced you can. The theme of his book is as simple as the title, Happiness is a Choice.

To Kaufman, unhappiness is a learned response. We face many situations, some are stressful or things we would not have chosen, but our emotional response to them is largely a matter of our judgment of them. If we change our perspective, if we develop a new vision, our feelings will change, too.

The book contains many examples form Kaufman’s life and from the experiences of his clients. He and his wife have an autistic son. They look at is as a challenge to love, engage with and communicate with someone who deals with the world in a different way. One of his clients was devastated by the loss of his mother. He chose to remember all of the ways she helped him and had a positive influence on his life. His gratitude lifted his spirits.

This points to something I think is worth noting. You do not have to solve problems to be happy. Kaufman never suggests that problems will disappear or that things will always be to your liking. He is persistent in suggesting that you can find a new way to look at it so you can respond with more happiness.

Happiness, then, is more important than getting what you want. You won’t always get what you want, but you don’t have to be unhappy about it. This is the first of Kaufman’s six shortcuts to happiness.

These shortcuts are mindsets that help you focus on ways to be happy in any circumstance. I’ve already mentioned another: letting go of judgment.

All the shortcuts can be summarized in one. Decide to be happy.

Happiness isn’t necessarily ecstasy. Kaufman ties happiness to love. Happiness is loving yourself.  Loving others is being happy with them. In any situation, you can choose love and happiness.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Beethoven Factor by Paul Pearsall

The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry

I Can Make You Happy by Paul McKenna

The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need by Paul Pearsall

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck

Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat

Think 4:8 by Tommy Newberry & Lyn Smith

Kaufman, Barry Neil. Happiness is a Choice. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1991.

Become a Better You by Joel Osteen

Become a Better You was Joel Osteen’s follow-up to his first book, Your Best Life Now. Osteen even presents the book as a continuation of the theme and purpose of its predecessor.

Each chapter is a topical sermon on reaching your potential in some aspect of life. The aspects are personal growth, positive self-image, relationships, habits, faith and passion.

I have previously criticized Osteen for taking self-help advice and wrapping it up in religion. I see Norman Vincent Peale and Robert H. Schuller in much the same light. A defense all of these pastors might raise is that they are focusing on practical matters of living well. A head full of religious knowledge that doesn’t change your life for the better is doing no good; it’s not the life Christians are called to.

I agree. I also see in Jesus and the apostles teachers who could both delve deep into the scripture and provide very practical instruction based on it. Religious meditation and working to make the world a better place—even if little seems to come of it—go hand-in-hand in Christianity.

In one area Osteen has a strong foundation: relationships. It is clear from the Bible that God cares very much about how we relate to and treat each other. Osteen’s use of scriptures are apropos in these chapters. The sermons hold up when read with a Bible in the other hand; something that is weaker in the other chapters.

Joel Osteen also wrote

Break Out

I Declare

Readings from Your Best Life Now

You Can, You Will

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Be All You Can Be! by John C. Maxwell

Complaint Free Relationships by Will Bowen

Creative Living for Today by Maxwell Maltz

Faith by Jimmy Carter

Life's Not Fair, but God is Good by Robert H. Schuller

The Magic Power of Self-Image Psychology by Maxwell Malts

Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale

Power in Praise by Merlin R. Carothers

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale

Self-Love by Robert H. Schuller

You Can Become the Person You Want to Be by Robert H. Schuller

You Can if You Think You Can by Norman Vincent Peale

Osteen, Joel. Become a Better You: Seven Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day. New York: Free Press, 2007.

The Irresistible Introvert by Michaela Chung

Introverts can feed out of place, in especially in the United States and other places where extroverted characteristics are celebrated and introverts are often misunderstood. Michaela Chung considers how introverts can make their own way in the word in her book The Irresistible Introvert.

Introverts are not antisocial or shy. We (yes, I’m an introvert) like people. In comparison to extroverts we tend to be more introspective, needful of solitude and quiet and slow. Some introverts are highly sensitive people (I think I fall into this group, too).

Chung doesn’t say there is a right or wrong way, there is a place for both extroverts and introverts and all the blends in between. Her point is that in extroverted cultures introverts need to find ways to be comfortable being themselves.

That is Chung’s theme: introverts should accept themselves. If you are an introvert, embrace your strengths and stop trying to fit into an extroverted mold. Be kind to yourself. Make room in your life for the quite time, solitude and thinking that you need.

Of course, introverts are social beings. We enjoy connecting with others. We like deep conversation and close friends.

For many of us, this area of connection and communication can become a source of discomfort as our style clashes with the prevailing extroverted style. In the latter part of the book, Chung shifts to showing how introverts can find ways to open up, form friendships and communicate in ways that play to their strengths.

Introverts aren’t likely to work the room the way extroverts do. We can, we just find it exhausting. Chung’s advice often touches on this issue of energy. With a little planning, introverts can manage their energy in social situations. Introverts can be spots of calm and warmth in a crowd that attracts others. They can trade awkwardness and tiredness for self-possession and intriguing allure.

Chung draws frequently on the experiences of introverts including herself. Many of these experiences resonated with me. If you’re an introvert you might enjoy the book simply because you can see someone else understands your experience. You might find some of Chung’s advice helpful, too.

I you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Emotional Energy Factor by Mira Kirshenbaum

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman 

The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron

The Introvert's Way by Sophia Dembling

Quiet by Susan Cain

Chung, Michaela. The Irresistible Introvert: Harness the Power of Quiet Charisma in a Loud World. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2016.

The Holy Bible

It is hard to do the Bible justice in a few pages. In this review, I’ll only attempt to provide an outline. In particular I’ll discuss

-the major themes of the book,

-its major division, and

-the types of literature you’ll find in it.

THEMES

The primary theme of the Bible is the relationship between God and man. It’s a broken relationship. The authors of the various books address this in many ways. A couple of metaphors they use that I find particularly compelling are that of a marriage or a parent-child relationship. In these analogies, mankind is depicted as a cheating wife or a child who has run away to a destructive life. God is depicted as the faithful, loving husband or father who is reaching out to redeem, rescue and reconcile the one he loves.

God’s character is on display throughout the Bible. He is just and righteous, and his character is the foundation of morality. He also has great love and mercy. Fortunately, all of these traits are perfectly harmonized in God and shown to man in Jesus Christ. For those who have faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit works from within to recreate this character in them.

DIVISIONS

The major divisions of the Bible are the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written before the coming of Christ. It describes the fall of mankind into sin and God’s work to reconcile mankind to Himself with a focus on how this occurs in the formation (and eventual fall) of ancient Israel. The New Testament describes the coming of Christ and the establishment of the church, which is a fulfillment of the promises of God described in the Old Testament.

The major division of the Old Testament are

-history,

-writings, and

-prophets.

The historical books describe the history of man as a moral being, beginning with the fall into sin, and the God’s plan to save man worked out over time. As this plan unfolds, the history increasingly focuses on the Israelite kingdom. The writing are a set of poetic books. The prophets focus on a period of time leading to the ultimate decline of ancient Israel and predict the coming for Christ.

The New Testament can be roughly divided into

-the gospels, and

-the epistles.

The gospels describe the life of Christ and (in the related book of Acts) the establishment of the church. The epistles are message to the church that often deal with the practicalities of living the life Christ called his believers to live.

TYPES OF LITERATURE

The Bible is an assembly of many books, and there are many types of literature in each book. While the highly symbolic language of parts of the Bible get a lot of attention in some circles, most of it is written in a straightforward style. For instance, a lot of the Old Testament is historical narrative and a lot of the New Testament is letters from the apostles to the churches. Poetry is also commonly used. When reading the Bible, it’s important to know if the part your reading is a narration of events, a parable, a poem, or some other literary form.

The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

I Can Make You Happy by Paul McKenna

The notion that we can intentionally make ourselves happier by the behavior we choose is not new to psychology. It has been around since at least William James. Paul McKenna picks up the theme in I Can Make You Happy.

McKenna’s focus is extremely practical. Much of the book is a description of specific exercises or behaviors that are aimed at improving mood, changing habits of thought and reducing the intensity of negative emotions attached to memories.

Many of these exercises involve visualizations. Some involve physical actions or stances (even something as simple as standing up straight can improve your mood). In each case, McKenna provides detailed step-by-step instructions.

Because of the practical focus of the book, there is limited explanation of how these actions work. McKenna mentions the sources of the exercises and many have roots in scientific studies. He assumes, no doubt rightly, that his readers are most interested in what they can do.

The book includes a hypnosis CD that McKenna recommends using along with the other exercises. It is intended to reinforce habits that create and support happiness.

McKenna does not guarantee constant happiness. He suggests it wouldn’t be a good thing. He describes our emotions—all of them—as “part of our intelligence.” They are there to tell us something  important. We should not avoid our painful or uncomfortable emotions. It is appropriate to feel pain in response to losses and hurts.

Much of what you’ll find in this book is something you can find elsewhere. However, I Can Make You Happy is compact, practical and easy to read. It gets right to showing readers they can do something, often simple things, to be happier now. Making them habits could lead to generally higher levels of happiness.

Paul McKenna also wrote I Can Make You Thin.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Instant Self-Hypnosis by Forbes Robbins Blair

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Suggestible You by Erik Vance

Timeless Healing by Herbert Benson with Marg Stark

McKenna, Paul. I Can Make You Happy. New York: Sterling, 2011.

As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

As a Man Thinketh, a short book written by James Allen, has become a staple of self-help literature. Many stripes of self-help teachers have referred to it since, from the mystical to the practical-minded.

As the title suggests, Allen teaches that a person’s life and achievements are results of his thoughts. Thoughts are the seeds. These seeds grow into actions. The fruit of actions are wealth or want, health or illness, joy or despair. It simply depends on the kinds of seeds you plant.

If you’re not intentionally planting seeds, preferably thoughts will produce salutary and beautiful results, your mind will be seeded with whatever falls there. Your life will be weedy, having mixed and low-value results.

Each chapters of the book is an essay on some aspect of Allen’s theme. They deal with character, life conditions, health, purposefulness, achievement, vision and peace. I each case, Allen suggests the life you have is the life you choose through your habits of thought.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen

The 4:8 Principle by Tommy Newberry

The Joy of Supernatural Thinking by Bill Bright

Think 4:8 by Tommy Newberry & Lyn Smith

Allen, James. As a Man Thinketh. White Plains, NY: Peter Pauper Press.

Think 4:8 by Tommy Newberry & Lyn Smith

Think 4:8 is a daily devotional for teens written by Tommy Newberry and Lynn Smith. The central premise of the book is that we can control our thoughts, and by choosing to thinking about worthy things you can be closer to God, have better relationships, achieve more and be happier overall. The authors take this key thought from Philippians 4:8.

Each chapter in the book deals with patterns of thought, behavior and habits that can lead to joy or displeasure. Our emotions and actions are sparked by our outlook and thoughts. If we want to be generally happier and do more of what we really want, we need to develop good habits of thought.

This is a Christian book, so the principal thing, the source of joy, is to know God. Believe He has a good plan for you.

I like that the book reiterates the importance of gratitude. I think gratitude is one of the most significant contributors to happiness. Count your blessings.

Another theme that recurs in the book, not always explicitly, is the importance of discipline. The entire book is essentially about disciplining your thoughts. Proper discipline is not a burdensome thing, it is the foundation of good habits and achievement. When applied to your approach to others, it can lead to better relationships. Discipline isn’t something one suffers as a punishment, it is the effort one puts into overcoming obstacles because the results are worth it.

Each chapter in the book is short; it can be read in a few minutes. Each chapter also has exercise, which also can be completed in a few minutes. The authors encourage the reader to engage a trusted friend in many of the activities. I can imagine teens balking at that, but I suspect a teen using the devotional might have involved parents or friends in a church youth group who can smooth that over.

Though the book is written for teenagers, I think the lessons (if not always the details) are applicable to adult life as well. I never hurts to be reminded of the benefits of good mental hygiene, especially with the pressures, distractions and temptations presented by adult life.

Tommy Newberry also wrote The 4:8 Principle.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen

The Joy of Supernatural Thinking by Bill Bright

Just Say Thanks! by R. T. Kendall

Philippians

Newberry, Tommy, & Lyn Smith. Think 4:8: 40 Days to a Joy-filled Life for Teens. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2013.