Why do people “still feel fat after losing weight? Why do you duck your head when you drive into an underground parking garage? Why are kids so enthralled by video games? “ It’s the maps in the brain that rule your instinctive behavior – and you change your brain.
Just as MapQuest has content and software to customize a map to your immediate need, your brain is full of flexible maps of your body. They enable you to navigate your world, improve at a sport o or get stuck, replaying the same emotional script in new situations. The good news is you can literally alter your brain to change your feelings and behaviors. Learn how in a book out this September by veteran neuroscience writer, Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee, her son, also a science writer. To pique your curiosity, read Sandra’s preview.
I was amazed at the many ways people have altered their bodies or had altered experiences, using their "minds" after reading the studies collected by Esalan co-founder (and fellow Sausalitan), Michael Murphy in The Future of the Body. He says, "We live only part of the life we are given." That phrase became the title of a book he co-wrote later with George Leonard that offer a program of exercises, mediation and visualization that helped me to (sometimes) "quiet the chattering mind."
