Bliss Brain

The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy

By: Dawson Church

Narrated by: Dawson Church

Neural plasticity-the discovery that the brain is capable of rewiring itself-is now widely understood. But what few people have grasped yet is how quickly this is happening, how extensive brain changes can be, and how much control each of us has over the process. In Bliss Brain, famed researcher Dawson Church digs deep into leading-edge science, and finds stunning evidence of rapid and radical brain change. In just eight weeks of practice, 12 minutes a day, using the right techniques, we can produce measurable changes in our brains. These make us calmer, happier, and more resilient. When we cultivate these pleasurable states over time, they become traits. We don't just feel more blissful as a temporary state; the changes are literally hard-wired into our brains, becoming stable and enduring personality traits. The startling conclusions of Church's research show that neural remodeling goes much farther than scientists have previously understood, with stress circuits shriveling over time. Simultaneously, "The Enlightenment Circuit"-associated with happiness, compassion, productivity, creativity, and resilience-expands. During deep meditation, Church shows how "the 7 neurochemicals of ecstasy" are released in our brains. These include anandamide, a neurotransmitter that's been named "the bliss molecule" because it mimics the effects of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. It boosts serotonin and dopamine; the first is an analog of psilocybin, the second of cocaine. He shows how cultivating these elevated emotional states literally produces a self-induced high. While writing Bliss Brain, Church went through a series of disasters, including escaping seconds ahead of a California wildfire that consumed his home and office and claimed 22 lives. The fire triggered a painful medical condition and a financial disaster. Through it all, Church steadily practiced the techniques of Bliss Brain while teaching them to thousands of other people. This book weaves his story of resilience into the fabric of neuroscience, producing a fascinating picture of just how happy we can make our brains, no matter what the odds.This audio product contains a PDF with supporting material, and the PDF is available for download.

love this book

Hope you listen to this book and follow the meditation.
It easy to listen and practical.

Wow! What an enlightening and joyful read!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in meditation and self healing. Dawson’s stories and the other stories included in the book are inspiring and illustrate the positive changes that can come about with meditation and tapping. This book is filled with of scientific information and studies that are interesting to learn about, rather than bland and boring. The meditations are very helpful as well as the additional resources at the end of each chapter. Also I highly enjoyed the book being narrated by Dr. Dawson Church, he has a very comforting voice. I could barely put this audio book down it was so good! Now I have made the commitment to practice ECO mediation everyday observe the positive benefits and brain transformation that I will undergo because of it!

fantastic understanding the brain and meditation

I really enjoy Dawson's book! didn't like the first chapter so much felt self-centered and pretentious. seemingly a bit out of touch with the suffering of real people during his experience. however I gave it a chance. when I got into the meat of the book second chapter throughout I found it engaging full of valuable succinct understanding how the brain works... the science is invaluable, easy to understand, for any layperson. fascinating information regarding hormones, neurons receptors work independently and through meditation. finally what I really enjoyed at the end of each chapter were the guided meditations. they're only 15 minutes. however what I did not enjoy is that he talked constantly through them. which I found distracting. I wish he left "big open space" for at least 5-10 minutes so that I can enjoy the silence of my meditation . it was hard to get into the Bliss State when I kept hearing constant talking. I experimented by just listening to the beginning of his meditation for about 5 minutes, turned it off and then brought myself out of it after about 10 minutes.

Inner workings of our brain

Well researched book about the brain and how meditative techniques can influence our behaviour.
A must read book!!!

I was quite inspired by this book

I started immediately to do the daily Eco meditation and look forward to it every morning. I definitely feel happier and calmer since I have been doing it, which is about five or six weeks at least. I also have been journaling since I started to read this book and find that very helpful to me every day. I also look forward to that. I like Dawson‘s upbeat approach to life and I appreciate all the things that I learned about theBrain