Bliss Brain

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

By: Dawson Church

Narrated by: Dawson Church

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Award Winner in the Science category of the 2020 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest

Award-winning author and thought leader Dawson Church, Ph.D., blends cutting-edge neuroscience with intense firsthand experience to show you how you can rewire your brain for happiness—starting right now.

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Hay House, Inc. (P)2020 Hay House, Inc.

Absolutely awful. Pointless and no direction.

This book has been absolutely awful, after listening to how he left his animals to died in the California fire I really felt no need to go on, but I did and I wished I didn't.

So grateful for this book.

Thank you Dawson for sharing your insights and your wisdom in such a clear manner
we are grateful for all you and and your charing insights..blessings!

Drug dealers will hate this book!

Save money on pills booze and dope! Lose the doctors too. Bliss Brain teaches you how to cultivate a natural, healthy and high brain state.

Does anyone else find he reading to be so slow?

I like the main idea, although it feels somewhat pretentious. I found that the rate of reading and pauses in between words to be annoying.

To sum it up.. meditate

Meditation is as important to do daily as brushing your teeth or bathing… maybe more important. If you find a consistent meditation practice, the rest of your life will fall into place in unexpected ways.

Too much self centered materialism...

I couldn't make it through the materialist focus of the first section about the Fire. His Rolls Royce and priceless collections that were lost in the fire, the $20,000 Persian rugs that the Universe provided through a friend to furnish their amazing home, blah blah blah blah

Everybody should read this book

I loved this book as well as dawsons other book mind into matter. I am more motivated to meditate and wire the bliss brain

Love the science

I enjoy the proof in the science world. I enjoy the wayDawson Church put all that together on how the brain works and how meditation impacts our brain. As the nurse who promote mediation it helps me explain to my patience and why they need to meditate.

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

Truly enjoyed and learned a lot!

I loved this book thoroughly. Thank you for bringing these important lessons to the world! I hope the author published more and more studies.

brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant,

This book will even inspire the dead! It is absolutely brilliant in collecting up our latent powers and creating an explosion within. Love it!

Disappointing

Awful. The author is a real life Alan Partridge, going into intricate pointless detail about his own irrelevant life. The narration is unbearable. Even at X1.7 speed it is broken up and slow. I feel cheated by the title that this would have some science in it. Well, 2.5hr in of self aggrandising I can’t take it any more. Don’t bother is my advice.

Really enjoyed, very helpful

Planned to buy this after hearing the author on a 'Sounds True' podcast with Tami Simon. Then I hesitated after reading some negative reviews on Audible (not so much about the content, but 'niggly' things like the author's voice). But i made the purchase and I'm glad I did!

I've dabbled with meditation (having read about all the benefits) and Church talks about neuroscience research into efficient meditating - ie getting the benefits. So the book is fascinating - serious changes certain types of meditation have on the brain - it's crazy. And meditations are included in the audiobook, which I've bookmarked and am using.

So I had to write this review. It's amazing people buy zen and meditative books like this then attack them with such anger because they dislike a narrator or delivery of the author... but anyway - I did find the author's voice and delivery strange (slightly ostentatious/ theatrical), but hey - I got past that. And okay, he talks about himself in chapter 1 - how his home was destroyed in a fire, and how he used these techniques - I found it interesting, but if it's not your cup of tea - the book still is worth sticking with.

Some of the science bits got a bit dry, but it being an audio - I let them wash over me, and the book engaged me again. Excellent listen.

Most interesting

This book is best read a chapter at a time. Also at the end of each chapter there are meditations and other activities to download. Very important to do this . Use the activities to give oneself a greater understanding of the chapter. There are 8 chapters, which if you want, could be read over eight weeks. It's a series of workshops over those weeks. Brilliant book.

Too much fluff

First of all the beginning of the audio is just the author talking about myself and events in his life, so within the first 2 hours you begin to lose interest, and the PDF has zero link to the meditation of other topics that author talks about, so if you bore and have not elseo to do with the hours in your day, it would be a good waste of your time.