How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend

A Neuroscientist's Guide to a Healthier, Happier Life

De: Rachel Barr

Narrado por: Rachel Barr

'Fun, but still deeply, rigorously researched.'—Professor Neil Shyminsky

'A true masterpiece. Rachel Barr has done a phenomenal job breaking down the complexities of the human mind.'—Jeffrey Meltzer, LMHC

'Insightful and relatable psychoeducation that demystifies the brain . . . it’s a resource I’ll proudly keep on my shelf as a therapist.'—Joshua Fletcher, anxiety therapist

Your brain is the most remarkable thing in the known universe.

Always trying to mend itself, and always trying to protect you, it’s in a constant state of flux—adapting, reconfiguring, finding new pathways . . . And it has an astonishing capacity for recovery.

Only it doesn’t always get it right.

Rachel Barr struggled through years of devastating loss, heartache, and uncertainty until neuroscience gave her the first spark of self-belief she had felt in her adult life—and proof that, because of the brain’s near-infinite potential for neuroplastic change, it’s never too late to carve out neural pathways to form new habits, new skills, and new ways of thinking.

Whether you want to nerd-out on Neuroscientific acronyms, finally understand what’s going on in your head, or take refuge in an audiobook that’s like a warm hug for your mind, How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend is a delight-filled, evidence-based guide to taking better care of your brain—so it, in turn, will take better care of you.

Rachel Barr holds a master’s degree in molecular neuroscience and wrote How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend while completing her PhD in the electrophysiology of memory and sleep.

Beyond the lab, her videos as ‘Rachel the Neuroscientist’ demystify the fundamental principles of brain science, empowering her million-plus followers to make informed decisions about their mental health.

Born and raised in Fife, she studied in Bristol and is now based in Quebec, where she shares her home—and keyboard—with Gnocchi the cat.

©2025 Rachel Barr (P)2025 DK Audio

great structure, fantastically useful and up to date information

This author has spent so much time helping others. The information shared is powerful, real, and actionable. It all works. sincerely.

A Practical Guide to Using Neuroscience in Your Life

This book was incredible. The perfect balance of cold, hard science for the nerds (like me) and of charming and witty relatable stories. In a sea of self-help books, don’t drown with the quick fixes, stay happily afloat with this book as a practical guide to using neuroscience to make your life more fulfilling. I absolutely loved it!

Neuroscience with humorb& storytelling that's accessible to a lay audience.

I'm not a lay audience, I have. BSc. in Neuroscience but this is probably the most accessible book on neuroscience that offers REAL & immediately actionable strategies I haven't found anywhere else.

What's most important to me is that it's told by a REAL expert, not some social media fake expert, of which there are FAR too many.

She addresses thes topics in everyday language, with humor, vulnerability & humanity.

It both verified some of my own personal discoveries, pointed to what I could do more of & of course taught me new tools, approaches & frames for applying what's she teaches.

It's especially close to my heart that:
She's ADHD as am I.
She's autistic, which I've often wondered if I am.
And she fell in love with neuroscience via a book on neuroplasticity, of which I studied deeply since my undergrad professors were pioneers in.

If you read ONE book on neuroscience, make it this one.

If you want to read more, ask me, & this author for recommendations :-)

Lovely book.

It's a delightful read cover to cover with simple strategies that work and glimpses of the neuroscience principles that explain why they do.