The Emotional Life of Your Brain

How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live - and How You Can Change Them

By: Richard J. Davidson Ph.D., Sharon Begley

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Why are some people so quick to recover from a setback while others wallow in despair? Why are some people so highly attuned to others that they seem psychic, while other people put both feet in it over and over again? Why are some people always up and others always down?

In this hotly anticipated book, award-winning, pioneering neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson answers these questions by offering an entirely new model of our emotions - their origins, their power, and their malleability.

Davidson has discovered that each of us is composed of six basic “Emotional Styles”: Resilience, Outlook, Social Intuition, Self-Awareness, Sensitivity to Context, and Attention. Our own personal emotional fingerprint results from where on the continuum of each style we fall. He explains the patterns of brain activity that underlie each style in order to give us a new model of the emotional brain, one that will even go so far as to affect the way we treat conditions like autism and depression.

And, finally, he provides strategies we can use to determine our own Emotional Style and to change our own brains and emotions - if that is what we want to do. Written with best-selling author Sharon Begley, this original and exciting book gives us a new and useful way to look at ourselves, develop a sense of well-being, and live more meaningful lives.

©2012 Sharon Begley, Richard J. Davidson (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Excellent!

Well worth the time to listen. Both the writing and the narrator's portrayal were superb.

Superb educational material!!!!

my instructor for a social worker program assign chapter 3 to the class. after taking the assessments I decided to read the entire book this is a book that I have recommended to several of my friends and other professionals

Really Wish Ritchie Davidson Was the Narrator

If you could sum up The Emotional Life of Your Brain in three words, what would they be?

interesting, thought provoking

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator was flat and his voice really detracted from being able to stick with this fascinating material.

Any additional comments?

I've heard Davidson many times and he is a dynamic & interesting speaker. Too bad the narration of this detracts so much from the material. I'm slogging through it...but wow, the difference between this and say "Stumbling on Happiness" (narrated brilliantly by the author) is astounding. Audible..please try to get more authors to read their own books!

Great book.

Where does The Emotional Life of Your Brain rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is the best audiobook that I have listened to. I have a rare neurological eye disorder that makes it difficult for me to read much. My husband had "natural reader" on my computer and it was like having a robot read to you and I mean a robot who did not pronounce words correctly, etc. This new audible book is like being read to by a human.

Fantastic Book!

This book is eye opening. It can be dual at times for some because of the detailed research methods shared, but besides that the doctor does a great job tell how his research came to be in a very entertaining way.

Side note the author of this book is the scientist that has conducted most of the research studies referenced frequently in personal development and management books.

Hear his direct interpretation of the finding in the experiments he invited and conducted gives a deeper insights to his findings.

Could've been better...

Where does The Emotional Life of Your Brain rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Middle/average.

Would you be willing to try another book from Richard J. Davidson and Sharon Begley ? Why or why not?

Depends on the narrator.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Arthur Morey?

Dull. Sucked the life out of the book.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

The surveys and how much research went into the surveys/discoveries.

Informative

If you want to know some of the background of how neuroscience has evolved then you're in for a treat. Dr. Richard Davidson is undoubtedly brilliant and it shows in the content. Narrator was a little dry but not bad and the story is somewhat hard to follow if you aren't used to scientific jargon but I liked it so much I bought the hard copy.

THE origin of Mindfulness research in the West!

Slow beginnings, with a riveting finish.

Though there is significant material of interest regarding all aspects of research and interventions presented, I found it especially rewarding to discover the history of the Dalai Lama's contribution to the West's research into how meditation helps people. This man shared significant interactions with the Dalai Lama in order to advance his research.

Hold out long enough and you'll get a prescriptive explanation for how to move various of your personality traits from one level of activation to another.

Context sensitivity, attentional awareness (both excess and deficiency), micro-facial expression awareness, compassion, obsessive compulsive behaviors, excessive pessimism or optimism.

All methods are simple applications of neuroscientific concepts with rigorous scientific publication. YOU CAN RETRAIN YOUR BRAIN!

Narrator makes it hard to listen to

Would you try another book from Richard J. Davidson and Sharon Begley and/or Arthur Morey?

The book is interesting, but the tone and rhythm of the narrator's voice makes it impossible to listen to. The narrator sounds like he has been chased and wants to spit out the message as fast as he can. I tried many times to get used to his tone and speed but gave up. When you drive and listen to this book, you will get nothing. In comparison, if you listen to a sample of the book

Some good insights, too many personal anecdotes

Overall I liked the listening, especially the insights about emotional psychology. The author is a great scientist, did some good discoveries, and was courageous embracing the meditation in a time that no one believed in it. But there are some gaps in the story, and many times it was boring and did not grasp me. He tells too many anecdotes about the people he knows, as he was bragging, and lost the focus, the essence of the book.