Controlling Mental Chaos
Harnessing the Power of the Creative Mind
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- £22.99
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- £22.99
Publisher Description
For centuries, spirituality has told us that the answer to life’s problems lies within us, if only we would realize that we are more than what we imagine. Now, scientific understanding is showing us the way. For humans, anxiety is the background “fever” that never breaks but can often get much worse. Whether the causes are individual, relational, cultural, or pandemic problems, when they occur, they affect our ability to live a joyful and creative life. This often means getting mired in uncontrolled mind loops and incessant circular thinking, making us feel helpless and stuck. In this book, Jaime Pineda shows how the dynamics of anxiety and incessant rumination reflect uncontrolled creativity, and how using simple, time-tested techniques we can learn to control the chaos and recover our creative nature.
The key to the solution is to understand that the intellect only helps to some extent, but by itself cannot solve its own problem. What we need is a mind that can, in a nonjudgmental way, distance itself from the thought patterns that trap us. We are born with an incredible, original mind that quickly becomes obscured by the fever of fear and anxiety. But we can recover this mind quickly. Pineda teaches us how to recognize the basic problem and find the solution through a series of steps and techniques that help bring us out of the loops and recover a cleaner mindset that enables us to move beyond the static of anxiety.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pineda (The Social Impulse), emeritus professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego, urges readers in this unsuccessful guide to cut through anxiety and ego-centrism to access a state of calm creativity. Drawing on his experience as a cognitive scientist and Buddhist "spiritual seeker," Pineda argues that the human mind is clouded by a "left-brain interpreter" that "produces after-the-fact explanations about behavior" and locks "frenetic" and "self-obsessed" thoughts into place. As a corrective, he suggests readers "self parent" the mind and choose "the relationship you want to have with yourself" through such practices as nonjudgmentally cataloging one's thought patterns. Chapters include exercises (taking a walk and practicing deep breathing to "calm down the ongoing chatter of your... uncontrolled mind") and reflection questions ("Are you sensitive to your own needs?"). While there are some insightful moments, they're undermined by chapter intros that illustrate lessons with unconvincing narratives featuring a fictional person, the prevalence of hard-to-remember initialisms (AAECC, SMM, RUBI), and a tone that's stuck somewhere between neuroscience textbook and self-help manual but fails to convince as either. Those interested in the intersection of neuroscience and Buddhism would be better served by works from such authors as Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman.
