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Bouncing Back Lib/E: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being
Winner of the 2013 Books for a Better Life Acorda Wellness Award and the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award
Resilience is the ability to face and handle life’s challenges, whether everyday disappointments or extraordinary disasters. While resilience is innate in the brain, over time we learn unhelpful patterns, which then become fixed in our neural circuitry. But science is now revealing that what previously seemed hardwired can be rewired, and Bouncing Back shows us how. With powerful, time-tested exercises, Linda Graham guides us in rebuilding our core well-being and disaster-proofing our brains.
Resilience is the ability to face and handle life’s challenges, whether everyday disappointments or extraordinary disasters. While resilience is innate in the brain, over time we learn unhelpful patterns, which then become fixed in our neural circuitry. But science is now revealing that what previously seemed hardwired can be rewired, and Bouncing Back shows us how. With powerful, time-tested exercises, Linda Graham guides us in rebuilding our core well-being and disaster-proofing our brains.
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First published March 15, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
April 4, 2013
So what is the book about? The intersection of psychology, neuroscience and Buddhist meditative practice.
This a very well-researched and highly technical book. Linda Graham really knows her stuff. If you just read the quotes and the chapter summations at the end of each chapter you would get immense benefit from reading this book.
The exercises featured in many of the chapters are very easy to do and implement as habits in your daily life. There are son many poignant and applicable quotes in this book you could probably write them on your one-a-day calender and fill up a whole year. And they're all so good.
Cons:
This book is very high-level and intellectual. It reads like a textbook and that can hard for some people to follow.
Want a summary by the author?
Here you go:
Hiccups and Hurricanes: Bouncing Back from Life’s Challenges
By Linda Graham
We are all called upon to cope with hiccups and hurricanes in our lives — losing our wallet and
car keys, discovering mold in the bathroom, missing three days at the office to care for a sick
child — and we do. We are resilient heroes in our own lives every day as we skillfully navigate
the disruptive, unwanted changes of the washing machine going on the fritz or the car needing a
new transmission.
Occasionally we have to respond with grace under pressure to greater troubles and tragedies:
infertility or infidelity, a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, losing a job, a son wounded in combat
overseas.
The way we can bounce back from such everyday disappointments and extraordinary disasters is
through resilience – capacities innate in the brain to respond to the inevitable twists and turns in
life flexibly and adaptively.
Modern neuroscience is revealing how we can harness the brain’s capacities of neuroplasticity to
rewire our habitual patterns of response to strengthen what I call the 5 C’s of coping:
1. Calm: You can stay calm in a crisis.
2. Clarity: You can see clearly what’s happening as well as your internal response to what’s
happening; you can see what needs to happen next; and you can see possibilities from different
perspectives that will enhance your ability to respond flexibly.
3. Connection: You can reach out for help as needed; you can learn from others how to be
resilient; and you can connect to resources that greatly expand your options.
4. Competence: You can call on skills and competencies that you have learned through previous
experience to act quickly and effectively.
5. Courage: You can strengthen your faith to persevere in your actions until you come to
resolution or acceptance of the difficulty.
More than 80 exercises in Bouncing Back allow you to do this rewiring safely, efficiently,
effectively. The tools and techniques drawn from mindfulness practices and relational
psychology create and accelerate brain change and strengthen the parts of the brain we need to
cope. You recover a deep resilience and well-being that will last a lifetime.
An example:
Keep CALM and Carry On
The fastest way to regulate the body’s stress response and return to a sense of calm is to activate
the release of oxytocin in the brain. Oxytocin is the neurostransmitter of safety and trust and
is the brain’s direct and immediate antidote to the stress hormone cortisol. Oxytocin can be
thought of as the neurochemical foundation of resilience.
The fastest way to release oxytocin and mitigate stress is through safe touch in a soothing
relationship. Fortunately, neuroscientists have demonstrated many times that even remembering
or imaging someone we love and by whom we feel loved is enough to release small but regular
doses of oxytocin.
Exercise: Hand on the Heart
We come into steady calm by experiencing moments of feeling safe, loved, and cherished and
letting those moments register in our body and encode new circuitry in our brain. This exercise
offers a way to evoke those feelings.
1. Begin by placing your hand on your heart, feeling the warmth of your own touch. Breathe
gently and deeply into your heart center, taking in a sense of calm, peace, goodness, safety, trust,
acceptance, and ease.
2. Once that’s steady, call to mind a moment of being with someone who loves you
unconditionally, someone you feel completely safe with. This may, of course, be a partner, child,
or parent; but if the dynamics of those relationships are complicated and the emotions mixed,
you may choose any true other to your true self: a dear friend, a trusted teacher, a close colleague
or neighbor, a therapist, your grandmother, a spiritual figure like Jesus or the Dalai Lama, or
your wiser self. Pets are also great for this exercise.
3. As you remember feeling safe and loved with this person or pet, see if you can sense in your
body the positive feelings and sensations associated with that memory. Really savor a feeling of
warmth, safety, trust, and love in your body.
4. When that feeling is steady, let go of the image and simply bathe in the feeling itself for thirty
seconds. Savor the rich nurturing of this feeling; let it really soak in.
The Neuroscience:
Breathing deeply, gently, and fully activates the calming branch of our autonomic nervous
system, the parasympathetic branch. The parasympathetic modulates the body-brain’s fight-
flight-freeze response when we feel threatened or agitated. Breathing, or pranayama, has been a
core practice in yoga and meditation to relax the body and steady the mind for over 3,500 years.
Breathing positive emotions into the heart center steadies the heart rate, restoring the equilibrium
of the body so that we can remain present and engaged. In evoking a memory or image of feeling
loved and cherished, we evoke a sense of safe connection with others; the oxytocin immediately
reduces our stress. That evocation also activates the prefrontal cortex, which triggers the hippo-
campus to search for explicit memories of moments when we have been held, soothed, protected,
encouraged, believed in, times when we have reached out for help and received comfort and
support
Through safety and trust in connection, we come back into our baseline equilibrium. From there,
with our higher, thinking brain calm and alert, we can mobilize quickly, act skillfully, and take
care of business.
Based on the book Bouncing Back. Copyright © 2013 by Linda Graham. Reprinted with
permission from New World Library. www.NewWorldLibrary.com.
This a very well-researched and highly technical book. Linda Graham really knows her stuff. If you just read the quotes and the chapter summations at the end of each chapter you would get immense benefit from reading this book.
The exercises featured in many of the chapters are very easy to do and implement as habits in your daily life. There are son many poignant and applicable quotes in this book you could probably write them on your one-a-day calender and fill up a whole year. And they're all so good.
Cons:
This book is very high-level and intellectual. It reads like a textbook and that can hard for some people to follow.
Want a summary by the author?
Here you go:
Hiccups and Hurricanes: Bouncing Back from Life’s Challenges
By Linda Graham
We are all called upon to cope with hiccups and hurricanes in our lives — losing our wallet and
car keys, discovering mold in the bathroom, missing three days at the office to care for a sick
child — and we do. We are resilient heroes in our own lives every day as we skillfully navigate
the disruptive, unwanted changes of the washing machine going on the fritz or the car needing a
new transmission.
Occasionally we have to respond with grace under pressure to greater troubles and tragedies:
infertility or infidelity, a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, losing a job, a son wounded in combat
overseas.
The way we can bounce back from such everyday disappointments and extraordinary disasters is
through resilience – capacities innate in the brain to respond to the inevitable twists and turns in
life flexibly and adaptively.
Modern neuroscience is revealing how we can harness the brain’s capacities of neuroplasticity to
rewire our habitual patterns of response to strengthen what I call the 5 C’s of coping:
1. Calm: You can stay calm in a crisis.
2. Clarity: You can see clearly what’s happening as well as your internal response to what’s
happening; you can see what needs to happen next; and you can see possibilities from different
perspectives that will enhance your ability to respond flexibly.
3. Connection: You can reach out for help as needed; you can learn from others how to be
resilient; and you can connect to resources that greatly expand your options.
4. Competence: You can call on skills and competencies that you have learned through previous
experience to act quickly and effectively.
5. Courage: You can strengthen your faith to persevere in your actions until you come to
resolution or acceptance of the difficulty.
More than 80 exercises in Bouncing Back allow you to do this rewiring safely, efficiently,
effectively. The tools and techniques drawn from mindfulness practices and relational
psychology create and accelerate brain change and strengthen the parts of the brain we need to
cope. You recover a deep resilience and well-being that will last a lifetime.
An example:
Keep CALM and Carry On
The fastest way to regulate the body’s stress response and return to a sense of calm is to activate
the release of oxytocin in the brain. Oxytocin is the neurostransmitter of safety and trust and
is the brain’s direct and immediate antidote to the stress hormone cortisol. Oxytocin can be
thought of as the neurochemical foundation of resilience.
The fastest way to release oxytocin and mitigate stress is through safe touch in a soothing
relationship. Fortunately, neuroscientists have demonstrated many times that even remembering
or imaging someone we love and by whom we feel loved is enough to release small but regular
doses of oxytocin.
Exercise: Hand on the Heart
We come into steady calm by experiencing moments of feeling safe, loved, and cherished and
letting those moments register in our body and encode new circuitry in our brain. This exercise
offers a way to evoke those feelings.
1. Begin by placing your hand on your heart, feeling the warmth of your own touch. Breathe
gently and deeply into your heart center, taking in a sense of calm, peace, goodness, safety, trust,
acceptance, and ease.
2. Once that’s steady, call to mind a moment of being with someone who loves you
unconditionally, someone you feel completely safe with. This may, of course, be a partner, child,
or parent; but if the dynamics of those relationships are complicated and the emotions mixed,
you may choose any true other to your true self: a dear friend, a trusted teacher, a close colleague
or neighbor, a therapist, your grandmother, a spiritual figure like Jesus or the Dalai Lama, or
your wiser self. Pets are also great for this exercise.
3. As you remember feeling safe and loved with this person or pet, see if you can sense in your
body the positive feelings and sensations associated with that memory. Really savor a feeling of
warmth, safety, trust, and love in your body.
4. When that feeling is steady, let go of the image and simply bathe in the feeling itself for thirty
seconds. Savor the rich nurturing of this feeling; let it really soak in.
The Neuroscience:
Breathing deeply, gently, and fully activates the calming branch of our autonomic nervous
system, the parasympathetic branch. The parasympathetic modulates the body-brain’s fight-
flight-freeze response when we feel threatened or agitated. Breathing, or pranayama, has been a
core practice in yoga and meditation to relax the body and steady the mind for over 3,500 years.
Breathing positive emotions into the heart center steadies the heart rate, restoring the equilibrium
of the body so that we can remain present and engaged. In evoking a memory or image of feeling
loved and cherished, we evoke a sense of safe connection with others; the oxytocin immediately
reduces our stress. That evocation also activates the prefrontal cortex, which triggers the hippo-
campus to search for explicit memories of moments when we have been held, soothed, protected,
encouraged, believed in, times when we have reached out for help and received comfort and
support
Through safety and trust in connection, we come back into our baseline equilibrium. From there,
with our higher, thinking brain calm and alert, we can mobilize quickly, act skillfully, and take
care of business.
Based on the book Bouncing Back. Copyright © 2013 by Linda Graham. Reprinted with
permission from New World Library. www.NewWorldLibrary.com.
November 29, 2018
I picked up this book earlier this year for a business class on change management, and found it so enjoyable that I signed up for a weekend workshop lead by the author. I'm very glad that I did -- she's calm, patient and compassionate and it was well worth the time spent. In the book, she quotes someone who says that we seek out like minded people for making these kinds of changes -- such as through workshops. It was a group of about 20 people and the author lead us through a handful of the 120+ exercises that are in the book.
The key takeaways from this book for me include:
- the 5 Cs of resilience - calm, clarity, connection competence, courage
- learn to identify patterns in your thoughts, weed out non-productive thoughts
- you can rewire your brain through conscious effort
She talks a lot about meditation and developing awareness of not just one's self but of awareness generally. There's a lot to be said for positive psychology and developing practices that allow one to continually fine tune mental processes to greater self-love, resilience and compassion.
This is not just a book to read once and be done but to keep on hand so that it may be picked up and reviewed, maybe this would offer an opportunity to try a new exercise or practice.
At the end of the workshop, we were all instructed to choose three exercises and think about what obstacles we might face in practicing them, and how we could overcome those obstacles. I recommend reading this book and doing the same!
The key takeaways from this book for me include:
- the 5 Cs of resilience - calm, clarity, connection competence, courage
- learn to identify patterns in your thoughts, weed out non-productive thoughts
- you can rewire your brain through conscious effort
She talks a lot about meditation and developing awareness of not just one's self but of awareness generally. There's a lot to be said for positive psychology and developing practices that allow one to continually fine tune mental processes to greater self-love, resilience and compassion.
This is not just a book to read once and be done but to keep on hand so that it may be picked up and reviewed, maybe this would offer an opportunity to try a new exercise or practice.
At the end of the workshop, we were all instructed to choose three exercises and think about what obstacles we might face in practicing them, and how we could overcome those obstacles. I recommend reading this book and doing the same!
August 22, 2017
One of the most educational, and tangible books I've read about the brain science of resilience and how to build more of it. Bouncing Back is well organized, and provides specific behavioral strategies to build emotional resilience while providing a deep understanding of the importance of building resilience. Bouncing Back also provided context to how our brains develop resilience based on childhood factors helping set the motivation and understanding for the importance of the work.
December 8, 2017
Meh. I really wanted to like this book because I am a big fan of Rick Hanson, PhD who wrote the forward. Surely if he recommends this author she's got to be good, right? Uhmmm. . . well - I can see how philosophically they share the same views but this author does not write in the same homey, encouraging, compassionate style. What do I mean? I mean some of the well-meant exercises are poorly envisioned by someone who, possibly, has never had to struggle with building resilience. For example? Take the exercise in visualizing my "wiser" self in conversation with a difficult person. I am advised to take note of how my "wiser" self handles the exasperating situations, what she says, how she says it - and then to follow suit in real life.
That may be ok advice for a person who already knows how to navigate office politics, seasoned warriors, but when I imagine my younger self picking up this book during the particularly trying period of my career, (my late 20s) this would have struck me as nonsense. Impossible advice. My wisest self had actually no idea how to handle what was going on. Needless to say, I failed.
At the time I had a well established meditation practice which did not shield me from psychopathic supervisor. My "wiser" self had no tools to advise me. The situation was sheer hell. Nothing but further life experience (I'm now in my mid 50s) made me wise enough to advise myself on how to handle a similar situation were one to arise.
I'd say about half the book is reasonable advice and half the book is un-reasonable exercises similar to the one I describe above. Which is to say, the book is worth buying for some of the information - but you could find that same information by watching a Ted Talk or listening to a Pod cast on resilience or well-being. Look for lectures that use the word "re-wiring."
I do believe people have feedback loops. The best way to change a behavior, situation, result is by breaking the feedback loop, introducing new information, behavior, reaction or response. I just think you can find better, more efficient avenues for having this process explained than this lengthy book.
That may be ok advice for a person who already knows how to navigate office politics, seasoned warriors, but when I imagine my younger self picking up this book during the particularly trying period of my career, (my late 20s) this would have struck me as nonsense. Impossible advice. My wisest self had actually no idea how to handle what was going on. Needless to say, I failed.
At the time I had a well established meditation practice which did not shield me from psychopathic supervisor. My "wiser" self had no tools to advise me. The situation was sheer hell. Nothing but further life experience (I'm now in my mid 50s) made me wise enough to advise myself on how to handle a similar situation were one to arise.
I'd say about half the book is reasonable advice and half the book is un-reasonable exercises similar to the one I describe above. Which is to say, the book is worth buying for some of the information - but you could find that same information by watching a Ted Talk or listening to a Pod cast on resilience or well-being. Look for lectures that use the word "re-wiring."
I do believe people have feedback loops. The best way to change a behavior, situation, result is by breaking the feedback loop, introducing new information, behavior, reaction or response. I just think you can find better, more efficient avenues for having this process explained than this lengthy book.
November 8, 2018
This is not a book that you are going to read quickly. Nor is it a book for entertainment. If you or someone you care about struggles with depression, anger, anxiety, ineffectiveness, unresolved childhood anxst - or if you are a therapist of any kind in any field of psychology, the studies and exercises in this book can be extremely helpful, even to the point of turning a life completely around.
So don't let the length and the "heaviness" of the front chapters containing scientific/biological matter turn you away from trying Graham's program out.
This is a mash-up of specific and directed meditative exercises and the neuroscience of why, biologically, each exercise bolsters pscyhological health so that we can rewire resilience into the biophysical and chemical makeup of our minds and forge a better life for ourselves.
Now that I've spent a few weeks reading this attentatively, a couple family members and I are going to spend the next few months meeting once a week to work through the exercises deliberately. There are only a couple of exercises that made me think they were a little overboard - lending susceptibility for someone who is unable to stay grounded in the real world - but overall, I can see that there is much value in working through this system. And just think: You can get, probably, a good 80% of the value of spending a year in therapy with someone guiding you through this, for the price of a book and the "cost" of dedicating yourself to doing the exercises.
Note - I do think the weightiness of the book as a whole is daunting, and many people who are be looking for such guidance might be put off. Perhaps this would be more accessible if it were divided into volumes. Having stuck with my guns and pushed through the temptations to lay the book aside, I see the value and am glad I stayed with it.
So don't let the length and the "heaviness" of the front chapters containing scientific/biological matter turn you away from trying Graham's program out.
This is a mash-up of specific and directed meditative exercises and the neuroscience of why, biologically, each exercise bolsters pscyhological health so that we can rewire resilience into the biophysical and chemical makeup of our minds and forge a better life for ourselves.
Now that I've spent a few weeks reading this attentatively, a couple family members and I are going to spend the next few months meeting once a week to work through the exercises deliberately. There are only a couple of exercises that made me think they were a little overboard - lending susceptibility for someone who is unable to stay grounded in the real world - but overall, I can see that there is much value in working through this system. And just think: You can get, probably, a good 80% of the value of spending a year in therapy with someone guiding you through this, for the price of a book and the "cost" of dedicating yourself to doing the exercises.
Note - I do think the weightiness of the book as a whole is daunting, and many people who are be looking for such guidance might be put off. Perhaps this would be more accessible if it were divided into volumes. Having stuck with my guns and pushed through the temptations to lay the book aside, I see the value and am glad I stayed with it.
May 21, 2020
This book acts more like a manual, or a workbook, than anything else. Overflowing with practical exercises, the majority meditative, to help you increase your resilience, it's best read slowly and deliberately. I appreciated the neuroscience section that would follow each exercise, explaining exactly what is happening in your brain as you go through the exercises. It made them more tangible somehow, and gave me a clear visualization of how the work I was doing was actually working. I also appreciated the amalgamation of western psychology and eastern mindfulness; rarely have I come across a book that so freely and seamlessly intertwines both. I imagine I'll come back to this book over the years. Thank you very much for this read, Linda Graham!
March 6, 2014
An insightful and practical help for those who need to let go of unhelpful and unhealthy baggage and learn to live in sync with their true selves.
March 1, 2014
This book will be a reference guide xxxviii "the 5 C's of resilient coping: calm...clarity...connection....competence....courage. Contemplative, scientific and practical.
September 17, 2014
very well researched and highly technical book to understand the magical powers of human brain
March 22, 2016
I read this a long time ago. But, I do remember it was very well written, had great illustrative examples and excellent neuroscience research within it.
January 7, 2022
A very technical book combining psychology, neuroscience and Buddhism. I like combining the strenths of different disciplines and traditions to make a stronger whole. As a neuroscientist, I enjoyed reading the neurscientific basis for how each of the exercises could help build resilience, and also the emphasis on the brain being able to change... because it can! So much comes down to strengthening the activity of the pre-frontal cortex. The book is very much a manual as well, with detailed descriptions of many different exercises that could be done in a form of self-therapy and meditative practices. That made it slow reading, but valuable nonetheless. I've already used one of the exercises in a group format for team building, as they can have a wider application than just personal work.
Here are some quotes I enjoyed to give you a flavor of the content:
The human brain is a social-learning organ.
A Zen teaching says that when our minds contract—with anxieties or complaints—it’s like looking at the sky through a pipe. If you find yourself getting caught up this way in a thought, story, or emotion, return your awareness to your breathing.
Instead of self as a noun, an object with defined perimeters, we begin to see it as a verb, a process of continual change.
The defocusing circuit operates when we are daydreaming or in reverie. We can consciously use it to let ourselves relax into a more open, spacious awareness. .. to switch between these two networks of self and nonself requires a mature pre-frontal cortex. ... The more flexible neural receptivitiy of the defocusing network allows us to rewire different patterns constituting the personal self. Learning to use both networks gives us more choices in rewiring our brains to increase resilience.
Because all mental activity sculpts neural structures in some way.
The subjective experience of empathy—or being seen and understood, or of understanding ourselves—is one of the primary catalysts for rewiring our brain’s encoded messages about ourselves, our connections, our competence, our vulnerability, and our courage.
Here are some quotes I enjoyed to give you a flavor of the content:
The human brain is a social-learning organ.
A Zen teaching says that when our minds contract—with anxieties or complaints—it’s like looking at the sky through a pipe. If you find yourself getting caught up this way in a thought, story, or emotion, return your awareness to your breathing.
Instead of self as a noun, an object with defined perimeters, we begin to see it as a verb, a process of continual change.
The defocusing circuit operates when we are daydreaming or in reverie. We can consciously use it to let ourselves relax into a more open, spacious awareness. .. to switch between these two networks of self and nonself requires a mature pre-frontal cortex. ... The more flexible neural receptivitiy of the defocusing network allows us to rewire different patterns constituting the personal self. Learning to use both networks gives us more choices in rewiring our brains to increase resilience.
Because all mental activity sculpts neural structures in some way.
The subjective experience of empathy—or being seen and understood, or of understanding ourselves—is one of the primary catalysts for rewiring our brain’s encoded messages about ourselves, our connections, our competence, our vulnerability, and our courage.
April 8, 2023
4.0. Linda Graham is fantastic. This book lives up to its title--it is full of exercises designed to build Resilience and challenge the beliefs of feeling "Never Good Enough." I loved the message that Neuroplasticity is Real and you CAN change your thinking, your brain, and your level of happiness. You can be grateful for the good things and survive the tragic and emerge stronger.
What I didn't like: The Narrator was not my cup of tea. I so wish Linda Graham had read her own book--she would have done a fabulous job--or gotten Rick Hanson to do it--or any human with a caring voice. The person she chose sounds as robotic, clinically clear and disinterested as Siri--in fact, I think it WAS Siri.
The Audio version is FREE on Audible, in case you care about that, so give it a try. Maybe you won't hate Siri's voice as much as I do.
After I started to listen to this book, I was bored for the first 3 chapters of the Audio book, and then I started to get interested. By the time I was halfway through, I ordered 3 paperback copies of the book, once for myself and 2 to give away.
It isn't a terribly fun read as the examples she uses are dull in the first place (mostly all First World Problems) and then examined to ad nauseam--but the exercises are excellent and the message is overwhelmingly positive and comforting.
This is the perfect book for someone who is self-motivated enough to do what it tells you.
Bottom Line: despite the atrocious narrator, this book has already helped me. I do recommend it.
What I didn't like: The Narrator was not my cup of tea. I so wish Linda Graham had read her own book--she would have done a fabulous job--or gotten Rick Hanson to do it--or any human with a caring voice. The person she chose sounds as robotic, clinically clear and disinterested as Siri--in fact, I think it WAS Siri.
The Audio version is FREE on Audible, in case you care about that, so give it a try. Maybe you won't hate Siri's voice as much as I do.
After I started to listen to this book, I was bored for the first 3 chapters of the Audio book, and then I started to get interested. By the time I was halfway through, I ordered 3 paperback copies of the book, once for myself and 2 to give away.
It isn't a terribly fun read as the examples she uses are dull in the first place (mostly all First World Problems) and then examined to ad nauseam--but the exercises are excellent and the message is overwhelmingly positive and comforting.
This is the perfect book for someone who is self-motivated enough to do what it tells you.
Bottom Line: despite the atrocious narrator, this book has already helped me. I do recommend it.
June 22, 2024
I guess this book was good for its time when it was published, And especially if you new to this stuff it’s definitely insightful. But I felt it was a lot of content yet nothing original I’d expect from an author
Just seemed a lot of references to research and other authors -/ while useful — for such a lengthy book would have been nice for something more but was hard to remain engaged and got boring for me personally
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
https://Waseem.tv/GoodReadsBookInvite
Just seemed a lot of references to research and other authors -/ while useful — for such a lengthy book would have been nice for something more but was hard to remain engaged and got boring for me personally
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
https://Waseem.tv/GoodReadsBookInvite
February 16, 2024
I wanted to start off by saying that I "read" this as an audiobook and I knew I wasn't a fan of audiobooks but I still gave it a try.
I enjoyed how the author references the anatomical portions of the body with their effects on our mind and how we perceive the world. I have a background in science so I was able to keep up and the little light bulb would often go off in my head like, so THAT is what the anatomical body part does.
Mental health is so important and this book is a great place for someone to start if they love to learn about how the body works with the mind.
This book gave me hope in rewiring MY brain for maximum resilience and well being.
I enjoyed how the author references the anatomical portions of the body with their effects on our mind and how we perceive the world. I have a background in science so I was able to keep up and the little light bulb would often go off in my head like, so THAT is what the anatomical body part does.
Mental health is so important and this book is a great place for someone to start if they love to learn about how the body works with the mind.
This book gave me hope in rewiring MY brain for maximum resilience and well being.
April 29, 2018
Oh no. This is the worst of all the resilience books I have been reading. Not an academic - and not a neuroscientist - Linda Graham proceeds to discuss how to align brain pathways with mindfulness.
I think it is the celebration of 'acceptance' I find so disturbing. Believe in the flow. Accept the cards life has dealt you. Calm. Bad stuff happens. Focus on your breathing.
Dear me. Breathing is the least of our worries...
I think it is the celebration of 'acceptance' I find so disturbing. Believe in the flow. Accept the cards life has dealt you. Calm. Bad stuff happens. Focus on your breathing.
Dear me. Breathing is the least of our worries...
March 22, 2023
When I first started this book I couldn’t stop because it had some really interesting insights, however as I read more and more it started to feel way to repetitive. The book could be split in half without losing much value.
But don’t get me wrong, this book is good.
Even with the repetitiveness I’d recommend this book since some of the contents can really give a spin to you life or at least to the processing of the events surrounding yourself if you put them down to practice.
But don’t get me wrong, this book is good.
Even with the repetitiveness I’d recommend this book since some of the contents can really give a spin to you life or at least to the processing of the events surrounding yourself if you put them down to practice.
February 14, 2019
I found a lot of great stuff in this book, though it's dense, lots of exercises, and while it was worth reading end to end to know what's there and grasp the basic theories, it would take you forever to get through it exercise by exercise... but the exercises are there when you want them, and I think it's a book that can be useful and used over time, always revealing something new.
September 25, 2021
As a life coach, I can refer clients to the exercises that can be integrated easily in their daily life.
The 5 Cs of resilience - calm, clarity, connection, competence, courage – can change and turn a life around with practice, one step at a time.
There is something for everyone, for every path of life. Gratitude to you Linda.
The 5 Cs of resilience - calm, clarity, connection, competence, courage – can change and turn a life around with practice, one step at a time.
There is something for everyone, for every path of life. Gratitude to you Linda.
August 22, 2020
This is one of those resources I will return to frequently as it has great exercises to build resilience. Best used as a reference and I'm looking forward to sharing the many included activities with my students ( who are adult learners).
March 22, 2023
Appreciated the 5Cs framework. Didn’t complete th e exercises as I was reading it. A lot of them were more meditation and reflection based so this would be appropriate to read in chunks and do the personal exploration after.
December 1, 2023
A masterclass in building resilience. This book reads like a textbook with neurological insights, practical application, and exercises for practice. I need to go back and take notes. Told using Buddhist practices, but applicable to other faith or mindfulness practices as well.
August 2, 2024
Excellent
In her book, ‘Bouncing Back’, Linda Graham seems to cover every aspect of resilience. My kindle version is filled with text highlights in multiple colors with bookmarks on important pages.
In her book, ‘Bouncing Back’, Linda Graham seems to cover every aspect of resilience. My kindle version is filled with text highlights in multiple colors with bookmarks on important pages.
November 3, 2022
Fabulous book with great exercises peppered throughout!
April 21, 2023
Highly recommended. Practical, evidence-based advice for becoming more resilient.
December 23, 2023
Linda Graham has some really great neurobiological techniques.
January 30, 2024
.5 star for writing
1 star for research quality
1 star for premise
1 star for impact
.5 star for personal taste
1 star for research quality
1 star for premise
1 star for impact
.5 star for personal taste
February 1, 2024
Great book that I will be referencing again and again. The author does a good job of providing tangible exercises with the neuroscience of why they work.
August 20, 2024
This book was written by a therapist and a psychologist. This book can be helpful whether its for understanding others better, studying psychology, self-improvement, or all of the above.
January 9, 2017
Summarized
Interacting with others instill a sense of safety and trust, importance and being loved, competence and mastery that becomes the brain's first templates of resilience and serve as lifelong buffers from stress and tram. Sense of security supports healthy self-development, regulation, confidence and maturing of the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which uses conditioning and neutorplasticity to learn resilience.
In the past, we could have had bad ways of coping with resilience which could be reinforced. Later experience, especially healthy relational can help rewire our brain to cope differently. Learning how to rewire our brains rewires our brains as we go along. New experiences strength the function of the pre-frontal cortex.
Mindfulness - Steady, nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of experience allows the brain to be flexible in its response to triggers and traumas. We can loosen our grip on the present, relax directly in an open experience of our true self and allowing ourself to be rewired. This integrates a sense of genuine wholeness that is key to resilience.
Empathy creates a safe environment to embrace brain change. Practice examples - resonance to pick up the vibe of other people, attunement to feel into another person's experience, empathy to understand an experience, compassion to stay open and engaged even with a difficult experience. Self-acceptance to come to terms, learn and create new pattern of response.
More practice examples. Presence to show up and engage with the experience. Intention inclines the mind towards resilient behavior. Perseverance creates new neural structure through repetition. Refuges create the safety and trust for brain change to grow. Resources generate the energy, strength, steadiness and balance we need.
Self-directed neuroplasticity. New conditioning creates new neutral pathways by seeking out new experience. Deconditioning creates the receptivity and flexibility that reopens the brain to learning and change. Reconditioning rewires old neural ciruitry with a new effective one.
We can use power of interaction with a true other to strengthen the prefrontal cortext and to recover a sense of our true self. Relationship intelligence is used to navigate the world. Includes empathiic listening and speaking, wishing for the happiness and well-being of ourselves and others. Also include reaching for help, setting healthy boundaries, negotiating changes in behavior, repairing ruptures, being willing to forgive.
Oxytocin is the body's calm and connect response, the direct antidote the stress hormone cortisol. Activate it through touch, loving connection. Somatic resourcing through breathing, rewire old somatic memories, rewiring negative body memories.
Developing somatic intelligence. Priming the brain to remain calm in a crisis. Begin the day in loving connection, start the day calm, in the window of tolerance. Develop current confidence from previous competence. Greatest predictor of success is a previous track record of success. Reframing incompetence as competence. Train our brains to risk something new. Pair an old pattern of old and pair with a new positive pattern of courage, we take out the old and rewire it. Drawing on different people perspectives helps discover the gift in the mistake and reduce our grief and agony over it.
Interacting with others instill a sense of safety and trust, importance and being loved, competence and mastery that becomes the brain's first templates of resilience and serve as lifelong buffers from stress and tram. Sense of security supports healthy self-development, regulation, confidence and maturing of the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which uses conditioning and neutorplasticity to learn resilience.
In the past, we could have had bad ways of coping with resilience which could be reinforced. Later experience, especially healthy relational can help rewire our brain to cope differently. Learning how to rewire our brains rewires our brains as we go along. New experiences strength the function of the pre-frontal cortex.
Mindfulness - Steady, nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of experience allows the brain to be flexible in its response to triggers and traumas. We can loosen our grip on the present, relax directly in an open experience of our true self and allowing ourself to be rewired. This integrates a sense of genuine wholeness that is key to resilience.
Empathy creates a safe environment to embrace brain change. Practice examples - resonance to pick up the vibe of other people, attunement to feel into another person's experience, empathy to understand an experience, compassion to stay open and engaged even with a difficult experience. Self-acceptance to come to terms, learn and create new pattern of response.
More practice examples. Presence to show up and engage with the experience. Intention inclines the mind towards resilient behavior. Perseverance creates new neural structure through repetition. Refuges create the safety and trust for brain change to grow. Resources generate the energy, strength, steadiness and balance we need.
Self-directed neuroplasticity. New conditioning creates new neutral pathways by seeking out new experience. Deconditioning creates the receptivity and flexibility that reopens the brain to learning and change. Reconditioning rewires old neural ciruitry with a new effective one.
We can use power of interaction with a true other to strengthen the prefrontal cortext and to recover a sense of our true self. Relationship intelligence is used to navigate the world. Includes empathiic listening and speaking, wishing for the happiness and well-being of ourselves and others. Also include reaching for help, setting healthy boundaries, negotiating changes in behavior, repairing ruptures, being willing to forgive.
Oxytocin is the body's calm and connect response, the direct antidote the stress hormone cortisol. Activate it through touch, loving connection. Somatic resourcing through breathing, rewire old somatic memories, rewiring negative body memories.
Developing somatic intelligence. Priming the brain to remain calm in a crisis. Begin the day in loving connection, start the day calm, in the window of tolerance. Develop current confidence from previous competence. Greatest predictor of success is a previous track record of success. Reframing incompetence as competence. Train our brains to risk something new. Pair an old pattern of old and pair with a new positive pattern of courage, we take out the old and rewire it. Drawing on different people perspectives helps discover the gift in the mistake and reduce our grief and agony over it.
April 28, 2024
3.5 stars
Another resiliency book for my class. I enjoyed many parts of this book, especially the deep breathing and mindfulness exercises. There were also some quotes I really enjoyed. However, the book felt _very_ long and could have been trimmed significantly. Overall, though, some really interesting concepts and things I want to apply in my life!
(Read as an e-textbook)
Another resiliency book for my class. I enjoyed many parts of this book, especially the deep breathing and mindfulness exercises. There were also some quotes I really enjoyed. However, the book felt _very_ long and could have been trimmed significantly. Overall, though, some really interesting concepts and things I want to apply in my life!
(Read as an e-textbook)
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