Description
Dr. Wendy Suzuki one day woke up and realized she didn’t have a life. As an almost-40-year-old award-winning college professor and world-renowned neuroscientist, she had—what many considered—everything: tenure as a professor at New York University; her own successful neuroscience research lab; prizes for scientific discoveries on cognition and memory; and articles published in prestigious scientific journals. As a woman and a scientist, she was the envy of her peers and lauded by her superiors. On paper, she had a stellar career and an impeccable record.
What could she possibly be missing? Everything else.
Suzuki was overweight. She was tired. She was lonely, had strained work relationships, and for the first time in her life was completely without direction. So she resolved to change her life. The first step — get moving.
Everyone knows that exercise makes you feel better—that when you hit the gym despite the dread, you leave in a better mood. Healthy Brain, Happy Life offers the real science of how exercise affects your mind.
Using Wendy’s journey from frumpy, fat, and frustrated to fit and fabulous as a guide, Healthy Brain, Happy Life explains not just how to make exercise an important part of life, but why it benefits you. Movement is just the first step to being brain healthy. Once you get your body and mind hooked on exercise, you can bring in practices in mindfulness to calm stress and allow your mind to wander and unlock creativity. As your brain begins to change (a process called neuroplasticity), the benefits build—you get fitter, improve your memory, increase your ability to work quickly, and move from task to task more easily.
Along with Dr. Suzuki’s 4-minute Brain Hacks, Healthy Brain, Happy Life offers a simple program for changing your life, straight from a leading scientist’s personal experience.