UNSTOPPABLE BRAIN

Bobinet presents a self-help guide to changing negative behaviors that focuses on a newly researched part of the brain in this nonfiction work.

Based on the latest scientific findings, the author, a physician and health care executive, believes that the way we have previously been taught to change our behaviors and alter bad habits relies too heavily on “performative approaches” that essentially set us up to fail. Per Bobinet, the dopamine rushes that occur when pursuing “SMART” (“specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound”) goals don’t result in long-term success. Instead, scientists have turned their focus to the habenula, a small area located in the brain’s thalamus that “activates whenever there is perceived failure and then, often subconsciously, downregulates one’s motivation to try again.” The author explores how certain activities or events (like making New Year’s resolutions) can actually trigger the habenula in different ways and introduces a new “iterative approach” toward making lasting change that can be remembered through the acronym ITERATES (standing for Inspiration, Time, Environment, Reduce, Add, Togetherness, Expectations, and Swaps). Essentially, Bobinet posits, the key to sustaining behavioral changes is using the brain’s natural neuroplasticity and understanding how the habenula works. Some of what the author discusses is likely to sound familiar to most readers, such as the harmful effect of social media on mental health (especially for adolescents), but there is plenty of information about the habenula that is likely to be new. While scientific descriptions, cited studies, and occasional charts and graphs support Bobinet’s argument, her writing is clear enough to prove easily accessible even to readers with no science background at all. Plenty of anecdotes, as well as a keen insight into people’s internal struggles, transform a straightforward self-help guide into a motivational powerhouse: “You can’t pull up an old habit’s roots simply by forming another one on top; you’re just providing a new highway that you prefer to drive right now.”

An uplifting, scientifically supported guide to motivate real and lasting life changes.