3 Influential And Life-Changing Books That Will Shift Your Paradigms
If you love to explore how the mind works and how you can apply the principles of neuroscience practically, you will love these books too.
2020 has been quite a year. Thankfully, it has been an excellent year for reading some life-changing books.
Here are three books that I would love to recommend reading for everyone interested in improving their mindset, understanding how their brains work, and wanting to create a more abundant life through their thought-life.
These books will help you change old paradigms and limiting beliefs and explore the world of neuroscience, quantum physics, and spiritual intelligence simply and practically!
1. “Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health” by Dr. Caroline Leaf
This book is “science explained easily” for those who love self-help books more than science books because they understand self-help more easily than science books.
In this book, Dr. Caroline Leaf explains to us how our brains work from a neuroscience perspective. This knowledge helps us change old, incorrect beliefs; for example, that the brain is static. And this book also shows us how we can detox our brains to acquire more happiness and health.
According to researchers, the vast majority — 75–98 percent — of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life. Our thought life also keeps us in prisons of depression, anxiety, worry, and fear.
Dr. Caroline Leaf teaches us how to re-wire our brains to avoid and heal illnesses and negative affect states. We can learn to capture and discipline chaotic thoughts and re-wire our brains.
Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist, specializing in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology. She has been one of the first in her field to study how the brain can change (neuroplasticity) with directed mind input.
This book has helped me better understand how our thought processes can be traceable in our brains. It has been a confidence booster for me that I can choose my thoughts, and therefore I can take ownership of my life.
Most of all, it has broken some limiting beliefs, for example, that multitasking can be productive. The opposite is true — it is unproductive and not healthy for us.
“Multitasking is a persistent myth. It creates a lack of concentration. Deep, intellectual thought is what increases our productivity in the long-term.” — Dr. Caroline Leaf
And fear is not natural to us — we are wired for love, and then we learn fear through the environment, experiences, and other people.
Some Relevant Principles
Mind controls matter. For centuries scientists have considered that our brain is static, and our biology controls our thought processes. However, now it has been proved that our thinking changes our DNA. Our mind is designed to control the body, not the other way around. Thought signals flow faster than the speed of light.
“We are not victims of our biology. We control our biology.” — Dr. Caroline Leaf
What we say and do is based on what we have already built in our minds — what we have previously learned, experienced, and thought. We can re-wire our brains and therefore change our lives. Neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to change) can operate for you as well as against you because whatever you think about the most will grow. Positive or negative.
“Through our thoughts, we can become our own brain surgeons.” — Dr. Caroline Leaf
We are wired for love, and then we learn to fear. Living in love and thinking out of love is the natural state of our brains. Fear is not natural. Therefore, it is a toxic emotion.
“We are wired for love, and then we learn to fear.”— Dr. Caroline Leaf
Introspection, self-reflection, and prayer help us improve mind, body, and spiritual health and apply more wisdom in thinking and decision-making.
“Choice is a mental real estate around the front of the brain. Certain areas light up when we think and choose.” — Dr. Caroline Leaf
Toxic thinking produces miswiring in the brain. That causes maladaptive and depressive ruminations and a decrease in the ability to solve problems. This makes us feel foggy, confused, pessimistic, and depressed. It is not meant to be that way. The design of our brain allows us to capture and discipline chaotic thoughts.
“One of the most exciting features of frontal lobes is how they enable us in a sense to stand outside ourselves and observe our thinking.” — Dr. Caroline Leaf
2. “The Possibility Principle: How Quantum Physics Can Improve the Way You Think, Live, and Love” by Mel Schwartz
Picture from amazon.co.uk.
When I got to Chapter 7 in Switch On Your Brain — a chapter about Quantum Physics — I wanted to understand quantum physics better and found this book.
I was never interested in physics, and it had never been easy to understand for me.
However, with Switch On Your Brain and The Possibility Principle, I have quickly become very interested in quantum physics. I see how by understanding quantum physics’ principles, we can change our worldview from old, outdated paradigms that don’t serve us anymore to a paradigm that allows us a more abundant and flourishing life.
When writing this, I am only in Chapter 6 of The Possibility Principle book. Still, it has already been so intriguing and life-changing for me. It has been hard to resist using every moment to continue reading it.
Nevertheless, just like with other educational self-help books, you can’t read it all in one night. There are thoughts and ideas it takes time to process and reflect about.
This is a very practical book. Since Mel Schwartz is a psychotherapist, not a physicist. Therefore, his explanation of fundamental quantum physics principles is easy and helpful. He also gives a lot of real-life examples from his clients. It is easy to relate to these examples to recognize the toxic patterns in our own thinking and perceptions.
The Possibility Principle reveals how we can apply the three core tenets of quantum physics — inseparability, uncertainty, and potentiality — to live the life we choose, free from the wounds of our past and the constraints of our old beliefs.
Old Mechanistic Paradigm
We have been living under the Newtonian worldview of the mechanistic paradigm, which has dominated philosophy and science until the twentieth century, when quantum physics revealed that reality looks quite different.
The world’s mechanistic model says that the world consists of separate and inert objects disconnected from one another, interacting only through cause and effect.
According to this picture of reality, the world operates as a giant machine. We become cogs in the machine, detached from one another and disconnected from the universe at large. Through this filter, we are all separated.
Another core principle of the mechanistic paradigm is determinism. Determinism means that everything (including our moral choices) is pre-determined by previously existing causes. That’s why we seek certainty so much.
Most people fear uncertainty; it causes them anxiety. We are scared of the unknown and seek the safety that the environment, people, choices, and habits we already know bring.
“As a culture, the epidemic of anxiety that we experience is caused in large part by our addiction to certainty, which has us fear and avoid the unknown.” — Mel Schwartz
New Quantum Conscioussness Paradigm
Discovering how things work within the quantum realm makes us look at the world and our lives entirely differently.
Within the quantum realm, the rule of certainty no longer prevails. Uncertainty is the fabric of the quantum world.
And, in reality, uncertainty helps us to uncover our human potential. When we realize that everything is not anymore pre-determined, then anything is possible.
According to quantum physics, nothing is anymore in a fixed state of being — everything is a reality-making process. We can be creators of our destinies with our thoughts and consciousness.
We are no longer merely observers with limited ability to change something. We have a participatory role in the universe.
We can make and choose reality with our thoughts.
“The primary driver of reality is consciousness, not the material things of the mechanistic worldview.” — Mel Schwartz
When we understand the quantum world, there is no more either-orthinking, such as it is either “right” or “wrong,” etc.
Most people protect their egos by defending the need to be right. That is one of the most common ways that lead people towards disagreements, fights, and bitterness — their need to be correct.
However, when we realize that nothing is either-or, but instead either-and-or, it opens us up to wonder, inquiry, and new possibilities.
“The paradox here is that vulnerability of thought — being comfortable with being uncertain or wrong — actually makes us powerful and strong.” — Mel Schwartz
At the end of every chapter, Mel Schwartz provides a practical takeaway, for example:
“When you struggle with unsatisfactory or troublesome aspects of your life, ask yourself, “How is my fear around the unknown getting in the way of my change process?” Imagine yourself welcoming and embracing the uncertainty, and you’ll gain a sense of self-empowerment that can free you from the grip that certainty may have on you.”
If I would give stars to the books according to how much they can change my perceptions for the better, this book gets ten stars.
Reading about the old paradigm of mechanistic worldview and certainty — how we see everything as separated, determined, and static, has been eye-opening for me. I have seen this type of thinking everywhere — in University, in my own mind, in conversations with others, etc.
Understanding how things work differently from the quantum physics perspective is helpful. It helps us recognize how our ego has been the cause of a lot of anxiety and suffering. And it helps us courageously embrace uncertainty and take responsibility for our thinking as we can create our lives with our thoughts.
Reading this book also helps us switch on our metacognitive level of thinking — to see how we are thinking at the very foundational level. To think about our thinking and change what is old and limiting.
3. “Spiritual Intelligence: The Art Of Thinking Like God” by Kris Vallotton
Picture from amazon.com.
Although this book is written more for those who identify themselves as believers or Christians, the general principle of three-dimensional intelligence applies all across for everyone.
It is fascinating to realize how there is a level of intelligence undiscovered and neglected for so long — spiritual intelligence.
What Is Spiritual Intelligence?
We all know what IQ is and how it is measured, and in the past decade, more and more people have been learning about Emotional Intelligence — EQ. However, Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) has been less known and little talked about.
IQ and EQ are comparable with a smartphone with a finite amount of information stored in its memory. But, when our phones connect with Wi-Fi, it has billions of times more information. Tapping into Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) is like connecting this phone with Wi-Fi.
When we tap into Spiritual Intelligence, we can access the mind of God, who knows everything and has answers and solutions to everything!
SQ is connecting with God’s Spirit, which is eternal, has all the knowledge and wisdom, and knows the future. Spiritual Intelligence is when we, through the power of the Holy Spirit, tune into the mind of God, accessing how He thinks about certain situations.
Kris Vallotton writes that “to live out our calling, it is absolutely necessary that we tap into our Spiritual Intelligence.”
“We become SQ midgets because we are IQ geniuses.” — Kris Vallotton
Tearing Down The Old Ways Of Thinking
Kris Vallotton helps us tap into our spiritual intelligence by using the neuroscientific principles of how our minds work. And un-masking certain limiting beliefs and attitudes believers have had through the years.
Kris uses plenty of real-life examples of how he has been using spiritual intelligence to solve highly complicated problems and help people around him receive God’s healing (in health and emotionally).
This book empowers believers for a new way of thinking — to break from finite, limited, and powerless thinking, which has been widely apparent.
Two of the limiting ways of thinking Christians face are how they view the Bible (if it’s not in the Bible, it is not true) and their deep-seated fear of being deceived.
“Christians often have more faith in the devil’s ability to deceive them than in the Holy Spirit’s ability to lead them.” — Kris Vallotton
Instead of seeing the Bible as a box and limitation, we need to understand that the Bible’s primary goal is for us is to get to know God.
Kris recognizes that not all the things that are true are in the Bible. For example, we believe in air conditioning and electronic devices, but none is mentioned in the Bible. That doesn’t mean they are amoral.
The whole book, Spiritual Intelligence, helps us to understand how there are no limits to how God can works and works. God can use anyone and anything!
The only limitations are the ones we put. And we certainly have put a lot of limitations in the past.
“The more we experience transcend thinking — thinking beyond the confines of time and space and thinking beyond the limits of human reasoning — the more profound effect we will have on the generations to come.” — Kris Vallotton
I have been a Christian now for almost eight years. Another limiting belief I have had myself and experienced from other Christians is regarding the word “meditation”. It somehow has had a negative connotation. In my opinion, it has been because of the narrow understanding of the word.
In reality, the Bible teaches us meditation as well — concentrating our minds on the Word of God.
Kris Vallotton writes, “renewing our minds through biblical meditation so that we think like God is life-transforming. Renewing the spirit of our minds in such a way that we are mirroring God’s thoughts concerning situations, circumstances, people or things, is like renewed mind 2.0.”
The more we let the Word of God change our thinking (renew it), the more we will break free from the limiting beliefs and constraints we have built with our rationalistic thinking.
“Meditating in God is not sitting in the corner, humming to ourselves; it is proactively bulldozing new neural pathways into our brains. That is God’s formula for a renewed mind!” — Kris Vallotton
We are the ones who can make a choice — to keep using the six-line freeway of destructive thoughts we have built or to take the new walking trail of God-thoughts and transform our minds.
Choosing the latter will help us tap into the unlimited potential of spiritual intelligence to solve problems, develop innovative solutions, and live in genuine peace and joy.
Conclusion
Years after finishing school, I did not enjoy biology and physics because they were difficult for me to understand.
However, with learning how our thoughts are physically tangible, I also fell in love with learning how our brains work. And with learning how our brain works, I became very interested in quantum physics. I do not yet understand all the deep, scientific things and probably won’t go deep into that.
However, I love learning how we can apply quantum physics and neuroscience principles to improve our lives and change the way we think and view the world and ourselves.
These three books: Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health by Dr. Caroline Leaf, The Possibility Principle: How Quantum Physics Can Improve the Way You Think, Live, and Love by Mel Schwartz and Spiritual Intelligence: The Art of Thinking Like God by Kris Vallotton have been most helpful in understanding the basics of neuroscience, quantum physics and spiritual intelligence.
They break down the discoveries in quantum physics and neuroscience and give a simple explanation and practical application.
These books have had a significant impact on my life. Not only to increase my knowledge but also to change the way I think and discover how limiting have been the paradigms society has had for centuries. And I have been the product of that!
But we can take ownership of our lives more than we thought we could, and we can tap into our potential that is far greater than we have assumed previously!
These books have made me feel more inspired, powerful, and confident!
