This Is Your Brain On Joy

by Dr. Earl Henslin

Do you have categories in your library or even in your brain for self-help books you have read? I do. I have three categories for them. The first one is called Profound and in that category I place books which have the ability to profoundly affect the way I look at life. The second category I call Renewing and into that category I place books which contain insights and knowledge that isn't necessarily new to me yet somehow renews my vigor and encourages my heart, mind and soul to persevere. The third category is sort of a catch-all which I call Visit Often and into this category I place books that don't strictly fit into either of the first two AND have content that I need to revisit and rethink periodically. There should be more categories, but my brain has limits to how many categories it can remember!

After the first chapter or two of This Is Your Brain On Joy I thought it might go into the first category because of the nature of the material as it applied to me. Not being a specialist in anything like this, or having much background in human anatomy, I was a little intimidated by the technical aspects and how much detail Dr. Henslin goes into in explaining the various brain functions and locations. While he obviously puts forth a lot of effort in his writing style to keep the medical-speak to a minimum, there is still some new concepts and terms to grasp and this takes a couple of readings for the first few sections. Still, the knowledge was very new to me, and its impact on me of how I would look at people's behavior, from a Christian worldview, was going to be profoundly affected.

But the middle of the book became much more practical in its application oriented content and at that point, there wasn't so much new information, as it was refreshing, allowing me to more clearly understand how the scientific discoveries explained in the first section were able to affect real changes in how we treat and help people dealing with life's difficulties. I began to see how my own tendencies and behavior could be more effectively managed and understood; how exercise and diet would affect my outlook; where meditation on Scripture and various types of passages would be able to help and why... perhaps this book is really a book to RENEW my hope and give me greater empathy toward others?!

Finally, after reading and re-reading the first few sections and the middle, I got to the last chapters and it all fell into place. This book is one of those few, along with the Bible, that go into the Visit Often category. The principles and the ideas presented here, along with the supporting materials and recommended readings, make this book one to keep a handle on. In all my 30+ years as an adult Christian, 25+ years as a husband, 20+ years as a father, I am embarrassed to say that I have never really examined the concept of Joy beyond a few of the passages in the Bible where the apostle Paul tells us to count it all joy when we encounter various difficulties. I never asked myself what Paul's secret was? There's even a very popular book and video out these days called The Secret which is really no secret at all; just a way for some people to generate a lot of money for themselves, in my opinion. In This Is Your Brain On Joy I discovered that not only is the human brain a marvelous organ created by our magnificent God, it is discoverable and knowable, if perhaps never fully. That knowledge gives me freedom to hope and experience real joy

Life continues to come at me each day with unexpected turns and new challenges. I think I've found a survivor's manual kind of resource in this book to pull out of my back pack as needed in order to survive with my joy and hope intact.

One of the quotes in the book by Charles Spurgeon is worth repeating: Fits of depressions come over most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise may not always be ready, the brave not always courageous and the joyous not always happy. It is my opinion that This Is Your Brain On Joy is an effective resource training us with understanding how to establish patterns of living and thought that will increase our joy and effectiveness in our lives and work.