Introduction

For most of my life, I thought I had a broken brain. By the age of 12, I had already been diagnosed with my first stress ulcer and experienced my first panic attack. It was well understood by scientists and doctors at the time that the brain was hardwired from an early age-that our mental maps had been secured soon after adolescence and could not be changed. So I accepted the fact that I would need to learn to manage my broken brain and try to control the symptoms, without any hope of fully healing.

A few years ago while writing my dissertation on stress and weight management, I began to learn a great deal about how the brain works. (I also learned that stress leads to weight gain, as I put on 10 pounds without changing my diet or exercise habits—but that's fodder for another book). I was burning out, completely exhausted from traveling across the globe for work. After being hospitalized with severe fatigue and crippling panic attacks, I was unsure of how I would ever return to a normal life. My greatest fears—those that cause the biggest spikes in my anxiety—are flying and public speaking; so I definitely didn't make the best choice for a career path if I wanted to live conservatively. I had pushed myself to the limit and wasn't taking care of my personal energy the way I knew I should—and my brain let me know it.

Around this time I also found out that a third grandparent of mine had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. This prompted me to begin a deep dive into research to see if there was any way to try to prevent such a fate for myself or my other family members—and what I discovered changed my life. I found out that not only were there things we could do to possibly delay the development of symptoms caused by Alzheimer's disease and natural cognitive decline, but also that they were the same things that were being recommended to reshape and rewire the brain for optimal functioning. Simply put, the things that can help you have a better brain today will help you have a better brain tomorrow. Of course, it made perfect sense, but why hadn't I heard about this before?

Thanks to advances in technology that took place about two decades ago, scientists have discovered that the brain isn't actually “hardwired” after all. Pioneering neuroscientists demonstrated that through the right type of training, people could relearn abilities they'd lost through severe brain damage, with different parts of the brain taking on new roles in the operation of the body. This discovery, known as neuroplasticity, means that the brain is radically adaptable when given the right stimulus, and allotted an adequate amount of recovery.

The existence of neuroplasticity doesn't just mean that we can heal the brain. It also means that we can potentially rewire existing mental maps—which are the connections between brain cells—so that they function in a way that best serves us, thereby leading to optimal health, happiness, and performance. I have undertaken this process myself, and implemented strategies in my own routine to make sure that my brain and body support me in the midst of challenging circumstances so that I can continue doing the work I love without burning out or breaking down. While I won't introduce any new or particularly groundbreaking concepts, we will walk through them in a systematic way that is designed to give you maximum benefit with minimum investment. This will help you build a toolbox of strategies to boost your brainpower—strategies that won't require a great deal of your time or energy.

One of this book's key premises is that the brain tends to pull us away from anything that might be new or challenging to our system when it becomes overwhelmed. Therefore, giving you a lengthy list of requirements would completely defeat my purpose. You will not see exercises that demand pages of explanations, software programs to buy, or supplements to take. While some of these might be helpful, you can't possibly do everything that might be helpful for you—if you did, you'd have a new full-time job!

The important thing to remember is that very small changes, those upon which the brain can tolerate spending energy, can slowly rewire and retrain the connections in your brain to improve your operating system. It's critical that we move one small step at a time to make these changes significant, not superficial. I wrote this book to share with you the most efficient and effective ways to train—or retrain—your brain to energize your life, even if you have the busiest of schedules.

There are many excellent books documenting the science of neuroplasticity, and I have listed some of my favorites in this book's resources section. I will share some of the most exciting studies with you throughout our discussions, and I encourage you to explore the recommended texts if you are interested in reading more about the details and fascinating discoveries. My goal here is not to overwhelm your brain with more data, but rather to provide you with some very simple tactics you can use daily to bring the power of neuroplasticity into your life and create a better brain both today and for your future.

The SHARP Solution

This new understanding of how the brain works clearly shows us that taking on too much at one time is perceived as a neurological threat. It consequently causes the brain to lead us away from new supportive habits and back into old ones. Therefore, once you create a healthy, energized brain, you provide the necessary foundation for resilience and sustainable change.

The SHARP Solution provides a brain-based approach to realistic, sustainable behavior change that supports a healthier brain and, as a result, a healthier, happier body. This includes a step-by-step process in which you'll design a personal action plan to decrease stress, balance hormones, increase energy, and improve overall health, happiness, and performance.

This book will teach you specific techniques that have been shown to help relax the body, quiet the mind, and reduce symptoms of stress imbalance, which have been proven to play a role in all of the major health concerns of today, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and dementia. By setting the right foundation for nutrition and physical activity efforts, you also enable the body to reduce unnecessary weight while functioning more optimally—a nice side effect of bringing the body and brain back into balance. Considering the fact that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and that excess fat can be toxic to both the body and the brain, sustainable weight management must be considered part of our overall health and wellness strategy.

The SHARP Solution is broken down into five phases, working from an inside-out perspective, from brain to heart, mind, body, and community.

Don't be surprised if you find yourself feeling more calm, optimistic, and downright joyful as a result of this program. You will have more mental clarity, be more creative, and be better able to focus your attention on the people and things that matter most to you. You will feel more physically energized throughout the day and will restore a healthy balance that includes simple, sustainable weight management.

In order to help you experience the shift towards a healthier brain and a more effective operating system, I will guide you through the process as we go through this book. By the time you finish reading, you will already have trained your brain for more optimal health and performance.

SHARP Science

As I initially prepared this manuscript, I included a few of my favorite studies that support the practical applications and guidelines in this book. I didn't want to fill the pages with an overabundance of scientific jargon, because I recognize how important it is not to overload your brain with unnecessary statistics and data—especially considering how much you already have on your mind! However, I still want to highlight the incredible research that has been conducted on the brain and how it works, and explain key studies in simplified language so that it's not only easy to understand, but also to apply. You can find them in SHARP Science boxes, which allow you to read some of the most recent research. In fact, all of the studies highlighted in these boxes were published during the final editing process of this book throughout the first part of 2012. This reinforces the fact that we learn more about the brain every single day—and that it's a truly marvelous adventure into one of the most amazing and complex systems known to man.

As we gain new insight into how the...