Healing Backpain: The Mind-body Connection - Book Review

 

Book Review #9

It is about nine months since I read the book "Healing Back Pain, The Mind-Body Connection" by John Sarno (1991) and benefitted tremendously with a major relief from my chronic back pain episodes. Since then, I referred the book to two of my friends who suffered from debilitating back pain & came back with successful results and one of them Hariharasudhan R asked me to write this summary to benefit anyone who may be following my posts.

- Back Pain, Neck Pain, Carpel Tunnel Syndrome are all Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) and Dr. Sarno states that these are psychosomatic in nature, meaning the pain is induced mainly my unconscious emotional factors

- These emotions are usually "unacceptable emotions", meaning they are emotions that threaten our own self-image of ourselves. We typically like to think of ourselves as intelligent, successful, likeable, patient, a good son and a good parent. When situations threaten this self-image, the brain shoves these threatening emotions into the unconscious mind as repressed emotions.

- Some of these emotions are very strong and the brain cannot tuck them away so easily and so creates an intelligent distraction by focusing on muscles that have strain and reduce the blood flow to those muscles causing the experience of severe muscle spasms and pain. Heat therapy or traction or ultrasound or electric pulse treatment, often provides temporary relief, but the pain returns again

- The tough idea to accept for a person with pain is that while there is usually a structural abnormality associated with it like a herniated disc or slip disc or tendonitis or sciatica or tennis elbow or plantar fasciitis, these structural abnormalities are not the cause of the pain. Research shows that there are 1000s of people with all these structural abnormalities but absolutely no pain symptoms

- The Mind and Body work in such a way that it chooses the right type of pain syndrome that are least attributable to your emotional tension like the back pain or sometimes conditions like ulcers or irritable bowel syndrome. He gives the name "Tension Myositis Syndrome" (TMS) for such conditions.

 

- To cure yourself of your TMS condition, the first step is for you to accept the TMS diagnosis. If you continue to believe that some structural abnormality is causing your pain, you will not be cured. And it is very important to immediately resume all your normal activities without fear. If you keep the fear in your mind, the pain symptoms will return. This is the most difficult thing and if you manage this then you will overcome your TMS condition quickly.

- In the book Dr. Sarno gives many real-life examples that will help you understand that this is not some "pseudo-science" saying that the pain is all in your head. The pain is indeed real but by understanding that the real source of pain are repressed emotions you can beat your mind and win over the pain.

#bookreview #backpain #mindbodyconnection

The Art of War by Sun Tzu : Book Review

 Book Review #8

Over the past week, I read a really old (estimated over 2500 years old) book that is often quoted by many authors and professionals around the world. This is a book I have always thought of reading but due to various mental blocks I never did.

"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu is certainly not a breeze but it was a reasonably quick read. The book was completely focused on war strategies and may be because of the translation or because of the bullet point style or may be due to my personal limitations, I personally wasn't impressed with the very cold style of writing. But I realized that the book is so timeless because at so many junctures, I was compelled to stop and reflect. There were lessons that are so relevant after so many years and in contexts completely unrelated to war and even applicable in modern life as well. So, like always, let me share my big takeaways (mostly verbatim from the book) and I certainly look forward to other takeaways from readers who have already read this book and have absorbed the lessons better

1. Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

2. The greatest victory is that which requires no battle. Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. 

3. Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

4. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

5. If the mind is willing, the flesh could go on and on without many things.

6. Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.

7. Regarding the enemy: When strong, avoid them. If of high morale, depress them. Seem humble to fill them with conceit. If at ease, exhaust them. If united, separate them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

8. All warfare is based on deception. Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

9. There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare (can't stop thinking about the wars waged by US in recent history and Russia now)

10. Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.

#artofwar #suntzu #bookreview #strategy

The Psychology of Money : Book Review

Over the last 1.5 years there has been a lot of buzz about Morgan Housel's "The Psychology of Money" and last weekend I buckled. While I am not disappointed, the lessons in the book were not 100% novel especially if you have already burnt your fingers in your investing journey over the years.

Nevertheless, this quick read has a set of super relevant lessons for everyone to reflect upon and here are my summary takeaways

1) The fundamental principle according to Housel is that doing well with money has nothing to do with how smart you are, but it is rather about how you behave with your money

2) No one is crazy because every financial decision is justified based on a person’s circumstances, life experiences and the information at hand. In fact, at every price a stock is sold (high or low) someone thought that it was a good price to sell and someone else found it a good price to buy

3) Luck & Risk are the true realities in a world that is too complex to allow 100% of your actions to dictate 100% of outcomes. Do not let very good outcomes or very bad outcomes to get to your head

4) Have a sense of "Enough". Happiness is Results minus Expectations and if you can’t have a sense of what is “enough” you will never be happy

5) Compounding is very confusing for humans. $81.5 billion of Warren Buffet's $84.5 billion of wealth came after he was 65 years old. Time is the most powerful force in investing. Start early and stay invested as long as possible

6) The best reason to build wealth is to have the ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want, and this freedom is priceless

7) Wealth is what you don't see - Spending money to show people how much money you have is the fastest way to have less money. So, build a habit of living much below your means

8) We cannot always be rational. Rather try to be Reasonable. Be comfortable making financial decisions that make you feel good and not just what is good on spreadsheets and financial models

9) Always have room for errors. He puts this nicely "The most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan"

10) You will change – Our goals and plans change over time. So be comfortable with the idea of changing your approach. Realize that each one of us is playing a different game as per our own circumstances and life experiences

11) Finally, narratives and stories are everything. People cling to stories and stories can act as the fuel for the economy and also as the brakes to hold things back. Everyone has an incomplete picture of the world; it is stories and narratives that help complete these gaps

In a nutshell, I would still say that the book is worth a read to get an understanding of the behavioral side of money and wealth.
 

Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion : Book Review

 Finally finished the book "Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini. 

The book is considered as a seminal piece of work to understand how influence works with both individuals and communities. The basic premise of the book is that while human beings have evolved to have the most advanced level of intellect, we have over a period of time also developed a world that has increased complexity. And in this hyper complicated world, the way we essentially operate is through a process he describes as "Click and Run", something akin to taking actions based on a certain trigger. This is because in so many situations people even with high intellectual capacity do not have the inclination, time, energy or cognitive resources to undertake a complete analysis of every situation.

As such a society made up of stressed, uncertain, rushed, indifferent, distracted or fatigued individuals will hence operate with the following key patterns or triggers that compliance practitioners (read advertisers, social scientists, change agents and even conmen) use effectively to influence outcomes in their favor

 1. Reciprocity: Give a little something and get something in return. This is what we basically know as the "obligation trap"

 2. Commitment: People strive to be consistent. So get a prospect to commit to a concept and if they commit publicly they will do anything to live by their basic commitment

 3. Social proof: People have a fundamental tendency to imitate people they see around themselves. Even the so called independent thinking teenager you know is almost often confirming to social-proof within their own peer groups

 4. Authority: Majority of people have the tendency to obey to authority. Social experiments show that even normally good hearted people can undertake very sinister actions under the force of authority and complex societies can never be governed if not for this social factor of obeying to authority

 5. Liking: Be likeable because people are more likely to say yes to those who they like. Physical attractiveness, similarity, and compliments are all obvious likeability tactics

 6. Scarcity: Things always seem more valuable when they are rarer and harder to get. Think loss aversion - people are more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value

 7. Unity: The factor called "we" or "shared-identity" is the new compliance factor he introduces in his latest edition. Similarity or belonging, shared experiences and shared grief are factors that create a sense of belonging and influence

From a writing style perspective, I personally found the book a very difficult read but considering the importance of this work I decided to definitely finish it.

#influence #cialdini #bookreview #changemanagment