The Source: Open Your Mind, Change Your Life

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Sadly, for me, there wasn't a lot else that I found very stimulating or fresh as a reader. The book felt quite heavily autobiographical at times, and there were also a couple of parts that rubbed me up the wrong way (a casual mention of the author's fondness for a tidy wardrobe being "a bit OCD", a reference I found rather inappropriate from someone working in the psychiatry field; and a sentence that literally said items outside of one's control, such as "...getting married, pregnant, or getting a promotion" will simply "fall into place" once the reader starts doing the things on their To Do list. As someone who has personally experienced infertility, this was a massive clanger for me and a surprisingly conclusive statement to make in a book like this). Neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart works with some of the City’s highest-earning and most respected leaders in finance, law and media Evening Standard Dr Tara Swart is friendly, charming, and knows what she's talking about. Having qualified as a doctor, then trained as a neuroscientist, she worked as a psychiatrist before going into private practice as a highly sought-after expert to the rich and famous" - Janet Street-Porter, Daily Mail

This one is harder to do if you are at your desk or in the office, so it's a great longer-term exercise to try at home. That being said, THE SOURCE was still a fairly interesting read at times, with the best parts for me being the various sections about how the brain works and the various studies Dr Swart looked at during her research - that, and the clear, concise steps she gives the reader when it comes to things like the making of vision boards were, for me, the most illuminating aspect. Swart also consistently asserts that all of these studies prove her right, and I've found contradictory information from the researchers themselves after looking up the text from the study itself.

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As I got deeper into the book, I was taking notes on her stated techniques. She gave many techniques to show us how we have the power to control and reshape our minds. It’s so fascinating and I connected more with journaling and visualization techniques.

The Source explains how neuroscience affects what you attract in your life and discusses the importance of neuroplasticity. As explained in the book, “Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change, the power to create new pathways in the subconscious and conscious parts of our brain.” Since human beings are often creatures of habit, it’s difficult to consider that we have the power to change our thinking and our behavior. We often think that that’s just who we are, but The Source shows you that you can be whoever you want to be if you learn how to rewire your neural pathways. Dr Tara Swart is a neuroscientist and former psychiatric doctor. She is a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan and visiting senior lecturer at Kings College London, and an executive advisor to some of the world's most respected leaders in media and business. 'The Source' is Tara's third book - she is also lead author of the award-winning 'Neuroscience for Leadership', and co-author of 'An Attitude for Acting'. In 2016 she was named the world's first Neuroscientist-in-Residence at Corinthia Hotel, London, and she is currently in residence at Annabel's private members club, running a series of wellbeing events. She is passionate about teaching others how to apply lessons from cognitive science to enhance everyday lives. Find out more at www.taraswart.com Tara is currently the Chief Science Officer at Heights, was Neuroscience and Psychological Advisor at To Be Magnetic and Chief Neuroscience Officer at Arowana International (Private Equity). I was disappointed to find that this book didn't seem to hold much new information for me, in that there didn't seem to be much I hadn't read before elsewhere about the power of positive thinking, how to approach mindfulness, etc. The author herself references books like THE SECRET, and I felt that THE SOURCE did not provide a great deal of new information that was really any different from the sort of "positive thinking" mindset that has been discussed in books such as THE SECRET, except perhaps that Dr Swart provides several lists of steps to take, whereas THE SECRET is slightly more ephemeral. Tara is passionate about disseminating simple, pragmatic neuroscience-based messages that change the way people live and work. She personally advises a small number of executives via personal recommendation only, and speaks at major conferences globally.If I have one complaint about the book is that she assumes a lot of skills and introspection that not all her readers will have. For example, one of her exercises asks you to make three columns on a piece of paper. The first column is for goals, the second is for behaviors keeping you from your goals, and the third column is for beliefs underlying those behaviors. The next step of the exercise is to figure out how to disrupt the beliefs and behaviors that are keeping you from abundance. It seems so easy, except that if you have no skills to do any of that internal metacognitive work, then this could be months of coaching or therapy just to do this activity. This isn't necessarily bad, she just makes it seem like its a short exercise when, in reality, even if you do have the skills for that kind of work, it will probably take many many hours to get through it. Then you'll probably have to do it all again in the future because this kind of stuff never stops coming up. So she isn't wrong, and I don't disagree with the need to do the work. I just felt like she glossed over some really deep processing with the assumption that her readers 1) know how to do it and 2) have reasonable expectations for how hard it is. The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can't read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn AlvinToffler The Source is an insightful book about the intricacies of how the brain works and how we have the power to control it’s functions! I am a science nerd so I loved all of the details about the lobes of the brain, neurotransmitters, synapses, and so much more. I thought Tara Swart did a great job at stating facts while giving techniques/exercises like visualization and writing journal entries to help individuals learn to control their thoughts/actions and how to interpret them to ultimately see where change was necessary and how to go about that change. A few years ago I became heavily interested in the principles of the law of attraction. While I’ve read a few books about it and watched several videos, none of them thoroughly explained the science behind it. The Source puts science behind the law of attraction. It offers an in-depth scientific explanation of the single most important aspect of the law of attraction… YOUR BRAIN. Swart asserts that her book is science-based, which is fine. She did base some of the stuff in the book on some scientific studies. It sounds sciencey sometimes and she gets the absolute basics of how the human body works correct, which is the bare minimum you can expect from someone with MD, PhD so prominently displayed on the front cover of her book.

It is truly amazing to know how complex the mind is and how we can do certain things to change it. If you are interested in making changes in your life and being able to understand how to accomplish those changes, this book is for you. While some of the ideas in the book are familiar – the power of positive thinking, the importance of visualisation – what is new, and for me, what was so helpful, is the way the book puts all of this on a solid scientific basis, and does so in a way that is clear, accessible, and personal. So where a book like The Secret explains the power of visualisation through the mysterious and mystical “Law of Attraction” (which never made much sense to me), The Source explains in fascinating detail how (for instance) visualisation can have a direct effect on the body (citing a study in which subjects who merely visualised doing finger exercises were found to have actually increased their finger strength); or how visualisation can help train the brain to pay attention to something useful that it might otherwise have filtered out.As Dr. Tara Swart, psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and Senior Lecturer at MIT shows us in The Source, if we can strip away our skepticism, these ancient tools of manifestation and visualization are fundamentally powerful and incredibly effective at freeing us of self-limiting behaviors and propelling us toward our truest, most authentic selves. Swart reveals how and why these systems actually work by offering the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience and behavioral psychology, including lessons in neuroplasticity, magneticism, emotional and logical thinking, and even hydration, self-care, and relaxation. Next, she describes her own journey from skeptic to believer, and guides readers through the scientific breakthroughs and personal revelations that changed her from an unhappy, close-minded, and disconnected woman wanting more from life, to a successful entrepreneur living with confidence, purpose, and joy. Neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart works with some of the City's highest-earning and most respected leaders in finance, law and media." - Evening Standard Then I got to the action part and I discovered it involved writing a journal and that this was the only way to proceed. So, if you are not one for writing down your thoughts this may not be the book for you. I personally don't like journalling but carried on and took what I could from the book, in the main preparing an action board.