Soar Above by Steven Stosny

[thomaslaw3]

Soar Above: How to Use the Most Profound Part of Your Brain Under Any Kind of Stress
by Steven Stosny
Published by HCI Books, 2016.
ISBN: 9780757319082

It is incredible to see how often we respond to life around us using our “toddler brain” instead of our “adult brain.” Stosny has produced an eye-opening book that guides the reader to understand his or her own “self”, how it has formed, how it responds to the vagrancies of life, and how those responses many times just don’t get us anywhere. Time and time again we ask, why am I stuck in a rut? Here is the answer, because “Mr. Hyde can't remember what Dr. Jekyll learned in anger management.”

Stosny uses whit, insight from years of experience, and scientific research to show the reader how the toddler brain develops, hangs around, and all too often takes charge. It is the goal of the author to help his readers understand this phenomenon and break out of the habits that have enslaved them, causing them so many difficulties. Using pointed examples, Stonsy clarifies how we can change the default settings of our brain so that the “adult brain” plays a more significant role in our daily lives.

The most significant part of the book, for me, was the authors explanations of the ripple effect of negative (always more powerful) and positive activities and how they affect our web of relationships and through them the rest of humanity. His insistence that we live what we value and act upon those values was refreshing. No excuses, know yourself, know your values, and pointed make them the focus from which you react to those things around you. As you change, those around you will change, and the world will be a better place as we soar above.