Brave New Mind: The Art of Serene Readiness - Softcover

Maisel, Dr. Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1963667263 ISBN 13: 9781963667264

Verlag: Books That Save Lives, 2026

Inhaltsangabe

We live in stressful times. Some say that this is the most challenging time in history, it is fueled by ego, competition, injustice, and anxiety. Just glancing at news headlines each day is enough to cause alarm.

Mental health experts, psychologists, therapists, and counselors have reported the rising levels of stress, depression, anxiety, worry, and fear, year after year, for the last two decades.We can either wring our hands and doom-scrolling, or we can do something about it.

Brave New Mind offers ways to:

• Handle increasing stress in all areas of our lives. 
• Join the powers of serenity and alertness of oneself. 
• Cope with depression, anxiety, addiction, and other mental illnesses. 
• Find renewed strength and motivation we have lost. 
• Make new meaning and find our life purpose. 
• Create a brave new mind equal to this moment. 

Dr. Eric Maisel’s work as a retired psychotherapist provides ways to deal not only with the extreme tension of today’s existence but a path forward. Instead of relying only on medications, readers are guided to fortify and reinvigorate the mind. His optimistic approach redefines the worry of the world. Dr. Maisel has devised this practical, approachable, and inspiring way to face the struggles with calmness and serenity.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Eric Maisel is an internationally-recognized diplomat coach, the author of 60+ books in the areas of coaching, creativity, life purpose, meaning, and mental health, and President of the International Association of Creative and Performing Artists. A retired family therapist and active master coach residing in San Francisco, California, Dr. Maisel is the lead editor for the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry series, which takes a critical look at the current “mental disorder” paradigm and the influence of psychiatry on society’s institutions. His popular Psychology Today blog “Rethinking Mental Health” has more than 3.5 million views, and, in conjunction with Noble-Manhattan Coaching, he has developed three training programs, a Creativity Coach Certificate Program, an Existential Wellness Coach Certificate Program, and a Relationship Coach Certificate Program.

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From Chapter 6

"By the Numbers" 

A glancing look at the statistics of despair

Do we need numbers to prove the vast scope of this problem? I doubt it. We understand it in our bones without a need for statistics. Nor can we trust the numbers, any more than we can trust the report of blind men encountering an elephant. Each statistic only offers a kind of glancing blow at our subject. But statistics may still be useful in a suggestive way. Here are some:  

+ In 2023, 700,000 people committed suicide worldwide. In the United States, 1.7 million individuals attempted suicide, 3.5 million people made suicide plans, and 12.3 million contemplated suicide. And who knows what the real numbers might be?

+ According to the World Health Organization, 280 million people worldwide are currently affected by depression. 

+ Over 40 million adults in the United States, or fully 20% of America’s adult population, are currently suffering from anxiety.

+ The current claim is that one in six children aged 5-16 likely has a “mental health problem.” This figure has gone up by 50% in the last three years. Between 2021 and 2022 alone, the proportion of British young people aged 17-19 with a probable “mental health disorder” jumped from one in six to one in four.

+ 46.8 million Americans aged 12 and older battled a substance use disorder in the past year. That’s almost 17% of the population. 10.5% of Americans twelve and older reported an alcohol use disorder in the past year and about 27.2 million Americans twelve or older (9.7% of the population) reported battling a drug use disorder in the past year.

+ In the United States, 50% of workers reported feeling stressed at their jobs on a daily basis, 41% reported being worried at work, 22% reported being sad, and 18% reported being angry. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022 report found that workers were experiencing staggering rates of both disengagement and unhappiness. 60% of people reported being emotionally detached at work and 19% reported feeling miserable.

+ The number of fentanyl pills seized by law enforcement increased astonishingly between 2017 and 2023. In 2017, 49,657 pills were seized. In 2023, 115,000,000 pills were seized. That’s a 20,000 percent increase! 

One-third of Americans report symptoms of either depression or anxiety. All the statistics that measure human difficulty, whether that difficulty is suicidal thinking, depression, anxiety, addiction, or unhappiness at work, are on the rise. These numbers are regularly misinterpreted, but they can’t be ignored. These are all markers of psychological collapse and intense stress reactions. 

Then there are the sorts of stress reactions where statistics are not kept. In the animal world, there are seven characteristic reactions to stress. Let’s quickly run through them.

First are physical symptoms. Animals under stress experience changes in heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, appetite, and sleep patterns. 

Second are behavioral changes. Animals under stress display increased aggression, increased irritability, increased pacing and hyperactivity, increased withdrawal and avoidance behaviors, and an increase in repetitive behaviors. 

Third, in social species, stress can affect an animal's interactions with others. Animals withdraw from social interactions, become more solitary, or exhibit aggressive behavior towards other animals. 

Fourth, stress in animals tends to reduce fertility, create changes in mating behaviors, and inhibit reproductive processes.

Fifth, prolonged or severe stress can weaken an animal's immune system, making them more susceptible to illness and disease. Chronic stress contributes to the development of various health problems over time. 

Sixth, animals attempt to escape from the source of stress. This might involve trying to flee from a threatening situation or pacing and exhibiting signs of agitation.

Seventh, animals may freeze or become immobile in response to stress. This behavior can serve as a defense mechanism in certain situations, such as when faced with a predator.

We have no statistics on people freezing, or trying to flee, or unable to conceive because hope in the future has faded. We have no statistics on the relationship between despair and immune system disorders or between psychological catastrophe and social withdrawal. We have no statistics on the relationship between meaninglessness and sleep disruption or between dismay at human nature and increased irritability. But we can feel the reality of all that in our bones, can’t we? 

Taken together, both the places where we have numbers and the places where we don’t, a clear picture emerges. People are breaking. 

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Books That Save Lives
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2026
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1963667263
• ISBN 13: 9781963667264
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 266
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland