The Mind-Body Method book review

Subtitled “How Moving Your Body Can Stop You Losing Your Mind” for a reason, this fascinating book by Swedish psychiatrist Dr Anders Hansen clearly illustrates the mind / body connection, backed up with scientific studies. Have you noticed you can think better after exercise? That’s because getting your blood pumping helps provide Oxygenated blood to your brain. It’s true, exercise makes you smarter.

I love this book, as it proves so many of the theories I’ve thought about as I’ve been running or cycling around Edinburgh. In fact, I’m in the middle of reading all of Dr Anders Hansen books, starting with the three titles pictured below.

The more I teach exercise, the more I can see it helps with clients moods whilst reaching their fitness goals. ‘The Mind-Body Method’ reveals simple yet effective ways to thrive through daily movement. The chapters are short, with big text and lots of headings to keep the reader’s attention. After all, reading a book requires more concentration than mindlessly scrolling on a phone, which is how many of us spend an evening.

‘The Attention Fix’, also by Dr Hansen, discusses this very conundrum. We’ve let smartphones infiltrate our lives and dominate our leisure time, but at what cost? And why is social media so addictive? Read and learn! Incidentally, when I read nowadays, I often read a chapter of a book, then play with my phone, and then back to my book. It’s a bit like interval training reading. I read slower nowadays due to my continual breaks, and ‘The Attention Fix’ explains why we’re all finding it more difficult to concentrate, and how your smartphone makes you stupid

I’m looking forward to reading ‘The ADHD Advantage’ by the same author, which reminds me of the thrust of ‘Anxiety is Your Superpower’, where a diagnosis that is seen as negative (i.e. experiencing anxiety or ADHD) can be seen as a special strength. It’s refreshing to see a positive spin on neurodiversity. But I’ll probably read it whilst scrolling my phone at the same time…